Second two-light portrait...

[Asylum Steve]

This one's even simpler. A white seemless bg with two umbrella lights: one a jumbo bounced as a key, and a second smaller one in shoot-thru mode as a fill.

Sometimes over-thinking the lighting gets in the way of a classic portrait. This was shot for another magazine, and it's a portrait of the three main individuals of the Florida Lakes Symphony: conductor Michael Garasi, Executive Director Audrey Saunders, and composer/pianist Guy St.-Clair.

What's great about this shot is that I met them at a local community building where Audrey lives, just threw up the white seemles and the two lights, and they did all the work!

For shots like this, styling is the key. Luckily for me they are all good-looking people, and were dressed perfectly for a classic shot. It took only a few moments to pose them, and they did a great job of each having an expression that is fairly serious, but with just a touch of whimsy. Don't underestimate how much easier this makes my job...

The lighting diagram is pretty straight forward. The shoot-through umbrella fill (camera left) is half the output of the bounced key. The key also throws enough light on the white bg to make it a light gray, which seperates nicely from their dark hair and clothes.

Now, I saw this as a monochrome (bw) image from the start. It just seems to fit the classical music subject. But of course, shooting digital, the original file is in color. So the first photo here shows a slightly wide view in color, the second one is the final tone and crop for the magazine.

This is a good example of simple lighting working the best. Because of that, I didn't give it much thought, and instead put most of my energy into making sure my subjects' styling, posing, and expressions were strong.

And that's what makes the shot...

BTW, IMO the real interesting thing about this shot is that if you notice, the light is different on each of the subjects (because they are each different distances from the fill light), and yet the three of them blend nicely into a group portrait.

[gahspidy]

Very nicely done, Steve. Thanks for taking the time to lay out your set-up and explain from your experience. I like the post processing effect in addition to your lighting.
Also, do you always work barefoot?

[Alison]

AWESOME! Thank you so much for sharing Steve! :thumbsup:

[Asylum Steve]

Also, do you always work barefoot?

Only in the summer. BTW, those aren't my footprints in this lighting diagram. Probably some passerby...

You can see my, er..."footprints" in the diagram in the first thread:

Simple but classic two-light portraits...

[Old Timer]

Thanks for showing us how simple can work. I would tend to over think a lighting setup every time.