Kaycee

If there were ever a time that I would always say simple is more, it’s got to be working with the female form.  When in studio, I (and many photographers with whom I work) start to go a little gadget crazy.  We want a great exposure that outlines the form so we use side lighting schemes that are the product of creativity and down-time in the studio with lights at our disposal.  Then, of course, you need to actually SEE the person you are photographing.  Using side/hatchet/split lighting on a female?  Sure, go ahead, and keep posting on Craigslist under “Free Portraiture to Expand My Portfolio.”  As an experienced photographer, I know I need to fill the shadows.  But I need to do it was a lower Exposure Value than my side lighting, so I narrow my soft boxes on the sides and pop in my fill from the front.  Problem is now that I am losing the model in the back drop, so I need to light the background.  So separate, I add a hair light (or a “kicker”) aimed at the head and shoulders of the model.  Now, before I have taken a single photograph, I have two strip boxed strobes, a gridded, snooted kicker, a reflector and background light, a fill behind me, and I will likely add a secure reflector to fill in light into her occipital cavity.  I won’t be able to move the model much because of the balanced EV’s from my side-lighting and the background light go-bo’ed off the subject.  If you are keeping count, I have about eight different light stands, possibly a boom.  Wow.  Really?  I keep going back to a seminar I attended about three years back sponsored by Precision-Camera Austin and the Bogen sponsored photographer Steven Katzman here in Austin, Texas.  The only thing he used was a (very large) bounce umbrella radio slaved to his Nikon in his trips to New Orleans, .  He reviewed a few single light portraits with us in the lab at Austin Community College’s Photographic Technology department, but when the exercise began at the Texas Special Olympics bowling party, we had (no surprise) a fixed-ratio light scheme with a fill, main, and background light.  What I am saying here is this:  Find YOUR balance.  I know that I tend to shoot with fewer lights and a deeper ratio than most would, but that’s part of my branding.  There is rarely a surprise when I present my clientele with images full of contrast, shadows, and depth because I almost always always always keep it to two lights:  Two Key/Main strobes and a boomed in fill reflector to influence both the subject fill and the background.