30-Day Portrait Challenge: Three Light Setup

One day left of my 30-day challenge and it has been such a great learning experience.

I have a list of sessions from this challenge that I plan on investigating further. I think I could have camped out on each light setup for several weeks and still be learning how to improve it.

I had some really awesome kids to work with today and I made them the promise that I would keep each of their turns to under 10 minutes.  I regretted that promise 20 minutes later when I was finshing up with the last child but wanting desperately to photograph each of them again with my favorite light set up.

I am hoping for another session with them for the future and sorry kiddos, but I will not be making such sweeping promises again.  🙂

I will be honest that once I go beyond two lights I begin to get a tad anxious and overwhelmed. Two lights is my happy place. One of the main reasons I decided to do this challenge was because I wanted to stretch myself beyond two lights.

The Light Setup

This was a  three-light setup and the lighting diagram is kind of a mess.

I stretched a large sheet to the right, in front of the umbrella, to act as a diffuser and behind it placed my strobe. I placed my Octobox directly overhead my models and a 30-degre gridspot pointed toward the background.

This light is what I call “meh”. I don’t think it produced terrible light but I also don’t think it created beautiful light. My personal preference is toward heavily shadowed and moody images. These lacked the deep shadows that I prefer.

My personal preference is toward heavily shadowed and moody images. These lacked the deep shadows that I prefer.

Lesson Learned

• Don’t make promises in the beginning of the session about how long the session will be.
• Try, try, again. Not to sound like an inspirational poster but failure is what success is built on.
• Be a fearless creative. It is just a photograph, no one is going to be scarred for life If my ideas do not go as planned.

This last month has taught me a lot about technique and gear choice but it has also made it very clear to me as to what kind of images I am drawn to and desire to create.

I want moody, images with heavy shadows and drama. I know I prefer serious expressions over joyful smiles. Of course, I love capturing both but I am all about the drama, at least in my photography.

Happy image making!