One Light portrait shots of my family members
August 3, 2009 – 6:00 am | by J. RodriguezHere are a couple portrait shots I took while I was visiting my mother in Brooklyn this past weekend.
First shot shown here is of my youngest brother Aron with his new hair cut. Rather then having the EMO funky ass American Idol look, he actually went with the Mo-Hawk skater boy style.
We actually went with the Linkin Park look by adding the glasses and giving the look a dramatic feel.
Strobist Information:
Canon 400D (XTi) (right) – 1/80 @ F5.6 – iso-100.
Flash off camera – 580exii – 1/4 power @ (left) in 30” shoot thru Umbrella.
Lightroom adjustments – none.
Next shot is my other younger brother Jonathon which you all know as Underground Hip Hop artist Mr. 3.2.
Same area different light settings.
Strobist Information:
Canon 400D (XTi) (right) – 1/50 @ F5.0 – iso-100.
Flash off camera – 580exii – 1/4 power @ (left) in 28” Softbox.
Lightroom adjustments – Gradient Fill
Next is Jackie, 3.2’s wife – My sister in-law – Pregnant shot.
Jackie and my brother are expecting my second nephew sometime in November. I had to work with a higher shutter speed trying not to over expose Jackie because of her lighter skin tone.
Strobist Information:
Canon 400D (XTi) (right) – 1/160 @ F5.0 – iso-100.
Flash off camera – 580exii – 1/8 power @ (left) in 28” Softbox.
Very minor Lightroom adjustments – fill light.
Next shot is my first with mom involving off camera lighting. Mom was acting up all bashful but I bugged her just enough to get the shot.
I wanted to add a little more of a dramatic feeling to it so I raised the power on my Flash. Same area, different power settings. Mom aka Big Boss!
Strobist Information:
Canon 400D (XTi) (right) – 1/125 @ F5.6 – iso-100.
Flash off camera – 580exii – 1/16 power @ (left) in 28” Softbox.
Very minor Lightroom adjustments – Darken Vignette.
I wanted to share my one light experience with you all to show that you can achieve a cool look and feel to portrait shots. With great positioning you can come out with a cool dramatic feel along with great exposure to a shot. Balancing your ambient light and controlling the power on your flash is key. You can add softer light depending on the light modifier you are using.
On the images above I shot with umbrella and with softbox. Both very close in size but the softness in the lighting and the spread is something you need to keep focus on. Things you actually have to remember when shooting with either light modifiers is that the shoot thru umbrella gives you a wider spread as to the straight and clean directional light a softbox can provide. Both are great to create soft light especially for portrait shots. I’ll be keeping you updated on more of the one light shots in the near future. Just remember, practice makes perfect… it doesn’t all happen over night. 
Check you all later, thanks for stopping by… be sure to leave a comment and share your opinion for the others.
One Response to “One Light portrait shots of my family members”
By Dubtastic on Aug 4, 2009 | Reply
These are all really good. I could see the average person say “These are just people sitting there and nothing special.” But I would disagree. The lighting brings a little drama to the mix, but these people seem posed but not posed. They walk the line in between and it helps make this even more realistic.
The strongest one, in my opinion, is the one of your mother. There is a feeling in the shot like you just happened upon her with your gear, not like she was sitting in a chair posing. I like the fact that she is not smiling. She is conveying how tough life can be and how she has made it.
All of these would look great in black and white, I bet.
Nice job, sir.