Topics Covered:
- Planning a Composite Portrait
- Setting up the Studio Shot
- Preventing Flare
- Opting for Grids and Swapping out the Background
- The Sequence of Lights
- Going for the Pose
- Shooting and Creating an HDR Background
- The Digital Merge
Camera/Media
- Canon 5D
- Adobe Lightroom 3
- Adobe Photoshop CS5
- Nik HDR Pro
- Kubota Image Tools
Lighting Equipment
- 39x72 LitePanel Kit
- BackDrop: 10 x 20-foot chroma green
- BackDrop: 10 x 20-foot white
- HalfDome® Grid: medium (15x55 inch)
- HalfDome®: medium
- LiteStand Accessory: Boom
- LiteStand Accessory: BoomStand
- OctoDome: small
- ProDuty BackDrop Support Kit
- RockSteady Bag
- StarFlash® 150watt head
- TritonFlash™ Lithium Strobe Kit
Planning a Composite Portrait |
Setting up the Studio Shot While Joe put his wardrobe together, Jaron and I set the scene. [figures 2, 3, & 4] |
My plan was to rim light Joe with two medium HalfDome® SoftBoxes on either side while our key light (main light) would be from a small (3-foot) OctoDome® that I would boom above and out of frame. We chose two StarFlash® 150watt studio strobes for the rim lights and one TritonFlash™ battery strobe for the key light. All three lights we set up after the backdrop was in place. [figures 5 & 6] |
Preventing Flare |
With my lights in place, I took a shot with both StarFlash heads set to 3/4 power and the TritonFlash set to 1/8th power. [figure 8]
|
Figure 8 |
Here is a shot that clearly shows the placement of both HalfDome® SoftBoxes, and the OctoDome® without the LitePanels obstructing the view. As you can see, my shooting space here was not very big, but it was enough to get what I needed. [figure 9] |
Figure 9 |
Opting for Grids and Swapping out the Background First, I chose to lose the LitePanels and replace them with Grids attached to each HalfDome. This way, I'd be able keep the light specifically aimed at certain parts of Joe, while simultaneously keeping any light flare to a minimum. [figure 10] |
Figure 11 |
With all my changes in place, I increased the power of the TritonFlash™ to 1/4 power, which gave me the following result. [figures 11 & 12] |
Figure 12 |
I immediately liked this change in the lighting. Joe was lit, but there were several dramatic shadows that would really give my final image an intense mood. The Sequence of Lights In figure 13, I had only the right StarFlash® with gridded HalfDome® powered on. |
Figure 13 |
Here, you can clearly see how well the Grid was able to keep the light directed where it was aimed. Joe's right side is nicely lit, but we have virtually no spill onto the backdrop or any other part of Joe. Figure 14 shows what the lighting was like with both HalfDome® SoftBoxes going off. |
Figure 14 |
With the OctoDome from above powered on, you can see our final lighting setup. [figure 15] |
Figure 15 |
Going for the Pose Without changing the power settings on any of the strobes, I made slight adjustments to the camera:
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Figure 16 |
Figure 18 |
Combining the three exposures gave me my final HDR background. [figure 19] |
Figure 19 |
Figure 21 |
As you can see in the final composite image, the rim-lit studio shot and the HDR background image came together beautifully to create the dramatic portrait I was envisioning. Though photography is my profession, I'll never get to the point where I believe I'm done learning. I spend my off hours reading books and talking to other pros so that I can continue to improve. This compositing style of photography is fairly new to me and I feel good about what I've been able to do so far with it, but there's no way I could consider myself proficient at it without getting out there and experimenting with it for a while. Go out and try new techniques for yourself. Have fun with it! Who knows what greatness you can accomplish? --- Written and photographed by Michael Corsentino, award winning contemporary wedding and portrait photographer and contributing lesson writer for PhotoflexLightingSchool.com®. Modeled Joe Trombetta Assisted by Dennis Urbiztondo and Jaron Schneider Post Production by Michael Corsentino (michaelcorsentino.com) |
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