It's been a while since my last blog entry but I have not been completely idle on the photography front. Earlier this year I was trying to figure out how to light a sweep of wildflowers in the foreground of one of my West Gate bridge series. I figured out I would need some kind of off camera flash. But I was totally ignorant about how to go about lighting the scene until I stumbled across David Hobby's
strobist.com blog.
What an eye opener. To cut a long story short, through Daves' blog I entered the wonderful world of strobism. Having being focussed on landscape and architectural photography I found my key for learning about portrait photography both on location and in the studio. Before long I found myself purchasing umbrellas, grids, radio triggers and additional flash units of eBay.
My first strobist brief was to create a series of black and white head-shots for
Sam Muscat a local wedding and event MC. I approached this assignment by setting up a simple lighting plan of a key light shoot through umbrella at 45 degrees to the subject, and a piece of foamcore as a fill light.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifUlrvi_dUjN5GiQKwaMUDSuGLM34Zqee8uRwmhzdSSSqvlcqPk_csXA0eyHPnuCQBl5C7STO_fFqxnYnQ-mEe7JMcSlioPHIDsQmZvR8gsIfG_n4efS0eNM_g5zqH1MJU2qJzBKyn1oA/s400/Img1117.jpg)
To adds a bit of separation from the background, I turned a strobe with a grid on the background.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFlnSyBrrtmgSz5Tq8vRtM1FX0xiuisFRfEQABM42Z6ea_I7RVsNcuNAsQfnSS4MvC9vy2L0aGGbKOgXivaFkHoeY4zCdxhXVrDbl6wlac8JqrUdj1GqWZ9YcnyTBoWKfnRylM1qBbDOk/s400/Img1119.jpg)
To add a touch of old Hollywood glamour to the shot I added a rim light.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5e-FoNIwOcqgx_fYcwe4Pzp873ilDkoGQ8nSj2di8lPwlogGeNWFsWvhFIFxc_0Icud2gGkGKmk_Sa4VSIPkukub2tu8zqVJ6beh7xrVc6xLAQw39HZiKvnMkxETazrrH2sicd07g0CQ/s400/Img1124.jpg)
Here's the final shot:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF8870lwjTWd6GVq5t9K_6fgzNdASd-s1ZM0U_lSlFbGd94zFsBeO6eB7uI_RQI3USmYgnmmMbiyuVKfmfMUob1zWNIbbbTRS-nrTMkfjQZpl8w0k7W_zVXv8d2gpextXak3jZcUWMc3o/s400/Img1134BW.jpg)
And here's the setup shot:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkf1QEGkILu-H9BHOg4Qh7_dZr6z-UMhc14_MTNkdJUcJxk1oaSa0nPlEqzaLzTJgKjk6JdNFdnTWqupDwfjQtOMHGAwjFLBoYbubJ5ldHfn0Ofs5pMePxmkyeF7doXRckOU9MvbQFgfs/s400/Img1174.jpg)
One of these days I'll get back to the West Gate and setup the lighting on the wild flowers...