Headshot

[octothorpe]

Remote strobe, off axis and above on camera right. Sunlight in front and to camera left acting as second key.
-2 stops ambient (so the strobe can fill)
+2 stops strobe exposure compensation (purposefully slightly over-exposed)
ISO 100
135mm @ ƒ2
1/30th of a second exposure (hand held)

Full Frame

Adjustments:
Contrast
Colour Contrast
Spot dodging (under left eye, mouth)

Comments

[kitchenbeard.livejournal.com]

Woops, never mind.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

lol. Yeah, the 135 ƒ2L It's such an amazing portrait lens. The strobe was fired through the new PocketWizard FlexTT5/Mini TT1 combo. The idea of having ETTLII on remote strobes is really amazing. That said, I just as often use manual strobe control, so the older/cheaper PWs would work just as well in that case (and you can mix both, as they all speak 'PocketWizard').

[kitchenbeard.livejournal.com]

I know I've mentioned this to you before, but I really need to learn how to use strobes. I make do with natural lighting and one softbox but I frequently hit a wall to do more simply because I don't know what I'm doing.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

I've probably already asked you this, but I can't recall… Do you read the Strobist blog? You should. He even has a section on "Are you new here?". Basically read all that stuff, and you'll be totally overloaded with information, but also surging with ideas on how to light things =)

He's also got some hookup with Midwest Photo Exchange, and as such, they've created some really cool "Strobist Kits" which have everything you need to get started with off-camera lighting, on a student budget. They even make their own (dumb) strobes, which are *very* nice — and cheap.

Check it: http://strobist.blogspot.com

[kitchenbeard.livejournal.com]

I kind of quit reading it because, as you say, it was a little overwhelming. Baby steps perhaps, but I find I learn better by doing. I'll look more into the "new here" section and see if I can't get some projects rolling out of that for hands on self teaching.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Oh, he changed his site slightly, so the newbie stuff is in a slightly different area:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

[kitchenbeard.livejournal.com]

Thanks