In this photo shoot I decided to practice incorporating surroundings (mostly architecture) into my portraits, as opposed to my usual tendency which was to use limited depth of field to help avoid anything that might distract viewer’s attention from a portrait. Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR used to be my number one choice for portraits on a DX camera simply because it rendered awesome bokeh and blurred everything behind the main subject :)

This time however, I decided to try the exact opposite. Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 was the lens of my choice and all the backgrounds were supposed to be as sharp as they can get, becoming part of every composition. Perhaps I went a bit too far, concentrating on the composition.. because the lighting part of the shoot completely slipped my mind. I found myself shooting with bad light, into the light with the harsh SB-800 blasts trying to overpower the sun and finally, completely missed the fact that we were shooting with the terrible pink color cast of the sun light bouncing off Don Cesar’s walls. What was I thinking? :)

Once again, Nikon D300 + Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 (mostly), 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8 VR on occasion.

Nikon D90 + Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 = Fun :)

This was the combo I decided to take with me to Orlando. I also had my 24-70 f/2.8 with me, but ended up not using it at all. It’s amazing how versatile this ultra wide (14-24) is… at least on a DX camera.

This was a quick improvisation at a friend’s house in an attempt to mimic a real studio setup. Lera needed some pictures for her upcoming CD single “Imagination”. She wanted few full body shots on a neutral background so that later on, graphics designers could layer her shots onto something creative and use for the CD cover/insert. The real challenge was… that we didn’t have a studio, and finding plain background on the streets was very hard.

So that’s when we decided to improvise. A trip to Home Depot and an hour with scotch tape later we had our setup ready for the big shoot :) We picked up a couple of $25 plastic white window screens and mounted them on the wall of our living room and on the floor in front of it. Taped them both together and there it was - the worlds cheapest and most portable studio backdrop :)

Lighting setup: one SB-800 on a light stand, shot through white umbrella, about 6-8 feet away from the model, at 45 degrees to her, triggered with a $40 cactus radio transmitter. One SB-800 on a camera tripod, 3-4 feet away from the model, usually facing the model directly at very low power, mainly trying to eliminate shadows from the first flash. Finally, third flash was behind the model blasting at the improvised screen/backdrop making it as bright and as white as possible… as well as eliminating any shadows caused by the first two flashes.

Equipment used: D300 + Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. Shot in RAW, converted with Capture NX2. Camera at factory default settings.