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.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.