Environmental Portraits Strike Back

This week has been very busy and I will probably spread my posts out as I get time. This series is from the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce. These are a few "candid" Staff shots (I use the term candid very loosely).

The image below was shot mid morning with a lot of competing natural light as the building was designed with massive glass elements on both sides. I elected to use a single SB-800 flash fired through a 6ft by 8ft white muslin which provided a giant key light source off camera left. the muslin was parallel to my lens and in front of me enough that the infra-red master would trigger the flash. I also uses a small flag to prevent lens flare as the flash was basically perpendicular to me.There is nothing but daylight here in the next frame but I liked the composition and I admit that I abandoned a three light setup after fighting the sun and loosing to get this shot at near mid-day just out of the direct desert sunlight. Lastly, this portrait employed three flashes all gelled to tungsten. the first and closest (to camera) flash was bounced off a white muslin that both shielded the subject from daylight and diffused the source enough to get a soft and even glow. The second flash was fired through a grid spot onto the old photo next to her to add interest and give continuity to the warmth of the gel. the last flash is subtly fired into the etched glass down the hall- again for interest and continuity. This was a fun and challenging shoot with highly mixed light great architecture.