Portrait in a Box: Part 1 (The Shoot)

   So the phone rings and there is someone who wants to have some pictures taken for their website. "How about a nice environmental portrait?" I ask- armed with all the cool "strobist" ideas and always hoping for additions to my portfolio. "No thanks, I just want a professional portrait for my work." responds the caller. "Dang" I think to myself.

This is a two-part post on shooting a studio style portrait on location. The second post will be about the post production in Lightroom.

Part 1: A Portrait Studio in a Box. For this type of shot you need only a few lights and some space to work. The picture below was photographed in the Client's front entry.

One trip from the car brings in the gear: here is the list.

3- Nikon SB-800 flashes
3- light stands
1- Botero collapsible background

1- Photoflex 42" Silver/White collapsible reflector

1- 48" Paul C. Buff white umbrella

1- 43" Wescott silver Umbrella

2- Pocket Wizards

There are a lot of ways to build a portrait lighting setup. A simple Key/Fill combination with subtle rim light and background light were used here.
I used the PW's to fire the Key light and slaved (optical) the other two flashes. this will work with almost any flash and trigger combination.
I placed the background light on the floor and used the third stand to hold the fill reflector.
In the next post we'll talk about the lightroom work.