Portrait @ Digiback Studio - Boo Kwok (30-Sep-2010)

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I found out in late mid-June that one of my friends had just setup his own photo studio, and can arrange a time and model for us.

Compare to my previous two studio photo sessions, this session was the most enjoyable and enlighting. We have enough time to try different ideas, the studio has good lighting equipments and props, and most important the studio owner Willy was very helpful in suggesting different setting.

Willy's studio is called Digiback (www.digiback.net). Today's model was Boo Kwan.

The first set of photos were all taken with Sony A900 + 85/1.4Z prime lens.

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The first lighting set we tried was the most common, cannot-go-wrong 世界光 (lighting all around.) In this setting, two very large soft light boxes, each 6 feet tall, produced the soft lighting in front, then one weaker light projected on the model's back, providing the "hair light" to highlight/enhance the silhouette.

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Willy setting up the next set for us. 

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In this set, only the large soft light box left-front of the model was used. To avoid too much under-exposure, the right front has a reflective screen to somewhat reflect some light onto the right side. The weaker hair light at the back was used also.

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Next is the lighting effect that I had in mind since the last photo session with Melody Chan. But at the time, we did not have enough time, nor the faintest idea how to setup.

After hearing my request, Willy set this up for us. It was the effect I wanted and the result was quite good. However I was not able to take one with the right exposure & framing that I had in mind. So I am going to try again the next time go to Digiback.

In this lighting setup, there are actually lots of restrictions on pose and framing. The model has somewhat look toward the light, or otherwise creating too much line break shadows on the face. Also the arm on the lighting side has to be down, or again risking creating unwanted shadow.

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With moody lighting like this, I think it's better to be a bit cool in expression, instead of smiling.

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I somehow liked the mood of this one.  

The next time I really want to try more shadow plays.

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A change of scene, and clothing. Again, there was only one light on the left. (Right, guys?)

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I think she looked very cool in the first pic.

On the second pic, the only regret was that the bottom of the shoes were showing. We should have asked her to take off the shoes, to go with the comfy feel.

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This is a pose that I have been trying to get. These two came out quite good, but still not as striking as I would like to. The technical difference between these two was the larger aperture (4.5 vs 5.6) on the second one. I increased the aperture to reduce the depth of field by found the lighting needed to be reduced too in order to avoid over exposure.

Ideally, I would like a shorter focus range, only focusing on the eyes and blur the body. Maybe try again the next time.