Thursday, June 9, 2011

Low-Key Self-Portrait


I took some self-portraits last night using some of my new gear.



For my key light, I used an Alien Bees B1600 monolight with a 48" octagon softbox with grid.  The rim light was from an SB-800 triggered via Nikon Advanced Wireless Lighting using an on-camera SB-800 as commander.  Both lights were on light stands from the Linco background support system (the stand for the rim light is visible in the shot above).

Why did I use the SB-800 instead of the popup as commander?  I needed to trigger the B1600 (in this case using a PC sync cord).  The problem with Nikon (at least with the D300) is that if you use the popup flash as a wireless commander, it disables the PC sync port.  If you use an external flash as commander (e.g., SB-900, SB-800 or SB-700), the PC sync port is enabled.  Maybe it's Nikon's way of forcing you to buy another external flash...

It's a simple 2-light setup (the on-camera flash was not contributing to the flash exposure).  I was tempted to bring other flashes into play but thought it would be a good warm up for Boot Camp III: 2 Lights. ;)

Will be posting my thoughts on the AlienBees B1600, Radiopopper JrX, Vagabond Mini, Linco background support system, and the octagon softbox.



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4 comments:

  1. mshafikJune 9, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    Nice, very cool self portraits, the last one is too agent 007. :-)

    Funny enough I was taking self portraits for myself yesterday (playing with the ezybox), I will mail them to you to take your opinion.

    What about the rim light positioning post you planned told me about? I am eager to learn about it since this is new to me.

    P.S. Just got an excellent idea for a my next short post (sharpening images for web).

    ReplyDelete
  2. 360 RumorsJune 9, 2011 at 3:55 PM

    Thanks. The rim lighting positioning post will be for the future...

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 23, 2014 at 9:25 AM

    awesome shots, I was researching Historical Rim lighting portraits .. and yours popped up.. doesn't meet the historical criteria though.. I don't suppose you can point me in the direction of finding a suitable Rim light portrait that is older than 30 years ?

    Kind regards

    Steve penny

    Student Photographer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 360 RumorsMarch 23, 2014 at 10:25 AM

      Thanks Steve. I don't know any such sources off the top of my head. My suggestion is to think of a portrait photographer who has been working for a while (since 80s or earlier) and who uses rim light, and then to look at their work for possible examples.

      Best regards,
      Mic

      Delete

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