Welcome to the live series we’re doing every two weeks on Profoto’s Instagram called “Slice of Pye”. We’ll be covering a myriad of topics, discussing lighting principles, and showcasing a ton of Profoto gear in action over the course of the next year so please join us over on IG Live!

Tune in to our next episode: December 2nd at 11 AM PST!

 

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In our last episode of Slice of Pye, we covered a tutorial on how to create rich and moody portraits using the shoot-through umbrella. In this episode, we’re back in the same location and we’re covering another fun fall photoshoot idea that incorporates composting leaves and using the B10 Plus as a backlight.

Gear Used in This Tutorial:

We will be walking through this image using the C.A.M.P Framework that we’ve mentioned in the past that comes from our Lighting Training System. Here is a brief overview:

  • Composition: What do we want our scene to look like? Where do we want the camera to be? What’s the angle? What do we want our subjects to be doing?
  • Ambient Light Exposure: Choose the intention of the scene. Do we want a dramatic image (darkening the ambient light and using more flash) or do we want a softer image (brightening the ambient light and using a more natural power of flash)?
  • Modify/Add Light: Are your subjects visible in the frame or do they need to be chiseled out? Do you need to add an additional light source?
  • Pose & Photograph: Take your shot!

Composition

1 profoto b10 plus lighting tutorialsI already know that I want the flash to act as a backlight in the scene so we are going to compose our shot based on that fact. For this shot, having a tripod is actually going to be useful because we are going to composite a few images together. My goal is to have the leaves surround the subject but in case we don’t get the right throw of leaves off the bat, I can composite several images together to make it look more full. I have Kalyn stand in the center of the frame so that she is surrounded by trees. Her back is to the sun because we are going to use that natural highlight as a way to edge her out of the frame and pair it later with the B10 Plus. Now let’s move on to our camera settings.

Ambient Light Exposure

I don’t want to see too much of the background because of how busy the ground and trees are so we are dialing in an aperture of f/1.4. I then set my ISO to 100 and my shutter speed to 1/100th of a second to compensate for my aperture choice.  Using these settings, we still have enough light on her face from the sky, directly behind me, lighting her.

Modify Light

Profoto’s OCF tools make it super simple to modify light quickly and effortlessly. We’re going to go ahead and add that flash power that is set a couple of feet behind Kaylin and is angled upwards. We’ve placed a 1/2 Gel CTO on it to warm it up a little bit without it looking too fake. I’m at full power on a 500 w/s strobe and I’m getting just enough light to add an edge highlight around Kaylin’s head. Remember, high-speed sync is going to cut down the amount of light that you’re able to get into the camera.

Pose & Photograph

I am going to have Kaylin’s mom help out to toss the leaves into the frame. You’ll want to make sure you are firing at a faster rate to get the leaves in the right spots.  We’re tossed the leaves up over Kaylin’s head so we can capture the images as they fall around her. Here is the final image:

profoto b10 plus tutorials

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Slice of Pye, please feel free to share or re-watch the IGTV video at anytime to reference the material we’ve covered! For more tutorials and lessons on the fundamentals of lighting, check out our Flash Photography Training System!