I’ve been posting a lot of nature shots lately, so let me change things up a bit and post one from the studio:

Since this model had an edgy hairstyle, I wanted to give an edgy appearance to her photo. Normally, I would turn the face away and at an angle to the main light to bring out more soft shadowing, but instead I posed her directly into the main, giving a more intense and harsh lighting effect. Women also photograph well looking upward, so I stood on a chair only almost directly above the model and took the shot in a downward direction. I also turned the camera about 45 degrees to frame the face at an angle.

The studio setup was a main strobe with softbox about 3 feet away from the model’s face. There was a secondary strobe with an umbrella reflector immediately behind the camera, and I had an assistant holding a 3rd strobe a few feet above her head to highlight the hair. Finally, the model was also holding a white card at her waist to bounce some light under the chin. The background was chosen black to accent to intense look of the shot.