Compared to many, my studio space is relatively small at 15 feet x 15 feet. When working in this small of a space, full size umbrella lighting can be cumbersome. I’ve found that using the room walls themselves to bounce light works well with proper post processing. I explain below how I made this quick studio portrait. Here’s more info on how I capture and light artwork for reproduction.
Artist portrait
After my friend, Clark Shepard, came by to pick up his artwork and files made for reproduction he noticed a gray backdrop in the studio. “Hey Bob, do you have time for a quick portrait session with my painting?” Sure enough. With a change of the lighting and resetting the camera we were ready to go. To add to the story, Clark asked if I happened to have some paint brushes. You bet ! We are on the way to a storytelling portrait in about ten minutes.
Lighting set up
Here is where understanding lighting and shaping the light for a dimensional portrait with good color comes into play. To create a very large soft light, I used two studio flashes with seven inch reflectors. To get a lighting pattern, one light is pointed into the corner of the room. You can change the amount of softness to the light by moving it closer or further away from the wall. Closer will be more directional. Further away will create a larger source and have sifter shadow edge transitions. The fill light controls the contrast and is just to the right of the camera and pointed to the wall and ceiling. Again, the further the light is from the wall, the softer the fill light will be.
Capture
Have your subject hold a color chart for the first image. I use an X-Rite Passport Color Checker. Why is this important? Bouncing flash off the walls causes any color that may be in your paint to be reflected onto your subject. In the case of my studio there is a slight yellow/beige tint. Using the color chart you have known colors and neutral swatches with which to work to ensure good color.
A light meter was used to measure the flash from the main light and fill light.
The next part was posing your subject, joshing around to make them look comfortable. Shepard was very easy. We made a handful of frames. Variety is good. In those 8 frames, I made horizontal and vertical captures calling for a few expression changes.
Post processing
First stop is to take the Passport Color Checker image into Adobe Camera RAW. (Note: I use Adobe Bridge and Photoshop.) You have a slightly different workflow if processing in Lightroom. Using the Color panel choose the White Balance Tool. Click in a mid-range neutral gray tone. That gives you a neutral color balanced image. Adjust overall exposure in the light panel if necessary. Click “Done” and the image returns to Bridge. With the image highlighted click the control key on MAC, Right Click on PC to bring up dialog box. Navigate to Develop Settings > Copy Settings. Highlight all other images from the session. Repeat the process to bring up the dialog and choose Develop > Paste Settings. All the images are now color and tone corrected.
Final steps
Choose the images with which to work. Open in Photoshop and do any retouching needed. In this case, I missed seeing the shirt was curled up showing the seam. Rather than try to re-take, I quickly fixed the problem with the Stamp, AKA the Clone Tool. A little cropping for balance, saving and copying the files to a flash drive and Clark left with his two artist portraits about 20 minutes after his original request.
It took me much longer to write and illustrate this article than it took to make Clark’s artist portrait. BTW, part of the reason it was a “quick portrait” was because I’ve been doing this for many years and have gotten the process down.
Check out more of Clark Shepard’s colorful artwork.
Yours in Creative Photography,
Bob