Indoor Portraits - advice?

benners

benners

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Ben
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morning all, should have asked this well in advance!
this afternoon I'm taking some indoor staff/office portraits (typical headshots for use on company website, publications, etc.), and haven't really done that before... i usually do concerts and landscapes!

so just after a quick bit of advice on what setting to use. I've recently bought a sb600 flashgun, but no idea how to use it (!), but figured i might give it a go using 45/90 degree bounce

my kit I've got is:

Nikon D90
Nikon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G AF-S
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 SP AF XR Di LD Aspherical
Nikon SB-600 flashgun
 
If the office has a white board it might make a good background. If you can get some natural light in the shot all the better. Rig up a relfector by taping some A4 paper to some cardboard and then use this to help with the lighting.

If you have to use the flash gun bounce it behind you or to the side - looking for a large white surface which then becomes the light source and not the flashgun itself.

HTH
 
great stuff Ryan, thank you... you can come along if you like, I'll be in Newmarket! ;)

If I don't have to use the flash i won't, it's quite sunny so might be able to do some outdoor shots if the light is right. or find some some good indoor locations with natural light/windows.

hopefully i'll be able to get a mixture of shots, as you suggest against a plain background like a whiteboard, and maybe some with the company logo/plaque in the background.
 
Funnily enough I'm in Newmarket every Friday :) Rest of the week I'm in Cambridge.
 
ryanyboy said:
Funnily enough I'm in Newmarket every Friday :) Rest of the week I'm in Cambridge.
Click to expand...

hehe small world! well, it's only an in-house job... they asked me as they know i "do photos"! so the pressure's off... they'll be grateful of anything half-decent, i'll just make sure i shoot in RAW ;)
 
First set up your flash to work wirelessly as a remote flash thats controlled by the popup flash on your camera.

Get someone to hold the flash at about 45 degrees to your subject, slightly above eye level, or as Ryan suggested, bounce it off something big and white!

Let TTL work it's magic and you just worry about framing ;)
 

Talking about Portraits, anyone seen a lens like this ? In the lens is a metal plate with holes drilled in. The theory being, the less you stop down the greater the soft focus. You have to face it,a soft focus filter on the lens can only blur the shot. MAMIYA 6*6 was the only other I ever saw.
 
classcams said:

Talking about Portraits, anyone seen a lens like this ? In the lens is a metal plate with holes drilled in. The theory being, the less you stop down the greater the soft focus. You have to face it,a soft focus filter on the lens can only blur the shot. MAMIYA 6*6 was the only other I ever saw.
Click to expand...

That looks interesting :) Soft-focus and blur are absolutely different - you get a hard core of sharpness surrounded by a slightly out of focus halo. I love it for flowers, female portraits, kids etc, but prefer to do it with filters for more control (less f/number dependent) and you can make a good stab at it in post processing these days.

Some ideas never die - this is the new LensBaby soft-focus optic http://www.lensbaby.com/optics-softfocus.php
 
If doing head and shoulder shots for the website, face them at 45 degrees with the head turned towards you, looks better than the 'passport shot'
 
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