Had a blast last night doing some family portraits for good friends of mine. I took some of the learning I used earlier this week in Wayne Höecherl's lighting course (results in the last post) and applied it to my lowly home studio.

Lowly because in the wolf boy shot there was plenty of ceiling at VPW to raise the "china ball" but my ceilings are no higher than 10 ft. I really liked the soft diffuse top-lighting so instead I made the family take the portrait while seated on cushions on the floor. There wasn't as much separation from the light but I think the effect was pretty good.

The shot you see above is before any Photoshopping so before I submit it for print I will be doing some touching up and colour correcting.

The lighting

I spent about twenty minutes rigging up the large softbox precariously on its stand (sandbagged later for stability) so that it hung from its boom just underneath the ceiling. Before I put the softbox up I clipped and taped a silk layer so that it would hang underneath the softbox like a cloud. The light would be diffused three times then: once through the internal baffle, second through the softbox's outer layer, and third through the silk. The silk's "cloud" shape would spill light all over the place.

Here is a lighting diagram describing this:

I tried setting up a kicker since the two parents showed up with black tops but it didn't show up much in any of the shots. I remember having a brief discussion with them about the dark background but it's my fault for not talking specifically about the clothing.

More later, including some black and white film shots I took with the Mamiya.

Update: black and white versions

Ilford Delta Pro 100 ahhhh: family portrait in beautiful black and white