I recently did a quickie shoot to get a better headshot for my wife. We tried a few different things, but this image was one of the first that we did (she didn’t like her hair in it, so we didn’t use this one). I, on the other hand, liked it.
This was shot at: ƒ/6.3 50.0mm 1/250 ISO200.
There were two speedlights, both YN560’s.
Camera right, DIY 24" softbox @ ~3/4 power ~ 20" away
Camera left, bare @ ~1/4 power ~24" away
* I am guessing at these power settings because I was lazy and didn’t write them down as I was fiddling…
I developed the raw in RawTherapee, then into GIMP for further retouching (skin work, dodge & burn, final color pass, sharpening).
I also recently did a shoot with two of the same flashes. I had 6x9in softboxes on the flashes (the kind that slip over the flash head) and I found the light to still be a bit too hard… Can you post a photo of your softbox?
The softbox is really just something I taped (!) together and cut out from two pieces of foamboard. It probably cost less than $8 to make. I think I had some old white sheets I used for the diffusion material. I originally also had a small tissue taped across the inside to help with the diffusion (not 100% sure it made any real difference - I think it had fallen out by the time I was shooting this image).
Admirably, and they always have for me. Only misfires I’ve had are due to the transmitters usually (or dead batteries). A nice bonus was that they came with a sync cord that fits the Cactus v5, so I can avoid having to mount the flash on the trigger, which helps when dealing with flimsy mounts and a big-ass softlighter when I’m using it.
I had some of these as well at one point, and they can be great - but you’ve got to be in knife-fighting distance with them to soften them up. I think this image was shot with one of those being held in my left hand just out of frame:
Awesome. This was the first time I’d worked with off camera lighting in quite a while… My usual choice of subject matter has never required more than an on camera fill.
I think this image was shot with one of those being held in my left hand just out of frame:
