www.darkdaysdawn.com
Portrait Photography

I'm about to leave for Mexico. My friend's Stu & Lynne are getting married there. I decided I'd make this a photography adventure trip of sorts, and then for some reason, I offered to shoot their wedding. They'd said it was tough to get a photographer down there, so I thought I'd help out.

Shooting wedding portraits, huh? Well, it occurred to me about a week ago that I don't have much, if any, experience shooting portraits. I decided I'd better bone up on lighting techniques and get some practice.

For those who are interested in the details of such things, I gleaned most of my information from sublime-light.com and from The Strobist who keeps an excellent and informative blog.


Playing with a work lamp for lighting
After reading some lighting tips and techniques, I thought I'd try some ideas. The only light I had was a 500 W halogen work lamp though -- not exactly flattering. However, the hard shadows do provide an effect demonstration.



Self portraits with minimal lighting
Next, I wanted to play with diffusers of some sort. Well, not owning any, I had to make do with what I had. The follow shots are lit with a 100 W daylight bulb in a desk lamp that has a coat hanger clamped to it which supports a sheet of white paper towel. It's the best I could do.



My Vivitar DF400MZ flash arrived
Combining the bounce features, and the diffuser and reflector of my new flash, I was able to get more light, and more flattering light. The black & white front-on shot employs a gold JTL reflector disc positioned pretty much in Brittany's lap, while the flash is bounced off the ceiling behind the camera.




*All images are the property of Christopher Parsons, darkdaysdawn.com, and phantomsoundstudios.com. Reuse without permission is expressly prohibited.

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