I wanted to try a lighting set up tonight. One where there is a light above the subject pointing down and another just below the subject pointing up. I believe it is a pretty common set up so I wanted to see what it does. It would work better with softboxes, but all I have are umbrellas, so that is what I used.
My hope was to get a really cool photo of one of my daughters. But Mia was a little too engrossed in her sister's Nintendo DS and Olivia just was not in the mood to model. I tried to get a good one of Olivia in the time she gave me, but I could not get the lighting just right, so I had to step in front of the camera. After a few attempts I got the lighting that I wanted, but then it took me another 20 shots to get one where I did not hate the look I had on my face. I am much better off on the other side of the lens.
So, as much as it pains me to say this, the photo of the day is not one of my beautiful daughters, but instead the one below of me. Not because I am a good subject, but because I like the lighting and this photo has more of the "feel" I was going for. I have included a shot of the lighting set up to give you something to look at besides me. If you can imagine my head was just below the top flash and a bit to the left. I was looking at the tripod that you can see just sticking over the top of the bottom umbrella.
Camera: Pentax K20 50mm prime lens ISO 200 Aperture f/5.6 Exposure 1/180
Lighting: SB-25 @ 1/8 power into a silver umbrella below and close + Pentax 360 @ 1/4 power above and a bit to the camera left, both triggered with triggered with AlienBees CyberSyncs.
See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr
Thanks for reading my ramblings,