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Other Lessons

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Basic Portrait Indoors

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Basic Product Shot

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Basic Product Up-Close

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Glamour Shot
with the HalfDome2

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Olympus C-740:
Depth of Field Portrait

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Olympus C-750:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus D-560:
White Balance Indoors

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Olympus E-1:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus E-1:
A Closer Look

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Panoramic

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Resolution

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Shooting a Basic Headshot

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Techniques for Shooting Jewelry

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Two-Dimensional Artwork

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Simple Tricks for Consistent Portrait Lighting

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Soft Lights for Dramatic Results

In this lesson we will show you how set up and shoot the perfect portrait every time. With a few simple tips and tricks, you can rig your portrait gear to save time and make those school portrait jobs a snap. All the prep you will need to make this happen is a trip to the hardware store.

The "String" method refers to simply attaching a length of string each piece of gear you use to shoot your portraits. Each of these strings are set at a specific length and then color coded so you can identify them.

(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.)

We will use a basic two light portrait set for our example. Getting started before our model arrives; we set up a 12 foot white seamless background in our studio and then set up our Medium Starlite Kit. We then rough in the position of the lights and the camera and set up a chair for our subject. Once our model arrive's we are set to go.

After completing this lesson and setting up your gear in this manner you next portrait will be very simple to set up. All of your exposures will be right on. You'll know just where and how to set the lights and where to set your camera. Your camera settings will also always be the same. This now allows you to concentrate on your subject and to get just the right pose without worrying about your gear or your exposures.

The first step in setting up our gear is to set our key light in the proper position for the basic portrait. The key light for this shot will be set in the position for broad light portrait that is to say about 45 degrees from the camera, either on the left or the right. We will then cut a length of our line to 5 feet, then attach this to the Litestand of our key light. (Figures 1 & 2)

Once you have tied the line to your stand you should have a 5 foot line, the extra 6 inches are for the knot to attach the line to the stand.

Now set the Medium Starlite in the broad lighting position. Then have your subject hold the end of the line to the tip of his/her nose and move the Starlite back until the line is taut. ( Figures 3 & 4)

For our fill light we will cut a line to 7 1/2 feet and attach it to the second Medium Starlight Kit in the same way we did for the key light in our broad light set up. Once you have done this, set the fill light in its proper position, next to your camera on the opposite side you set the key light. Then have your subject hold the end of the line to the tip of his /her nose and move the light back until the line is taut. (Figure 5 & 6)

The last step to prep your gear is cut a line for your camera, we would suggest a length for this but the size of this line will depend on the focal length of lens you intend to use. So set up your camera and frame up the image of your subject. Once you have established your shot measure the distance from the subject's nose to the base of your tripod head and cut a piece of line to that length plus 6 inches. Now you can attach this line to the tripod head and you're good to go. (Figure 7 & 8)

With this set up you can easily recreate the same consistent look when ever or where ever you want. This process can be replicated for any of the gear or styles of shooting you use most often as well. You can also set different lines on these lights for people with glasses or for darker skin tones. Once you have spent a little time to prep the jobs you shoot with this method in the future will be much faster and easier. (Figures 9 & 10)

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