Had a great shoot today with Sir Greg, a local athlete who is very talented in a number of sports. Wanted to work on some really edgy portraits, raking side lighting and some ring flash fill. We used three Elinchrom Rangers for this image. Two Rotalux strip lights are left and right of the model for soft accent light. I climbed up a ladder to shoot down with ring flash for fill on this shot. Light falls off rapidly, so this effect makes the model appear to emerge out of a sea of black. Interesting angles always catch the viewer’s eye. Try shooting from high or really low angles to mix up your portraits.
Next we added a sword into the image. This picked up some nice reflection from the strip light. I eliminated the ring flash and other strip bank for a single strip light on this shot.
We went back to two strip lights in a cross lighting position directly opposite one another for the final boxing stance.
Tech: Nikon D300s, 24-70mm, 1/200 at F8, ISO 200. Elinchrom Rangers, 2 14×35″ Rotalux Strip Banks, 1 Elinchrom Ring Flash, Skyports triggering the strobes.



















As much as I love an excuse to get out every Ranger and Quadra I own, sometimes one simple light is all it takes. I love the quality of the Elinchrom Octabanks, from the ‘big daddy’ over 6 feet in diameter to the smaller sizes as well. I was working on images for an upcoming story the other day, and Dayna, the model, was the perfect subject for soft light. Since it was cold outside, she was bundled up in a coat that worked out to be a great shot. I used one 39 inch octabank to add just a touch of light but kept the ratio between strobe and ambient light pretty close. Dayna didn’t need much retouching (lucky girl), but I used an easy technique Katrin Eismann discusses in the latest issue of Photoshop User. If you do any work in Photoshop you should take a look at www.photoshopuser.com and join to access the excellent tutorials. Tech: D3, 24-70mm, f7.1 at 1/100, ISO 100. One Elinchrom Ranger shot using a 39″ octabank triggered by the Skyport wireless system.