The Broheim

It's been awhile since I have done anything in-studio. So, when my brother called up looking for some promotional shots with his trumpet, I jumped at the chance to get back in.

Last time Caleb came in was with his family, and it was pretty much my first time doing anything in the studio, so things didn't go well. We shot in the "studio" space that I have, which is a very welcome but small room. Shadows abounded due to my light to subject to background distance, as well as trying to get creative with light placement, and just not knowing how.

This time, it was just Caleb, and we were able to setup in a giant room that we could kill all the lights in. I had though that a single strobe about five feet from Caleb and no background for at least thirty feet, as well as very little ambient light would allow me to get away with not setting up any sort of backdrop, but the single strobe through umbrella cast enough light that we had to bring in a stand and big black velvet curtain. (Another item that belongs to the church I shoot in and that I requisition for free.)


The key light was an SB-24 at 1/4 power, ISO 640 through an umbrella at about 45 degrees to camera right of the broheim. The reality is that I haven't played around a lot with the ISO setting on the SB-24 and control intensity almost solely by futzing with the power output. There's a lot more flexibility and control that I'm sure will come when I learn how to use that part of my strobes. Camera was set to ISO 200. Probably could have gone down to 100, but I selected 200 to be safe at the beginning and just forgot about it.

We shot a handful at about 85mm on my 55-200mm zoom and then I switched to an 18-55mm to capture some wide-angle. Caleb currently has a crease in the bell of his trumpet that he didn't think added the kind of character he wanted in the photo. So I attempted some Photoshop magic. The before and after are below.