Studio flash and digital camera training
 

Teaching my students to take proper portrait reference photos is vital, since portrait painters today will probably have to do most of their commissions from reference material. We are fortunate that digital photography is coming into its own, for the quality and control is a real boon to us. Last evening two of my students brought a friend to the studio, dressed her up in stuff out of my prop closet, and practiced using my studio flash setup coupled with a Canon EOS 10D digital camera.

They fussed over the subject and used handfuls of bobby pins in the poor victim

This is one of the head shots they set up and took. The light source is a Paul C. Buff White Lightning 1200 flash unit equipped with a Photoflex soft box measuring about 30x40

Here are two examples of excellent portraits from the

I

An old tramp stumbled into the studio during the session and insisted on spoiling a picture.

Bill:

These are great shots! I would love to hear more about the flash equipment. One thing I have considered is to start a topic where folks who have high-end digitals that can take RAW pics could post their settings.

I have a devil of a time taking shots of my paintings vs. taking shots of subjects.

Yes, Mr. Whitaker, I would like to hear a bit more about your light source. Is it actually a flash unit, or is it a light source us dummies could build?

Also, do you -- or anyone else -- have a few cogent comments about which digital camera does a good job at portrait photography?

The photo you showed from your studio and camera were great, I thought.

Richard,

You might find that Bill answers many of your questions in this thread, "A Natalie Test":

http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=5418

I recommend any of the digital SLR's. I am biased toward the Nikon's but would accept any of the other major brand digital SLR's.

Mike:

Thanks for the thread. Sounds like it is quite a nice piece of equipment. Wonder if a guy could come anywhere near creating a similar thing on his own.

At the moment, I'm using tungsten light and Kodak Portra 100T film. Get good flesh tones with this film. Why couldn't a guy jury-rig a soft diffuser of some sort, or would that be necessary?

So far, I've heard good things about the Canon EOS 10D, and the Nikon D70.

I think a clever fellow might get that done. I'm no good in that respect.

Although I admire these setups, and concede that they can offer great benefit, I tend to go with the natural light.