Last night, before I headed off to bed for the night I took a bit of time to set up the light kit, Impact 500W Light Umbrella Kit, and actually get snapping some photographs this time. I created a very simple set up and had intended on going black and white with the photographs from the start. Next time, especially with color portraits, I’ll use my SB-600 as a fill flash.

Here’s the set up I used:

I was pretty happy with the results which is fantastic since I hadn’t done my hair and was wearing no makeup and have never really had a lot of luck with self portraits in the past. I found three or the 60 photos really embodied the emotion I wanted and I used Lightroom to go gray scale and adjust my settings to really make the photographs pop. There were a couple other shots I liked but I think I might try them again another time and see if I can have better success without that silly hat on!

Hat used solely to hide my bad hair day

Other Great Lighting Set-Ups

1. Simple Lighting Setup
2. Explained lighting schemes