A couple of weeks ago, my friend and fellow photographer, Matt Becker, helped me shoot some new work for my portfolio.  I wanted to create a composite photograph of a cyclist (Coming Soon) and Matt was the perfect subject.  Lets just say he puts quite a few miles on his bike each year.  After we had finished shooting the frames that will be used for the composite, I wanted to shoot a quick portrait.

Canon 5d Mark III – 1/160  f1.8  3-stop ND filter

I used a three light set up consisting of two Elinchrom 600 Rxs with Creative Light 1×4’ strip boxes and an Elinchrom 500 BXRI with a Creative Light 5’ Octa.

The strip boxes were placed on each side and slightly behind Matt, creating a highlight on each side of his face.  The octa was boomed above and slightly in front of Matt. Matt held a white reflector about stomach hight to help bounce some fill light under his chin. I really wanted to isolate his eyes in the shot so I put a 0.9 (3 Stop) ND filter on the lens allowing me to open up my Canon 85mm to its fastest aperture which is f1.8.  This is a great way to make the eyes pop.  After a few tweaks of the power of the lights, we shot away and ended up with a pretty cool simple portrait.  Thanks for looking.

Matt