Quick and Easy Portrait

December 28, 2009 | Filed Under People, group portrait 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is recharging their internal batteries for the New Year.

During the holidays, families get together and it’s the perfect time to capture some great memories with your camera. Of course, most of us aren’t going to setup a huge elaborate lighting configuration with all the hustle and bustle going on in the house, so in a pinch find yourself a background that is not too busy or cluttered, grab your camera with an external flash to pop onto the hot-shoe, and a piece of white foam or poster board (optional).

The photo above was taken with my flash bounced behind me into the corner of the ceiling and wall. Sitting on the table in front of my subjects was a white 2×3 piece of foam board tilted slightly to bounce some light up to reduce some of the shadows in the eye sockets and under the chin. It’s not going to look as if it was shot in the studio with a softbox or beauty dish for a main light, along with a fill light, hair light and back light, but for something that just takes seconds to setup and keeps your holiday party or any other celebration moving along without interruption, it’s a perfect solution.

Quick. Easy. Painless.

Tags: bounce, couple, flash, on-camera

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