In the past I used custom painted canvas backgrounds for portrait shoots. I worked with some talented artists who had a great understanding of how different textures appeared when shot out of focus as a background.  When using these canvases, numerous stands were required: stands for the canvas background; and stands for multiple flashes, all taking up more space, more time and budget.

Today I did a shoot of the new Chair of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, Professor Mark Cook. There were elements of this shoot which had everything I love about using strobist equipment (not an old canvas background in sight!). The fast telephoto lenses I use allow for any background (including the mundane) to appear as something really special (I love the effect of “bokeh”).   The speed of setup, shoot and breaking the set, and how inobtrustive the set-up is, was received well by the client.  They were impressed their office hall could look so slick.

I had lights a long way down the hallway.  I  recently had two pocket wizard units repaired (at a cost of $420(ouch)), so I felt obliged to use them rather than Nikon’s CLS. I had a Pocket Wizard Plus II transceiver on the camera and one on the SB900 on the softbox.   3 SB900s were set down the hallyway to SU4 (slave). Equipment was Nikon D3. 70-200 f2.8 VRII, Thinktank Airport Airstream, Thinktank Airport Ultralight and HonlPhoto light modifiers, shooting at 1/80 f3.5.

The Hallway at St Vincent's

What it looks like from the sidelines

Mark Cook, Chair of Medicine at St Vincent's Hospital

The show is over