I was photographing a successful plastic surgeon in his Dubai clinic to create a range of portraits for a variety of print and web usage. This was our second shoot location. The first shoot had taken place a few days prior Corporate Power Portrait – Creative Lighting Setup

It was mid-morning so the natural sunlight coming into the room from the windows was harsh and just blew out any detail. I really liked the mirror arrangement on the back wall so after a quick shuffle of furniture, set up this simple shot. The idea was to have warm late afternoon sunshine streaming in through the side window and create a glowing and personable image of the good Dr.

This 3 light set up was actually very simple to create. However, we did need a good powered strobe to fire through the side window and fill the room with enough warm natural ‘sunshine’. For this, my assistant was standing outside the window holding the Profoto Compact 600r with a full CTO gel.

I deliberately angled the ‘sunlight’ from outside the window towards the back wall so that I could control the light on my subject. To light him, I placed a 1/2 CTO gel on the main light with the 3′ Octa box. The grid on the Octa controlled the spill of light so I could keep some shadow contrast on the subject and chair. The small edge light coming from the Canon 580 on the left side of his face is cooler to complete the natural lighting effect. The plant simply completes the composition and fills what would have been a blank corner.

Exif: 125th, f4, iso 100

Gear used: Canon 1dx, Canon 70-200mm f2.8 II, main light Profoto 600r + 1/2 CTO gel, Profoto RF 3′ Octa + grid, edge light Canon 580 EX II + grid, fill light for sunshine effect placed outside the main window Profoto 600r with full CTO gel, pocket wizard mini flex TT1.

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