Profoto B10 Location Portraits BTS

By Esam Hassanyeh 12 September 2018.

The Profoto B10 launched today and I was lucky enough to get my hands on a couple of the new ‘pint’ sized lights before the official launch.  Working with friends at Advanced Media Dubai, they gave me a pair of B10’s to play with. My full user review of the new Profoto B10’s can be seen here Profoto B10 Review

There are a few lighting set up’s for a portrait shoot using a pair of Profoto B10’s.

I like to shoot power portraits for more senior clients. These are strong portraits, of successful people, that incorporate design elements of surrounding spaces to add some drama.

Our location was on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Centre Tower, Abu Dhabi. This large, bright, beautiful space would really test the B10’s power. John is a money manager and wanted some strong portraits for professional use.

Whilst the B10’s gave a great performance is such a huge, bright space, I felt I was a stop underpowered, as I wanted to block out more ambient light. I could have moved the 3ft Octa closer to John, but wanted to avoid CS work. A few words on the Canon 24mm f3.5L II…this beautiful lens gives such creative options for interiors, landscapes and even portraits.

For the next shot, I really liked the curving lines and shadows cast on the walls from the angled glass roof.

A grid on the 3ft Octa helps control the spill of light so I can keep the focus on John.

I am at home in creative architectural spaces. Here, I wanted to use the snaking black pillars behind John as a strong background for the next shot.

To color things up a little, I added a full sun gel on the rear B10 to give the feeling of sunset. To balance the background, I added a 1/8th cto gel to the main 5ft RFI Octa to warm John’s face a little. This is my favorite sofbox for portraits, it throws a big soft light on subjects.

More of my photography can be seen on my website esam hassanyeh