Had a great session with Jessi a local up and coming model.  We shoot for a basic starter portfolio/compcard to start getting work and visiting agency’s.  Used my Nikon D750 paired with a Nikon 85mm f/1.8 G .    My Main Light was the Flashpoint XPlor 600 with a 42 inch Glow Beauty Dish.  I bought an Xplor because in studio its a great strobe and on location I can take advantage of High Speed Sync for creative portraits.  If you shoot wedding portraits, outdoor headshots or creative advertising  shots, high speed sync is amazing in bright day light.I new the model

Th knew the look I was going for so I choose a large beauty dish.  The 42 inch dish gave me a gorgeous soft light that wrapped around my model.  Depending the style of model shot you are doing, you may want a silver dish for a harsher/ more spectacular light.  For these I wanted a soft fall off.  The image below was with the large beauty dish.

Nikon 85mm f/1.8G review This image was taken with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 , which is my go to portrait lens.  Its sharp, has a snappy focus and gives a beautiful tone.  There are other lenses to shoot head shots with but any wider and it distorts the face.  And personally, I feel the farther back you go, the less interaction you can have with your client.  So shooting with a 200mm might be the perfect lens for facial compression, but you are standing farther away from the subject hurting the client photog interaction.

Now to contrast the soft light, I wanted a high key look with deeper contrast.     I removed the beauty dish and used the  Flashpoint XPlor 600   bare bulb with the standard reflector it comes with.  I used two other flashpoint strobes to light the background and this was the result.  Thats why the Nikon 85mm f/1.8G  is the perfect balance for portraits.

Flashpoint Xplor600 review

 

These are great examples of what a soft box can do and how it can change by just removing that softbox.  The Flashpoint Xplor 600 has worked flawlessly so far and I am happy I sold my Alienbees.  I will be posting a review with samples shot outside showing the versatility.

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