I recently had a photo/video shoot for a client in which I needed to make the subject the center of attention. The lightinghad to work with both my Canon D70 and my BlackMagic Mini Studio Camera. I was trying to create a soft black background with a sharp bright subject. I have to say after a couple hours of pre prep setup, I found the best way to acomplish my shot was to really enhance the lighting from directly above my subject (Paris Nicole Fillmore). To acomplish the exact shot needed I placed 3 controllable flat LED panels on a bar about 3 feet above Paris and killed all the rest of the lighting. I set the cameras to a tight F stop, which helped blur out the background of any blemishes on the wall and set my white balance to a warner 5300 tone. I have to say it came out exatly how I pictured (see image above). Clean and clear to really expose the subjects emotion and body definition. (The shoot was for spinal exercises after surgery). All I can tell you is your shoot will look 100x better if you put the pre prep time in and experiment with your light sources. Once you view your shots you will wish you spend more time planning. Keep shooting!
