Outside Plaza Theatre, Orlando Florida - March 14, 2010

I shot a series of portraits of Matt Wertz before his recent show in Orlando where he was opening for Five for Fighting.

The idea behind this was to show the glamorous life of a traveling up-and-coming musician, so I thought I would photograph him in his van.  This thing is essentially a dorm room on wheels that takes him and his band around the country.

While I’m not especially pleased with the final photos (more on that later), I thought I would post a series to walk you through my thought process, as well as the trial and error of the lighting setup.

This was all done between his sound check and the start of the show. He also had to eat during this break, so I didn’t want to keep him too long. All said, this lasted about 20 minutes, including my setup time. Luckily he’s an easy going guy and was very gracious about the whole thing.

All images shot on the Nikon D700 with the 14-24 f/2.8 at 14mm and the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra.

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The Shoot

First thing’s first: ambient light. Well, it should’ve been anyway. I was in such a rush to get things set up, I got frazzled and just started firing the light right away.

ISO 200, f/4 at 1/13 second in Aperture priority, with a reflector and warming gel on the Quadra, which is firing just outside the van door.

The outside is way too blown out. Gotta make an adjustment to bring it back.

ISO 200, f/4.5 at 1/160 second in Manual mode (where we’ll remain from here on out)

I definitely got the outside back, but now the inside has harsh shadows and is way too warm, which doesn’t match the light outside at all. Solution? Softbox.

ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/200

As witnessed by the big white softbox sitting outside the van, you can see that I have now switched to a softbox ;-) Outside is still dark like I want, but now the inside is way too dark. Time to bump the ISO, drop the f-stop, and lower the shutter speed!

ISO 2000, f/4 at 1/60 second

Okay, maybe a bit too much.

ISO 800, f/14 at 1/60 second

This is where I want to be. Or at least close enough for the amount of time I have. The outside looks okay, as well as the inside, though it might still be a bit dark. At this point I can either increase the power of the Quadra (but that’s going to blow out the side of his face), or I could make him wait while I set up a fill light. Or…

I could finesse the lighting in post. Sure, it would’ve been faster to set up a fill light, but then I’m spending his time instead of mine.

[From here on out all images have been worked in Lightroom.]

After I got a few frames from the middle of the van, I moved him to the back seat.

ISO 1250, f/7.1 at 1/60

I also moved the light back with him and told him to make himself comfortable.

ISO 1250, f/7.1 at 1/50 second

Moved back to get a closer shot and asked him to smile for this one. It’s always good to get a variety of shots and expressions because you never know what mood they want to go with should they use the photos for anything.

ISO 1250, f/7.1 at 1/50 second

And then the one I stared the post with. I like this one because it shows him looking tired from life on the road. At least that’s what I see :-)

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Feedback & Conclusion

So, at the time I shot these I was actually kind of pleased with them because I had successfully set up a light and gotten a variety of shots out of a 15-20 minute session (which is more than you’ll usually get with a musician for a last minute shoot).

Then I got back and processed them, then showed them to a couple photographers who are much better than I and told them my thought process behind the setup.

One of them said, “Oh, he’s a musician? It just looks like a guy in a van since there isn’t anything music-related in the shots. Not digging them.”

The other said, “Honestly I’m not a big fan of the shots. That wide angle lens just makes him look extremely distorted. He looks a bit short and fat. I understand why you pulled out the wide angle in such tight quarters but I would have chosen a different lens and done closer up shots. Remember, you always have to flatter your subject, no matter who it is.”

And they’re right. Looking back, I can definitely see what I would’ve done differently. For starters, I would’ve arrived early enough to set up and do some test shots in my own car. That way I would’ve been more prepared when I had my subject in front of my lens, I wouldn’t have been as stressed, and I wouldn’t have been running around trying to figure everything out while he was sitting there (graciously) waiting on me.

But that’s all stuff I learned by doing and will have tucked away in my head for next time. Had I not done this, those are lessons I wouldn’t have learned. You can watch others work a portrait session all you want, but until you’re the one doing it, you won’t really learn how to do it.

So, get out there. Make the mistakes. Then learn from them.