Meet Sean {LED light portrait tutorial}

posted July 17, 2011 in Photographer Resources, Portraits

He’s got the same name as my bro, he’s sacked a Heisman trophy winner, Harvard-educated, and has a few years of NFL experience under his belt. We sat around a Colorado campfire last night and talked about happiness, relationships, and how a dull hatchet can still work wonders for fun stress relief. He’s also a smart, smart photographer. And a great guy.

I walked away from our time with with a simple message: make the best of what you’ve got. Naturally, here’s the inspired portrait of Sean: It was seriously pitch dark… so much so it was very difficult to focus, so I had Sean hold the light on his face so I had something to focus on. Bingo… my primary lighting source, found. Shooting a portrait at 6400 ISO, handheld at 1/8 sec (NO VR) pushes portrait photography limitations, the NFL linebacker equivalent of a solid 300lb power clean. And a flash would have ruined the campfire ambience.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it all went down:
Stay tuned for an action-packed week of blogging goodness!