People An attempt at Christmas season portraits of my grandchildren

[Chris Summers]

When you shoot small children portraits things just don't usually go as planned. My daughter asked for a few portraits of her children before Christmas. No Problem, I said. I set up in my garage which is also my wood working shop and can be a small studio. My granddaughter was wearing a dress her mother wore 34 some years ago, a bit too small but ok... But she only wanted to sit for portraits for a few minutes and was off and running. So I shot my grandson who is 7. I always tell kids, "give me 3-4 good expressions and you can make some funny faces". In the end the funny faces are sometimes the best.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Really nice light, especially the 1st and 3rd subjects (the girl in the red check is a bit dark on one side).

I'm also working with a garage studio. Are you illuminating the backdrop separately? One thing I notice is that it's lighter on our right than on our left. Maybe it's just the pattern.

 

[Chris Summers]

Thanks, Anton. Yes I use what we used to call "cross lighting". The key light is to the left of the subject in this case, fill reflector to the right. There is a background light skimming the bg from right to left. Gives a bit of a rim light to the subject and is nice contrast. Yes, I wasn't sure what they would be wearing and my grandson chose black pants. But my aim was more for faces.