Simple Portraits

There has been much written about portrait lighting. Many options exist, including using a main light such as a fixed light, a window with soft light and then a reflector to cast some light on the shadow side.  Here I used the camera on tripod and two flashes controlled by a radio wireless transmitter on camera.  The main flash was set to my left about 6.5 feet high firing through a white umbrella, set at full power. The fill light flash set opposite, through umbrella set at half power.  Both flashes were 45 degrees to subjects .  Further fine tuning of exposure was through the camera.  The ambient light portion was set at a 60th second and to control the flash burst, the aperture was set to f9. F9 also allowed for adequate depth of field to insure front to back subject sharpness.  Camera was a Minolta Maxxum 7D DSLR.  Lens, a Sigma 28-70 2.8.  As you can see everything was set up manually.  With adjusting the variables available until the histogram shows a proper exposure, it is not difficult to get it right. Enjoy, Jeff