November 12 - Speed Headshot

November 12 - Speed Headshot, originally uploaded by Jesse_Laird.

Shot this Nov 12, but forgot to ask permission so I waited to post.

This is a colleague of mine who needed a headshot for publication. Deadline was that afternoon. A gracious co-worker referred him to me, I grabbed my stands and umbrellas at lunch, and pulled off a quick temporary studio in a conference room.

He had 15 minutes (nothing setup yet) before a conference call. We were able to pull off setup, figuring out exposure and light position, and several poses. And had everything taken down with 5 minutes to spare.

That makes me really happy. Have to give credit to Zack Arias' OneLight workshop for making me confident and comfortable with single-light setups. Before the workshop, I would have fiddled with three flashes and two umbrellas.

The D700's advanced autofocus and the sharp 50 f/1.8 lens also make me very happy.

My original setup had the edge of the electronic whiteboard out of frame. But I wanted to bring down the background light, so we moved everything forward 3 feet. I didn't notice that repositioning brought the edge back into the shot.

But that's why I keep shooting. To learn, and improve.