My wife suggested the“Tricky Tuesday” theme as a way for me to share some of the different tricks, tips and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting glamour images in my home studio and on location, as with today’s portrat of the second woman named Kelly Alexander that I photographed.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.—Robert Green Ingersoll
A few years ago, among the birthday gifts Mary gave me was a new Paul C Buff DigiBee 800 monolight—in blue.
I remember seeing the original Alien Bee monolights when they were introduced at the PMA trade show. The lights were compact, affordable, colorful and built to the same quality standards that are the hallmark of all Paul C Buff designs. Mr. Buff is no longer with us but his company hasn’t lost that commitment to excellence in innovation in lighting products. This is not a sponsored post, just my many (happy) years experience working with Paul C. Buff monolights.
If you’re not familiar with the DigiBee, here’s some details. It is a digitally controlled monolight that’s available in 160 Watt-second and 320 Ws versions. While the original AlienBee was designed for function over form, the DigiBee adds a splash of style that extends from the honeycomb design of the “bee eye” flash tube cover to the rear control panel. The monolight offers consistent output, short flash duration, fast recycle and uses an LED modeling lamp. The high-impact polycarbonate housing with internal fan cooling is available in different colors including the blue one that Mary gave me. (My other DigiBee is red.) The monolight is slightly smaller than an AlienBee too. A DigiBee measures 4.75 x 5.25 7.25 inches compared to an AlienBee’s 8.5 x 7.875 x 5.75-inches.
The monolight’s bright LED modeling lamp can be used for previewing lighting effects or even producing a relatively bright continuous source. The DigiBee is compatible with Buff’s line of reflectors, softboxes, umbrellas and light stands. Accessories are Balcar-compatible as well.
The DigiBee uses 120 VAC (50-60 Hz) power and has a 15-foot power cord to connect to a standard, grounded outlet or can be used with the company’s Vagabond Mini portable battery system. The unit includes a sync cord for hardwired camera connection and a CyberSync port allowing the unit to be triggered and/or controlled wirelessly by the company’s wireless system.
All of these factors are why my compliment of two DigiBee monolights and One AlienBee monolight make up the standard lighting systems I use in home studio.
How I Made this Portrait: The specs for Ms, Kelly Alexander’s glamour portrait above is as follows: Start with the custom-made Carbonite muslin backdrop from Silverlake Photo Accessories that was suspended on my JTL background stand system. Lighting was provided by a DigiBee DB800 with a 52x38x14-inch Plume Wafer Hexoval soft box mounted placed at camera right. A second DigiBee DB800 was placed at camera left and slightly behind the subject. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 45mm with an exposure of 1/125 sec and f/9 and ISO 200.
Note for my Patreon Subscribers. After looking at the images that ere during this particular session with Kelly, I realized I could make a Bonus post using some of these images of her for one of my uncensored Password Protected posts. If you are interested in seeing some of the other images from this session, click CONTACT and let me know. If you are not yet a Patreon subscriber—it’s surprisingly inexpensive—details on how to sign up can be found here.