Elena!

- ELENA -

Let's begin with a behind the scenes "BTS" shot, the importance of good Make-up, hair and styling is often underestimated!

Elena is much younger than the girls or woman i usually get in front of my lens and these teens ask for a different approach, coaching is on another level, it has to be more playful without turning yourself in a total moron, because once your status changes from cool to annoying your dead :-p

MUA: Sandra de Moor

Light the eyes, i can't repeat it enough, put some light into those eyes to make them "pop", having a really sharp lens and getting them in perfect focus helps finish the look (Nikkor Af-D 85mm 1.8)

Okay here is some lighting | strobist info:

I wanted a fresh, commercial look, so i lit it in a commercial way! On camera left high in the sky the sun, much closer to the camera a California Sunbounce Pro with -2/3 stop diffusion screen (bit like a Sunswatter) on a light-stand. The diffusion screen actually changes the harsh contrasty sunlight into soft and diffused light, just like a softbox with a continuous light source.

Problem: The Diffusion screen takes away 2/3 of a stop which is almost a full stop less than what the background is lit.

Solution: Add 1 stop of light again on the model and she is in balance with the ambient.

So i added an SB-900 with my flashzebra TTL cable to enable manual shooting but retaining the high speed synchro advantages.

How to set ISO, aperture, shutter speed?

Easy solution: start at "sunny 16" and decide at which aperture you want to work

Sunny 16 states: your shutter speed equals your ISO at f:16 for a correct exposure on sunlit environments!
And i'd like to work at f:4 ISO 200

From f:16 to f:4 is 4 stops less (more*), so your shutter speed will have to 4 stops faster
1/250 + 4 stops is 1/4000th

But this is just a bit dull, so i choose to work about 2 stops under (above*) correct exposure to get a lot of highlights in the background ISO 200, f:4, 1/800 tot 1/1250th

The SB-900 was set between 1/4 and 1/2 M power with the high speed synchro enabled...

Makes you think about "correct exposure" not?

(*) made some edits after a comment from FreMan, less was more ... indeed!