Studio Shooting - Stepping way outside my comfort zone

I have photographed lots of different subjects; people, landscapes, wildlife, events and goodness knows how many other situations, but the one environment that I have avoided until now, is the studio. Well...last week I decided to try something new and step into a studio. Yep...big lights, soft boxes and backdrops. I have avoided this type of shooting for two reasons, firstly I do not have a whole lot of extra room at my home to set up all this equipment, and secondly I love shooting in natural light. But, as in any career growth, I decided to learn a new skill.

I visited a local studio where I could try out this foreign style of shooting. We had a model named Nicole who was patient with me as I experimented with the different lighting options.

This is a whole different beast from shooting outside. There are many advantages. For one, I could control all of the light and not have to rely on the lighting of Mother Nature and light modifiers. I could also shoot day or night and have the same results. That is nice. The clarity and contrast of the images was amazing when I was shooting with big bright lights and a white background.

Funny enough, my favorite image from the evening was this shot that I took of Nicole outside the studio. It was towards the end of the day and the sun was low. I asked if we could shoot out by this pretty plant (growing on a cyclone fence by the parking lot) and she agreed. I guess I really am a natural light photographer at heart. :)

I came home that night and decided that on the following day I would finally break out the studio lights, soft boxes and light stands that have been sitting in their original boxes for the last couple of years. Since my kids would have nothing to do with this experiment, my neighbor (and "other" daughter - Ali's best friend), Danielle stepped in as my guinea pig. As you can tell from the not-so-perfect white background, I have some work to do still. But at least I broke out the big lights and have started learning something new!