Below is the list of gear I used to complete the project.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 100mm Macro f/2.8 IS

3 pieces of Nikon Speedlight SB-80DX

3 Light Stands

2 Manfrotto Spring Grip Clamp with Attached Flash Shoe

1 small softbox (24x24 inch)

1 transperent Umbrella 42 inch

1 Speedlight Pro Kit Softbox

1 set of Elinchrom Quadra (battery + 2 flash heads)

A light meter

1 Color Checker Passport

All the equipment was easily stoable in a backpack,including  tripod bag and hard case for Elinchrom Quadra set. This meant that I could take myself from the parking garage to the company's offices in a single trip.

I set the light in the company's conference room while the makeup artist prepared the staff.

For the background I used one of the walls in the conference room. I mounted the two Spring Grip Clamps on to the seat backs of two chairs. In the clips I mounted Nikon Speedlight SB-80DX and directed them against the white wall. The lightes were placed about 3 feets from the wall and on either side of where I had my model.

The great thing about these small Speedlight flash units is that they have a built-in optical sensor which allows me to trigger the flashes with a flash. I set the Speedlights to ½ output resulting aperture of f/11 when I measured the light at the wall. I also made sure to measure the light at the back behind my model. I metered the light and got an f-stop f/8, to avoid having the light brighter than the main light at the model's back. The image becomes somewhat greyish if the light is stronger than the main. The light at the background should be 1 stop brighter than the main, but the background light should drop off by a stop when it hits the models back. To acheive this to move the model further from the background if the light is brighter.

The third Speedlight SB-80DX acted as hair light. To get a softer light, I used Speedlight Pro Kit Softbox. The softbox is a small, handy folding system that is perfect for small flash guns. The output power of the flash was set to ¼ power output, which gave aperture f / 8 when I measured the light above the models head.

The large transparent umbrella mounted on a light stand with a Quadra head, acted as the main light. The flash was connected to the A connector that provides 66% of the total power output of the Quadra's battery pack.

I positioned the main light as close as possible to the camera, but just outside the camera viewfinder. The position and the large umbrella makes the light becomes very soft and a bit glamorous. The main light was adjusted to give a ligh reading of aperture f/8. Camera settings, f-stop f/8, shutter speed 1/125 sec, ISO 100.

A second Quadra head was fitted with a softbox to give one f-stop lower light than the main light. F/5.6 was acheived when I measured the fill light with the light meter. The softbox was placed low at an angle towards the model's face to brighten up the shadows under the chin.

When I measured the light I used the Elinchrom Skyport radio transmitter to test trigger the lightning. The Quadra battery pack has a built in radio receiver. It means that I can easily adjust the output of the flash via the transmitter this is an ideal setup when working alone. I adjusted the lights from the position of the model. I used a barstool that I found in the company kitchen as a posing stool.

Test Shot

XRite Color Checker Passport

I fine tuned the light with one of the staff sitting in. I started the shooting by taking a reference photo of Color Checker Passport, which allows me to calibrate colors and white balance later in the digital workflow.

Putting all the equipment in place and put the light right took about 45 minutes. I photographed each of the four people for about 10 minutes. After two and a half hours, all equipment was packed, and I and my makeup artist was done with our photo assignment. Couple of hours after the assignment I came back to my client with test images that were uploaded on my website. A few days later they returned after having selected four photos per person. A few days later I was able to deliver edited and high-resolution digital image files to them, the client was happy and I was paid for my work.

© Robert Hammar

Robert Hammar is originally from Sweden, but now lives with his lovely family in a Finnish city called Vantaa near Helsinki and the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Robert specialize in lifestyle photography on location. Real portraits, real people in the real life, photoreportage of weddings, events, fashion and glamour pictures.

To view more of Roberts work visit his website at www.roberthammar.com