This is not a test. Don’t worry, I know you didn’t study for it.

When you have a craft that you are wanting to be skilled at, in order to get better (maybe even become the best), you have to be willing to experiment. Test new things.

With that in mind I embraced this the other day.

It had been a while since I had done any self portraits (this the world is thankful for). And I had a specific look that I was wanting to try to achieve with my new light and soft-box that I had acquired recently.

I had just finished up with a product session at one of the spaces I rent for this kind of work, so since everything was out and set up I figured I better take advantage of it.

Moved a few tables, shifted the lights to the other wall with the black backdrop and added my chair to the mix.
Hooked up my Cam-ranger to the camera so I could compose, focus and trigger the camera.
That sure beats the old days when I used to have to prop a broom up and focus on the handle, then measure everything out to make sure it would be composed correctly, only to find that I missed something when viewing the images.

Well, an hour later with many test shots and changes later I called it good.
I had a better understanding of the new light and what I could achieve with the light modifier, and to top it off I was even more convinced that I had a face for radio

Of course taking the images was only part of this test project. I had some processing I wanted to try with this lighting setup for my growing set of presets I use in lightroom.

A few clicks and a few adjustments later I now know what works for me on these and what I have to work on still. Which is the whole purpose of testing. To do things badly so that you can figure out how to do things better.

Hopefully these don’t scare you away, I promise that the next post will have prettier pictures.

As I am getting back into the grove on sending out emails I would appreciate it if you would forward these to anyone that you think would enjoy them.