Ebay had a great deal on a backdrop and lighting (For only $150.00).  I need it for an upcoming project anyway, and took this chance to try and re-create some images that have inspired me in the past.

Like I said,  I’m learning mostly by trial and error (but will be taking a short class in January).  For these images, I placed both umbrella lights to the left of the subject.  I had him stand about 2 feet away from the black backdrop and had my camera on a tripod.

I tried this several times on program mode, but all of the black tricks out the camera.  The shutter speed was very slow, so he had to stand extremely still.

Someone on Flickr suggested that next time, I put the camera in manual mode and focus everything on my own…that way I won’t have to worry about coming up with a blurry image.

Before and afters below….

All of the photo editing was done in Adobe Lightroom.  As you can see the backdrop was VERY visible before I played with it. Next up…the white backdrop…we’ll see what happens

I’d like to entitle this one “Contemplation”