Downtown Atlanta Night Portraits

This was a fun shoot I did for my friend Brian in Downtown Atlanta. He works in the film industry and needed some good shots. It took a week of planning but I got the lighting down to specifics.

We started off one of my favorite bridges in Atlanta. I purposely wanted to start the shoot at dusk since the sun would be setting behind the buildings. It created a great background to start things off.


While I was testing my lighting, he was on the phone trying to give directions to someone who was coming to the shoot. I decided to keep it in my final selects

1/125 f/3.2 ISO 500

SB700 shot through 22" beauty dish, camera left
SB600 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera right

Triggered with the Phottix Odin

24-70mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

1/160 f/3.2 ISO 500

SB700 shot through 22" beauty dish, camera left
SB600 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera right

Triggered with the Phottix Odin

24-70mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

 1/125 f/3.2 ISO 500

SB700 shot through 22" beauty dish, camera left
SB600 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera right

Triggered with the Phottix Odin

24-70mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

Our next spot was Woodruff Park in the heart of Downtown. They had really nice fountains which I was going to light up in my background with speedlights, but luckily they already had lights exactly where I need them, so I only used one key light. 

1/60 f/2.8 ISO 1000

SB700 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera left

Triggered with the Phottix Odin

70-200mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

1/60 f/2.8 ISO 1000

SB700 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera left

Triggered with the Phottix Odin

24-70mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

He also needed a few headshots so I set up a 3-light setup right next to the fountains. 

1/30 f/4.5 ISO 1600

SB700 shot through 22" beauty dish w/CTO gel, above camera

SB600 shot through gridded softbox's, behind subject, camera left & right (no gels)
Triggered with the Phottix Odin

70-200mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

1/40 f/4.5 ISO 1600

SB700 shot through 22" beauty dish, above camera

SB600 shot through gridded softbox's, behind subject, camera left & right
Triggered with the Phottix Odin

70-200mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

Our last spot was at the Krog Street Tunnel in Cabbagetown. This is one of my favorite spots in Atlanta. It's just endless graffiti.

1/60 f/3.2 ISO 1600

SB700 shot through gridded 22" beauty dish, camera right

SB600 shot bare, approx 30 feet behind subjectTriggered with the Phottix Odin

70-200mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

For the final shot of the day, I wanted to mix a long exposure with my standing portrait exposure. It took me awhile to determine how I will light this and what to set my exposure at for both pics, but it paid off. 

FIRST SHOT (SUBJECT)

1/60 f/3.2 ISO 1600

SB600 shot through gridded 24x24 gridded softbox, camera right

SB600 shot through gridded 24x24 softbox, camera leftTriggered with the Phottix Odin

70-200mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s

BACKGROUND (long exposure)

13 f/8 ISO 200

In post-processing, I took the left side of the tunnel, reflected it to the right side, and did a little photoshop magic to make it look all pretty, then drop in Brian and the pillar behind him.

Once it was all over with, Brian invited me to check out a studio. I've never been to one, but imagined the lighting would be photo-worthy, so I brought it in and took this for him:

1/60 f/4 ISO 3200

24-70mm f/2.8

Nikon D3s