day 19 - one light does the work of three

today was a bit of a technical challenge.... i wanted to use one flash to provide three light sources. so i set up my flash (sb-28, of course) on a light stand behind me. i angled it down so that it provides hard rim light across my shoulders and head. then i set up, in front of me and camera right, a white reflective posterboard, angled to catch light from the flash spilling past me and reflcting it back up onto my face. thirdly i set up alisia's beauty mirror on the floor camera left, and angled it so that it would reflect hard light back up in an uplighting fashion.

it was difficult without a modeling light or assistance to have the mirrored light hit where i wanted it to everytime.... i'm not sure what it's doing in the picture up there, probably illuminating my leg or something important like that.

as you can see, one light has enough to make a well lit picture. it's a bit more difficult to work the ratios this way.... you can't just dial your reflective flash's power down like you normally would. here you have to rely more on the inverse square law, and if you want say the reflective source lower, move it further away from the subject. for higher, the opposite. the problem with that is as the reflective source gets further away, it also gets relatively smaller, and as a result, harder.

here's the setup shot, other information is in the metadata:

From tim's 365 (this is my year)