Portraits are not something I do often enough even though I really enjoy them, especially with people as intense and expressive as my daughter. EOS Rebel XSi, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f/2, 1/250, ISO 200
We look at the people we love and they look different to us from the others around us. I think that fathers and their daughters share a special bond that can be so wonderful and complete. Last winter I did portraits of everyone in my family and this one of my daughter has to be my favourite. It speaks with an intensity that shimmers off the page, it reveals and conceals, it is full of movement and yet completely frozen. It hints at a tumble of emotions and perfect calm at the centre. I set up a black fabric drape in our basement and had one flash operating through a shoot through umbrella to the right of the camera at about a 45 degree angle to my daughter and one flash further back shooting through a small (6” x 4”) portable Aurora light box that Velcro's on to the flash head. If I remember right the main light shooting through the umbrella was at about 50% power and the other light was at about 25%. I used a high shutter speed to kill the ambient light which was some incandescent bulbs. My other daughter was holding a leaf blower to get the hair movement and it worked beautifully. Afterwards I processed it in NIK Silver Efex Pro which gave me the absolutely beautiful silver in her hair.
-Russell Berg