Recently I was given the opportunity to test out some new photography equipment by Fovitec. So of course I'm not going to pass up a great offer. I was sent out the StudioPRO One Portrait Kit. It included a 100W/s Monolight, a heavy duty light stand, soft box, and a 5-in-1 reflector. I've been using strobes for awhile now and I was eager to check out what this one was capable of. Assembly of the soft box was harder than I thought, but I eventually got it together. The air cushioned light stand was sturdy and was able to hold the light and soft box securely.
If you're not familiar with studio strobes let me tell you the possibilities are endless even with only one light. I love the various looks I'm able to accomplish with a single light. Honestly, most of my work is done with only one light and some type of modifier to soften the light. Being that I use studio strobes and/or external flashes in and out of the studio. I like a semi light weight setup for when I'm on the go similar to this Fovitec kit. I defintely suggest any photographers that haven't used a studio strobe to at least try it once.
Shooting outdoors with strobes can seem pretty intimidating at first I know it was for me. So I'm going to give you a few tips on shooting outdoors with studio strobes. And like anything all it takes is practice to get the hang of it. On a recent session I wanted to capture the nice golden sunset in the background of the photos. One problem you encounter when shooting sunsets, or shooting against the sun is that when I expose for the background, my subject will be underexposed. Now when I expose for my subject, the background will be overexposed. There's multiple ways to get the subject exposed properly. One of my go to solutions is to pull out the strobe(s). The way I do it. I first take a few test shots to make sure I have my background exposed to my liking, bring in my model, turn on my light and snap a few test shots to check if I need to raise or lower the power on my light, and then start posing and shooting. Below I will show a few examples of this.
Example:
My background is exposed to my preference with the strobe turned off.
Pretty dull right? Now here's a few once I turned on the strobe.
