126 Setting up a Home Studio
Just a single large-front softbox works well too, with the back-
ground lit by the second fl ash, as shown in Figure 7.9. In these cases,
where the aim is a high-key isolated look, it is important to ensure
you have plenty of illumination on the white background; otherwise,
you’ll need to do some remedial work in Photoshop to lighten it, which
means more time and effort on your part.
Substitute the white background for a colored one for different and
more traditional portrait effects, still using the same twin front-light
setup illustrated above, and greatly reduce the output from the back-
ground light—if you even need it at all. Remember that if you do use
a light to illuminate a colored background, it should be fi tted with a
gel fi lter the same color as the background. Otherwise, all you will get
is washed-out color. Horrible!Business Shots
I mentioned earlier how well business shots sell on the microstocks.
Isolated shots work well for business, like Figure 7.10 by Lise Gagne,
a top iStockphoto contributor. But don’t think all your business shots
have to be isolations. Get out of the studio and into the workplace for
big sellers, like some of the shots we saw earlier in Chapter 3 (Figures
3.26 and 3.27).More about Isolated Images
High-key images shot on a pure white background are referred to as
“isolated” or “isolated on white,” and they are a mainstay of many
microstock portfolios. It is a technique well worth practicing. But what
if it goes wrong and your whites turn out (Horror!) to be gray?FIGURE 7.7 A simple portrait setup. ©
Douglas Freer