Thursday, February 10, 2011

20/52 Chad Leverenz



For this instalment of 52 portraits, Wendy and I paid a visit to the home of our friend and coworker Chad.



Chad Leverenz is a photographer with whom both Wendy and I have worked at Warling Studios. He studied Philosophy at  State University of New York at Geneseo, and at one point was considering becoming a Priest. He has an amazing sense of humor and is great at interacting with kids (which comes in handy shooting school portraits). Wendy and I both think Chad is super cool, and it's a shame she and I haven't had many opportunities to hang out with him outside of work. I'm sure we'll hatch a plan in the near future to change that. As evidenced by the photos, Chad is also an avid reader.




For this shoot I brought out the big lights. The giant octa provided my main, which is almost always flattering. I wanted to use a second source to dimensionalize the stacks of books, but I once again find myself with the problem of shooting into a corner. Because of this it was impossible for me to use a light for separation, and trying to light the books would mean trying to minimize any awkward shadows on the walls. After a bit of finicking around I got the lights set, placing another Einstein to camera left, aimed towards the books and feathered towards Chad.










I was having difficulty conveying the background (there were a TON of books), so I used this as the perfect excuse to break out my brand new Tokina 11-16 f/2.8.  This also meant massive perspective distortion. I had to keep Chad more towards the center of the frame to keep him from being stretched out.


















Strobist Info:
PCB Einstein high camera right through 47" Octabox
PCB Einstein camera left with 7" reflector

Camera Settings:
1/250 f/5.6 at ISO 100
Tokina 11-16 f/2.8

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