49/52 Josh Davis

This weeks portrait was for a commercial shoot, and the resulting photo ran in Time Out Chicago.

Josh Davis is the head bartender at the SL Sports Lounge in Chicago's Near South Side neighborhood. Josh was born and bred on the south Side of Chicago, and has lived here his whole life. Josh also runs DrinkxXx On Me Bartending Service, a cocktail consultancy specializing in private events. He has three beautiful children and is a huge sports fan.

The photo shoot was for an ad for Don Q rum, featuring a profile of Josh as well as a cocktail recipe he created with their product. The location for the shoot was at Josh's bar, SL Sports Lounge located inside the South Loop Hotel. I get to the bar before the shoot and start setting up. I've photographed many bartenders before at many different bars, but the layout at SL was a bit of a challenge. The bar is more or less a peninsula, with the bartender being surrounded by guests on either side.

Instead of having josh behind the bar, I decided to shoot him on the outside of the bar. I stood opposite to him on the other side of the bar and basically shot over it. Confusing, right? The area at the bottom of the frame is the area in which the bartender stands during service. Behind him is a large black velvet curtain and high-boy chairs and tables. I thought it made for a nice backdrop, and helped put the focus on Josh.

The lighting was pretty straight forward. I keyed at a pretty aggressive angle from camera left, compensating with fill from an on camera SB-800 in  a ring flash adapter. I used an SB-600 from back camera right for an edge, which I left cooler than the key. I also added a background light from back camera right just to bring up the exposure behind Josh as well. I did most of my shoot on a 50 prime, which is tack sharp and gave me good working distance.

Strobist Info:
SB-800 camera left through silver-over-white umbrella with 1/2 CTO gel
SB-800 on camera in rayflash ring adapter with 1/2 CTO gel
SB-600 back camera right through barn doors with 1/2 CTO gel
SB-600 back camera right through barn doors

Camera Settings:
1/100 f/4.5 at ISO 400
Nikon 50 f/1.8