First Studio Subject | Test

Sorry Cooper!  Actually who knows maybe he liked being my first model?  Cooper sat there calmly for me for about 15 min before getting a bit restless.  It was in my benefit that he was scared to jump off the chair and run away.  Or perhaps waking him up from his nap and putting him straight on the chair helped?  Either way, he was a good dog ;)

I set up my 580EX strobe with wireless transmitters from Alien Bee on Camera right with a shoot through umbrella at 1/16 ish power and placed it nice and close to the chair about 45 degrees.  I used my second flash (naked) behind cooper camera left zoomed to 80mm and pointed aggressively down towards him a few feet away to provide a spotlight / rim light affect to help separate him from the background.  With another light I  could have played around with more of a fill light or even creatively lit up the backdrop behind him but just went ahead with the two lights to keep things simple today.

Camera settings : 1/250th ISO 100 F2.8 shot on Canon 40D with L series 24-70 2.8 lens

After about 40 shots of slow focusing in the dim ambient light here are my favorites!  The shot above is probably my favorite.  I love the simplicity of his face with the monochrome color.  You can appreciate the light and how it brings out the texture of his fur.  The simple contrast from light to dark that follows the lines along his nose and ear create some interesting shape.  Very artzy interpretation isn't it?