I call this “Preparing for my Close-up, Mr. DeMille.” This is an “alter-ego” portrait of ONE woman who is a model, makeup artist, and hairdresser. This is a three-image composite stitched together in Photoshop and captured in a 20x30 living room studio.
It was important to have the three “characters” exude unique personalities to complement their unique wardrobe stylings. This created a whimsical nature to the portrait and more dimension to the storyline.
To create a more engaging composite, I chose to have the characters interact/overlap, which adds a layer of difficulty to this style of portrait. Pre-planning is key, using tape and string to approximate the relative position/height of characters as well as guide hand placement and eye direction. Also, once you start, the camera can never move so having a trigger cable is helpful.
This was captured on a Nikon D700 and Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens at 86mm. To maximize focus, I chose aperture F11; to minimize noise: ISO200.
There are three fairly inexpensive flashes:
(1) Alien Bee B400 placed camera right 4x6 soft-box feathered to softly illuminate center and left characters.
(1) Alien Bee B800 placed camera left with a socked 22” beauty dish. It is aimed at the right character’s face, with a half-stop brighter exposure to match the perceived brightness of the left character’s tee shirt (and compensate for darker skin tone). Those highlights help draw the viewer’s eye from left to right across the frame.
(1) Nikon SB800 speed light with grid, placed right-rear of subjects used for hair/rim lighting.
Apart from using Photoshop to stitch the composite, I “burned” the white fabric on the left character’s tee-shirt and cap to reduce its brightness and prevent it from drawing attention away from the faces. Additionally, I added a touch of film grain to help homogenize tonality.