Hard light portraits
I’ve been thinking about some Yousuf Karsh pictures lately. He has amazing portraits done with hard light. I know that we’re “supposed” to use soft light, but I think that some hard light portraits might be a nice change.
In order to kind of dip my feet in the hard light water, we quickly got some pictures of Norah. This was taken outside on a partly cloudy day. The sun was moving in and out of the clouds, and judging by the shadows in the picture, it was probably overcast when the picture was taken. I used a small speed light on a light stand, camera right, as my main light. If I remember correctly it was set for 1/4 power. I shot at f/5.6 @ 1/100 sec.
Aesthetically, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. You can see the hard line of the shadows under Norah’s arms and on her legs. I’d say the she could be sharper, but she was very antsy, so I was lucky to get what I got.
Turning around, we decided to put Norah on our wooden bench. The light is now camera left, and behind Norah. You can just see a bit of rim light on her right side. It’s a bit of a deviation from what I had originally set out to do, but not too bad. I wish that I had thought to bring another light with me in order to get a catch light.
Overall not too bad. I’ll have to try some more standard portrait work with the hard lights and see what I can do with that.
Grasping Photography 
I THINK THAT IS CALLED A SWING, NICK, NOT A BENCH
Just so you know, I’m not dead. Sorry I haven’t commented in some time. Shooting much film lately? I actually shot a bunch recently in Montana. Have tons of good stuff to post.
I’ve gotten back onto the film wagon. I just developed two rolls tonight, in fact. I’ll have to start posting a bit more. Can’t wait to see your new stuff.