MICHAEL’S COMMENT
For this shot, we kept the same black velvet backdrop and mid-sized octobox softbox on our model’s right, but then Phil placed a strip softbox behind her to add what he called some ‘hair light’, which, he explained, helps to subtly separate the subject from the background. Shooting slightly further back for a horizontal composition, I opened my aperture to f/4 to capture more depth of field.
PRO TIP HAIR LIGHTING
“Adding a second light, known as a hair, rim, or back light, to highlight the back or side of a subject’s hair or head helps to give your portraits that pro look,” says Phil. “We first tried using a flash head with a grid but found the results were too bright, so I switched to the strip…