Balancing Strobes with a Setting Sun: A Lighting Tutorial!

By Jay P. Morgan
“They say you shouldn’t judge a book by a cover, but everyone of us who buys a book spends a few seconds looking at the title and the cover. Not only that, publishers know that readers also flip the book over and look at the picture of the author. That’s why more and more authors and publishers are viewing the author photo as a marketing opportunity. The author photo is just another opportunity to tell a story. An author who takes a simple portrait is telling a story, but it’s probably something like, “There is a reason this guy isn’t a model.”
Today’s photo shoot is for Robert L. Harding. Robert has written a Thriller called, Death of the Wayang, set in Indonesia, and we wanted to show something strong and action-oriented in the photo. Robert likes airplane and is a student pilot. We had an opportunity to shoot at historic Santa Paula airport surrounded by beautiful scenery, a number of vintage aircraft, including this Steerman Biplane, and framed by a gorgeous California sunset. This lesson shows how we balanced our strobes with a setting sun to get an interesting author portrait.
Keep those cameras rolling, and keep on click’n.

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About Jay P. Morgan

With more than two decades of experience Jay P. Morgan brings to his commercial studio two special qualities: a keen appreciation of the bizarre and a knack for flawlessly executing elaborate shots. Through The Slanted Lens, Jay P. shares his knowledge about photography and videography.