I bought some new lighting and a backdrop over the holidays and I set up a shoot with Trista to test them out.

I bought a Bowens Gemini 400 studio kit and a soft-box.  It took me a bit to figure out how to put the softbox together, but once I got it I found the lights very easy to setup and use.  The 400W bulbs throw a TON of light and they are a bit much for the size of room I was shooting in.  But after dialing them back to 30% power the lighting was much more even and manageable.

 

For the first two images, I had the soft-box light to the left about 5ft. away and a white reflective umbrella to the right about 4ft. away.  I put the right light almost parallel to the backdrop.  The left light was about 45 degrees from the backdrop.  I was shooting at f/11, ISO 200, 1/250s at 50mm.  The photos were converted to B/W in lightroom.  I dont have a white backdrop yet, so I was using a white sheet.  I was not overly impressed with the sheet and as pushed me to look into a proper back drop.  I have a proper black backdrop that I love.  

 

The next two images I moved the right light to about 45 degrees and was shooting with the same camera settings.  Taken in colour and converted to B/W in Lightroom.