That looks like fun. I know you said you nabbed him at the door, but, next time you shoot it, you should use a reflector, and put your lights closer to the subject (you may have to turn them down). The umbrellas deliver relatively hard light, and the farther away they are the smaller the light source, thats why you have the hotspots - think of it like the sun, it's hunge, but it's so far away that it becomes a small light source, and hard, by the itme the light reaches the earth. Try a light box if you have one.

I ps'd it a bit and cropped it to focus on the subjects. You gennerally also want to try to make an "s" curve or at least keep the dogs head and the persons head from being lined up. That's why I cropped it a slight angle, otherwise it would have look too linear.


You should study light and posing, and your lighting will improve 100x. Read the book, "light, science and mangic" by Hunter and Fuquua - it's the best light book there is. It's spendy if you can find one, but you will learn a lot if you read it!!!!

I think a reflector would help fill the dark shadows under the eyes. puting the light source closer, will also help to wrap the light which will help make the subject much softer looking. Men usually dont need too much, because men usually photograph better under hard light, but give it a try.

Also, a bit about posing. It's almost always better to put your subject at a slight angle. I'd turn him a bit more left shoulder foward and make him sit up! Lose the watch too, it's a bit distracting. . .




Here's an example of softer light (shot like it's hard) on a man, it works here, but not always. By the way this was shot with two SB 800's one main, one fill (on camera dropped to -3 - I also used a reflector to lighten the shadows. Keep in mind that he has very dark skin, so you have to be very careful about hot spots, and blowing out the detail in the shirt, therefore he's little dark, but that's the compromise.