dav.d photography

Actors and models need headshots. And the photography better look amazing to catch people’s eye. Good think I can rock a photo shoot. Rusty needed headshots for his acting career. He played the lead in several high school productions and he is planning on moving his new little family to Chicago soon and he would like to find some acting gigs in Chicago.

I was originally going to bring my large softbox with me for this photo shoot, however, I decided to use my Nikon Speedlights (SB-800) and an umbrella to light Rusty. Why? Because I wanted to photography at f/1.4 and get really blurry backgrounds.

I can get really technical – but it all boils down to shutter speed. In full daylight softboxes limit your flash sync to 1/250 of a second. With the Nikon SB-800 I can sync at 1/8000th of a second. I still need a lot of power coming out of those flashes – but that is why god invented more rechargeable batteries.

This is why I really like my Nikkor f/1.4 50mm lens. I used that lens for this entire photo shoot. It allowed me to go wide and go tight. It is my new favorite lens. Well, maybe I will have to try out the new Nikkor f/1.8 35mm AF-S lens.

Another reason to use a speedlight on a lightstand? It is light weight – and as long as it isn’t windy then things are good. If it is windy – then umbrellas and softboxes don’t work so well.

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