I had the pleasure of providing headshots for the Law Students at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

They wanted the headshots done outside, with a natural background - something that looked professional but not as static as a plan white background. We found a spot under a sky-walk that provided protection from the rain for me to set up my gear.

I shot with a single strobe and an umbrella. I could have used just natural light but I was photographing about 80 students in two days and I knew the light would be changing as clouds came in and out, as the time of day changed. The strobe made it easy to have consistently professional images with this time crunch.

I also shot using a tripod, which I almost never do. Again, this really helped me keep the framing and image quality consistent. Occasionally, due to body types and height I would take the camera off the tripod to get a better image. With having such a consistent setup, it’s important to remember that the same thing doesn’t work for everyone. Each time someone sat down, I still tested the lighting and setup like it was the first person of the day.