Stars don’t beg the world for attention; their beauty forces us to look up.  And even in dark nights we know that their glow is with us, waiting behind passing clouds to light our souls.  – Adapted from― Matshona Dhliwayo.

Lightning is a plan white backdrop with a beauty dish about 3 feet in front and about 35 degrees above him to carve out highlights.  48 inch parabolic umbrella about 8 feet in front slightly camera right (just enough to give me room to shoot) provides fill.   I tried to have both lights coming from as close to the same direction as possible.  I really wanted to have the lighting provide the glow that matches the effervescence of his character.  He was really cooperative that day and he took a few shots of me first to break the ice.

I thught that I might have needed background light but it turned out nice and even without anything more.  I could have shot this with the single large parabolic, but I really wanted very specific highlights on him.  In shots 2, 4 and 5 I lowered the power on the beauty dish to change the ratio of fill to main light because I thought that highlights were a little broad.  I could have also just moved the beauty dish back to reduce the intensitym but that would have also reduced the spread of the highlights.

While i’m happy with the lighting the credit for the charm of these photos is all go to him.