©Rob Nitsch – click to enlarge!
Another self-portrait. I actually have a lot more of these then I thought. It is not because I am narcissistic, I swear!(even though I lived in LA for way too long) Like most other portrait photographers, I tend to spend a significant amount of time on lighting before my sessions. I not only want to know exactly what settings will work for my gear but, I want to know what the range is that I can get away with under the current conditions. I want to know when over/under exposure finally breaks down the image. When doing all this tweaking, I need to take test shots. My wife/photography partner usually comes in towards the end when I am really fine tuning the set up. Before that, I am my test subject. Here is one of my lighting test shots.