My friend Frederick Van Johnson asked me to make some new portraits of him for his 2017 marketing. On the day we shot, a storm was rolling through, so we took the opportunity to make some dramatic portraits with the clouds as the background.
I used one AlienBee 1600ws with a Vagabond battery. I had a 20 degree grid on some of the shots and strip box on others.
I've always enjoyed shooting pictures of the sky when it has lots of cloud textures and shapes. It's always been a goal of mine to make portraits with clouds as the background. It took me a while to work through to the style that I have now. In looking back, I may have over thought how to accomplish my goal.
For this image I used my Nikon D810 at ISO 31, F14 at 1/60sec
My approach is kind of simple, I make an image of the sky to determine the correct exposure. Once I'm comfortable with that exposure, then I add in my subject and strobe. I start with the strobe at 100% power and depending on the modifier, move the light to the subject until I get the balance of sky and subject that I want. Once all those elements are set I'm free to move around and find the angles that I like. It's a fun process and I always look forward to when the weather conditions are correct to allow me to do this.
