I sent the call out a few nights ago, I had a new set of Elinchrom D-Lite 4 IT studio lights and wanted to give them a bit of test run.
Thankfully my neighbour, and many times featured model, Anja, was home and in a very generous mood, she quickly accepted my invitation and was promptly dressed and on my door step with her guitar.
I had played around with studio lights at the Rockhampton Photography club a few times and normally would set up 2 lights in soft boxes, turn them right down to attempt the widest aperture I could possibly shoot at, some wise words from one I consider to be a guru, even though I think, he still gets a bit embarrassed by the reference, Shelton Muller had me reconsidering my “normal” approach.
I instead decided that I would only set up 1 light and get the best result I could from that, I also came to the realisation, that when there really isn’t a background to be concerned about, there really is no need to shoot at f2.8, so I settled on f11, a little by accident, and adjusted my light to suit. 
What did I learn from the experience, well I am glad you asked.
I learnt that when using a soft box, you do not necessarily have to have the middle of the soft box pointing directly at your model, I turned my soft box pretty much away so as to limit the amount of spill onto my backdrop.
I also learned that when you think you have your grey backdrop far enough back from your light and model to achieve a black background, think again. Unfortunately I created an amount of post processing that I hadn’t really counted on having to do.
I also learnt that I need to buy just a small amount of extra gear, I really do need to get myself a good reflector holder so that I can bounce in just that little extra bit of fill as required, propping the reflector up with a 20ltr water barrel really doesn’t quite get it in the required place.
I also took the opportunity to grab a few shots with my Mamiya RZ67 that was loaded with a roll of Ilford HP5+, this is a 400 asa film that seems to provide a very fine grain for the speed.
After accepting the challenge, I was informed that 3 of the seven children had minor behavioural difficulties and began wondering what I had let myself in for.
think I was number 1 on mums christmas list however, the kids had been told in no uncertain terms that they were not going swimming, then I turn up and ask the kids if they wanted to go splash on the water a bit, a compromise was reached and all was well in the end.
I recently had the opportunity photograph a Youth Dance Party held by 
The CSR – HIA Housing Kitchen and Bathroom Awards are the pinnacle of recognition for builders and cabinet makers in Australia.
