Olivia's Models Again

 Olivia was asked to model again for Ann Flat, a children's clothing company in Korea.  She has been doing this for over two years now and this was her eight photoshoot for them.  Now that we are back in the states, they send us the clothes and I do the photography.  

The only problem I have with doing it, is that we don't have a suitable place to do studio work.  And this time, they needed a really fast turn around.  So, we ended up doing it in the apartment.  I hate the fact that we only used one of our dark cream walls and our dark beige carpet as a back drop.  But they needed a fast turn around which didn't allow us to scout locations and put together better options.  The pictures turned out fine, but the lighting is inconsistent (partially because of a strobe problem) and the back ground is, in my opinion, bland.

The strobe problem I mentioned is that one of my studio strobes was not firing properly.  I have two Elinchrom D-Lite 4's, which up to this point have operated great.  But this time, one of them was not firing or firing weak and delayed.  I am not sure if its something simple, like a bulb or a fuse at the end of its life, or if its going to be a more serious and expensive internal problem.  In the end I ended up using one strobe as my key light and reflector to bounce on the opposite side.  I used my misfiring strobe as a bounce flash on the ceiling (which worked only about half the time).  

Another challenge I get with lighting is that it is difficult for Olivia to stand in one place.  Most of the shots I did were set on manual with ISO 200, f4 at 1/160".    However, the lighting appears inconsistent because she is constantly moving around, depending on how close she stands to the reflector or to the key light.