Blue rim light

I had an idea to use hard, bright rim lights for a portrait. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, so there was very little adjustments for this shoot.

Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv
Both set to 1/2 power
3/4 Windows Blue gels
Full zoom setting
Light stands at 2 meter height
2 meters apart from one another
Aimed toward the photographer at a point one meter in front of them.

I put on my 50mm 1.8 lens, set it to 1/200 shutter speed, and f/5.6 at iso 100. I had Agust stand at the spot the flashes were aimed at (his head) and stood 2 meters in front of him. I focused on his eyes with the center AF point, and shot a few tests. I did not like how in focus the background was, so I lowered both flashes to 1/4 power, and moved my aperture down to f/2.5

Setup shot:



From behind:



The white balance was set to flash, so that the blue of the gels would come through. I held a 60" white reflector in one hand, angled up to his face, so that the flashes would bounce off and "fill" his face with a bit of light.



Here is a before/after of the post settings in lightroom.



One thing I like about this, is that it shows how sharp and nice images can come from even the cheapest lenses, when the light quality is good, and your focus is dead on.