#503 -- Blue Umbrella

Normally during the week between Christmas and New Years I try and do a few test shoots with new gear and some different techniques. The photo above of my second cousin Alyssa was taken last weekend. Tried out a couple of new things. First, the background is a Westcott 7 foot parabolic umbrella -- decided since it was so large it might make a decent and interesting background, so I set up three flashes firing into it, all with Roscoe Blue Bell gels. Main light was an SB800 in a Westcott 26" Rapid Box boomed overhead on a C-stand. Just below the camera frame Alyssa is holding a DIY beauty reflector that I made from three silver cake platters from Party City. Ended up not getting the intense blue that I wanted for the background, so eventually shifted the white balance to 4000 K manually (making the entire scene more blue) and putting a 1/2 cut CTO gel on the main light (which brought back the main light to more of a neutral skin tone on Alyssa). If you're interested here's the lighting diagram.