After several days in the studio and countless utterances of "Wait, I'm Avedon-ing you.", my studio lighting series is finally complete! Before starting the assignment, it's safe to say I thought I had it all figured out. I went in fearless, ready to shoot my pictures within the first go. I came to the realization that there is much more to proper lighting than I thought, and it took some time to get comfortable in the studio.

I worked based on a 1:2 ratio - the ideal portrait lighting. Through the re-positioning of my lights, I found interesting ways to play with shadows and highlights. In turn, emotion and depth were added to my photos, making them more interesting to the viewer. 

Rather than formally posing my subject for each frame, I allowed them to simply be. This gave them room to have fun, and equally gave me the opportunity to capture honest moments rather than practiced expressions. In the end, I learned a heck of a lot about what makes a good photograph a great one, and I can now go forward with a range of new knowledge.

P.S. Thanks Mimi - you made my job incredibly easy, gurl.

All photos shot with a Nikon D3100 f5 1/25