Today I shot a semi serious studio and candid portrait day for the Migrant Resource Centre. It was volunteer work, something that I am finding a bit of a revelation.

It really felt good and good to be useful.

I ran late all day, wearing a watch set to the wrong time by an hour* (I think I may have set it back from daylight savings, twice), but my habit of turning up early meant I was unknowingly just on time.

The volunteer above gets the gong out of respect for the privacy of others, but you get the idea.

I used butterfly lighting to combat the limits of the small room, but should have used a larger continuous back drop as the 2.4 x 2.1m Manfrotto was not right for small children placed on the floor, or large groups.

Next time I will likely do a continuous cloth, then hang the collapsible in front, removing it if needed to reveal the continuous or simply have a bigger room and do several options.

The butterfly light I used allowed me to push the light and reflector up and down to suit heights from 3-6ft and the reflector the same (about 30 degrees above eye line is ok). If I had more room, a larger mod** would make subject size irrelevant. I might also look at continuous lights for one or more setups.

I used the grey side of the big Manfrotto collapsible. I started with the slightly smaller Pewter, loving the very slightly mottled look, but it was simply too small (as was even the bigger one and the room itself as it goes).

*I only realised at 2:30 when I went out for milk and hit the 3:30 school grid lock.

**7’ Brolly, maybe a 4’ soft box or a soft box into a screen for a more “book light” look.