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frame. The key to the picture is his hands holding the cross. I took a hot shoe flash, a Nikon SB-800 speedlight, and popped it into a small gold reflector, hand-held by my assistant. It was just a tiny bit of warm light, but it made the cross glow.

    By the way, the halo-like fixture in the ceiling just over his head is not an accident.
    Zoom with Your Feet
     

    “You gotta be loose, like a boxer - you have to bob and weave and slip and slide. The world doesn’t stay still. We can’t either.”

    Technology is a wonderful thing and I love today’s zoom lenses. Can’t live without ‘em. But…the dark side of all this techie stuff is that we get lazy. Lots of photographers show up, stuff their tripod into the ground like they just struck oil, and work the zoom ring like it’s a knob on a freakin’ transistor radio. They have all the energy and mobility of a house plant.
     
    You gotta be loose, like a boxer—you have to bob and weave and slip and slide. The world doesn’t stay still. We can’t either.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    When you’re using a zoom technique like the one shown here, zoom from telephoto to wide. You pick up depth and sharpness, and when you’re moving the lens elements during the exposure, you can use every bit of those two things you can find.

     
    Get Your Hands on Your Subjects
     

    Get your hands on your subjects. Alfred Eisenstaedt, famed Life shooter, had a brilliant, simple strategy. He would stop the shoot, ask permission, and approach the subject. Then he would fuss over them—straighten a lapel that didn’t need straightening, pick off imaginary lint, brush away a wayward hair or two the camera wasn’t gonna see anyway.

    He wasn’t doing anything practical. The subject would look the same after his primping session. But…he accomplished something very significant: he got his hands on them.

    He broke down their defenses. He got up close and personal. They allowed him to touch them, the beginnings of trust. And he got a very positive interior dialogue going in their head. “Oh, I see. He wants me to look good! He’s on my side! Okay, he’s not the enemy.”

    Try it. Then watch your subjects start liking the camera a whole lot more. Maybe not as much as Sophia Loren, one of Eisie’s favorite subjects, who has loved the camera her whole life (and the camera has returned the affection), but still, a whole lot more. And once your subject starts liking the camera, the camera likes them right back. Result? A good portrait session, as opposed to the photo equivalent of a root canal.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    When lighting, especially women of a certain age, and especially an iconic, classic beauty like Sophia Loren, think soft. Think of your light as a soft blanket that needs to wrap the face gently, open up the eyes, and eliminate shadows and lines. This was an over and under combination that effectively became just one continuous light source because of the lack of ceiling height (we were shooting in a hotel conference room).

    There is a softbox above her face, camera left, and a smaller softbox below her face, but they are squished together so closely they really just become like a big, soft umbrella that embraces her face, allows her to move and express, and gives volume and depth to her hair. Occasionally, when I have the two sources so close to one another, I take a 12′ silk (or a bed sheet) and just

    “He broke down their defenses. He got up close and personal. They allowed him to touch them, the beginnings of trust.”

    drop the cloth over the entire lighting rig. Looks like you got a big version of Casper the Friendly Ghost on the set with you, but the whole thing just glows and radiates light at that point. You can still minimally control the direction and impact of the light, because you have two sources underneath the cover, and presumably, they are running out of two separate power packs.
     
    Which brings me to an important point. Though it may