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get pricey, the best lighting outfit you can sort out for your shooting needs should consist of one power pack per head. So, if you go out with three heads, you should have three power packs. That way, you have independent power and ratio control over each of your sources, and you are not compromised or hamstrung by running two heads out of one pack. It also gives you redundancy if a pack or a head goes down. I’ve been asked over time to light some really big stuff, so I have 14 power packs and 17 heads.

    But, of course, I am in desperate need of professional counseling.

     

    Sophia Loren
    Light, Color, Gesture
     

    “There’s nothing as sweet and simple as basic human interaction. It trumps everything.”

    Sometimes as photographers we almost insist on things being too complicated. We beat ourselves up because we think the simple solution isn’t good enough and the perfect photo is always out of our reach. When you’re in a tight spot (that would be most of the time), remember there’s nothing as sweet and simple as basic human interaction. It trumps everything.
     
    Here’s an example: I was assigned by Life to do a story on alternative medicine. One of the stars of that show at the time was Mehmet Oz, a doctor from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital who employed alternative and New Age medical techniques.

    The famous Dr. Oz gave Yankees Manager Joe Torre’s brother, Frank, a heart transplant and got even more famous. My job was to get a picture of these three guys at Yankee Stadium. I was on the ball field at high noon. Far from ideal.
     
    What do you do in five minutes with three pleasantly lumpy guys who are looking to you to tell ‘em to do something interesting?

    As friend and mentor, Jay Maisel, always says, “Look for light, color, and gesture.” They’re the holy trinity of photography. In this situation, I went for gesture. It was all I had. I put Dr. Oz in between Frank and Joe. Then I smiled at them and said, “How ‘bout you guys give the doc a big Brooklyn smooch?”

    Without hesitation, Frank and Joe planted wet ones on the doc’s cheeks and Oz lit up like crazy. I quickly dropped another roll in the camera.

    My excuse to get people to do things again has been the standard: “You know, just in case the boys in the lab have a bad day, let’s just get a couple of frames on a different roll.” Always works. Face it, nobody wants to do this all over again, including me.
     
    Another smooch. The doc beams. We’re done.

    “That’s it? We’re done?” asked the Life reporter.
     
    I was already packing up. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be hard.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    One method I often use to overcome harsh available light is to use a full-power strobe through a really big umbrella. It fills the faces nicely and opens up the shadows in a really even way. That’s what I set up here, off camera right.

     

    Frank Torre, Mehmet Oz, Joe Torre
    Get Your Subjects Involved
     

    “I gave flashes to these body builders and told them to go light themselves. Trust Me, they were into it.”

    Sometimes, especially when I am just plumb out of ideas (a not infrequent condition), I ask my subjects for help. I’ll pose them a question: “Is there any way you would like to be photographed that you have never been?”

    Sometimes you get no answer. Other times, believe me, you get suggestions that would be unwise to follow up on. And, occasionally, you get a notion, a snippet of an insight that unlocks the door to a successful photo.

    That’s one way of getting your subjects involved. Another is to make them actors on your stage and have them collaborate, physically, in the success of the picture. Body builders are like statues, monuments to physical perfection. They are like pieces of sculpture that, just like in a museum, need drama and highlights.
     
    So I gave these body builders a mission. Light themselves. It involved them, and intrigued them, and in a way, made them the