I had a chance to do some good old traditional studio photography the other day. Nothing fancy, just two lights, a backdrop and a subject. We were launching a new television column/blog by reporter Matt Collette, and we needed an image. (And actually we need it today, right now if possible.) The rest of the photo staff was tied up, so I grabbed a camera and set up a quick studio shot.

The idea was a stylish shot of Matt watching television. After the black stripe across my test frame reminded me that the flash sync of the D3 was 1/250 and not 1/500, I put a blue gel over the main light inside the softbox, and put a 20 degree grid on the background light. The corner of the softbox would stand in for the TV, and Matt grabbed a remote from the newsroom television.

You can read Prime Time, Matt’s column/blog, here.