Recently had the chance to do a portrait session with a guitar player based out of New Hampshire — a genuinely talented one. We shot for most of a day and had a great time: some indoors, some outside, some with the guitar, some without, natural light and a full lighting setup both.
Indoors, my favorite setup by far was clamshell lighting — I love what it does for portraits. Outside, it was all natural light with a reflector to fill the shadows.
One thing I’ve noticed again and again with portraits: people visibly relax once you give their hands something to do. Find something that says a little about who they are and keeps their hands busy, and you’ll see it in the images. In this case, with the guitar in hand, her fingers went right to work and she relaxed almost instantly — at a few points she genuinely seemed to forget I was even there, eyes closed, lost in it. Those turned out to be my favorites from the day.