Headshot How To: Mixing flash and ambient light (in low light conditions)

Living in Nashville I get the pleasure of working with a lot of really amazing clients.  One coolest clients I get to work with here in town is the iconic Sound Emporium Studios, which if you haven't heard of them it's definitely worth a google search.  I've been working with the Sound Emporium for a little over 4 years now shooting everything from the rooms themselves to product shots of the gear and even taking headshots for the staff.

In this post I am going to explain my lighting setup for the most recent headshot session I had with the staff.  One of the things that the Sound Emporium prides themselves on is the "vibe" of the studio so I wanted to try to capture that in the photos I took of the staff.  That being said, I didn't want to just shoot a basic white, black or grey background headshot and call it a day.  I needed to add some interest to the image which I did by placing the subjects in front of the recording console in one of the control rooms.  After I placed my subject, I used a simple two light setup and a shutter drag technique to capture the final image.  Keep reading to view the lighting diagram and camera settings...