Bokehlicious Smile – How I made that shot

Remember the article – The sweet angle? This shot was taken keeping those learnings in mind.

Setting

The building opposite was in celebration – a lot of colored light bulbs decorated the entire building. Once the sun went down, the lights created a melange of colors.

Ingredients

1. A patient wife
2. Camera
3. External Flash unit
4. Small wall mounted mirror
5. A building decorated with color bulbs for creating the bokeh

Setup

I positioned myself on the corridor with the building and she facing me. Since there was an incandescent lamp on the corridor, focussing was not an issue.
To create a nice bokeh, I set the aperture to f/2.8 and shutter speed at 1/200s. Even though my 50mm lens can go down to f/1.8, I chose f/2.8 since I wanted the entire face to be in focus.
I asked her to hold a small wall mirror on her hands so that light from the overhead incandescent lamp is reflected on to her face. In the photo above, a slight glow to her can be seen. The light from the mirror is creating it.
After all these are set, I pointed my yongnuo flash towards the ceiling and pressed the shutter.

Lighting Diagram

Credits – the lighting diagram was created using Lighting Diagram Creator tool.