I wanted to take just couple shots to try whether I can figure out the conditions for the half-in-dark portraits. I had brought Ali home from hospital few days ago so I did not want to bother him too much with the experimenting and tried to get it done as quickly as possible. We ended up with 100 photos in about an hour.

I first set up my Biglamp Mega lamp with a fluorescent bulb equivalent to 375W incandescent light bulb but even after closing the barn doors the light was too bright and reflected back from the wall so the dark side was not working out.

I screwed a 60W bulb into the lamp and that worked out perfectly. Photos are taken with my Canon EOS 350D with ISO400, F4, mostly 1/100 speed. I used Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM telephoto lens which means I almost had to sit on the stove to be far enough to fit anything on the photo.

Most of the photos are apparently retouched but I did not mess with the color of the photos 230..251 (first three and the last), the color on these was already perfect for me.