Shooting a tiger

I was bored tonight so I thought I would set up a quick portrait session with my daughters stuffed tiger.

All images were sharpened and the last couple had a little brightness and black levels adjusted.

Uncorrected (over head lights only)


White balance (selected a white area on the tiger to use as a reference white point)


Added light/umbrella to camera right, black reflector camera left


Adjusted light output down


Put a small white reflector in front of the black reflector to add more light to face


Added 2nd Vivitar 285 to camera left at full power to overexpose the background. The light was bare, no umbrella but it was higher than the black reflector and the light spilled over and exposed the tiger.


Dropped the height of the light so it's behind the black reflector


Here is the setup.
(Left to right)
Bare Vivitar 285 HV flash (full power)
40" x 60" Black foam board folded in a "V"
12" x 24" white foam board to add light to face
bean bags with black crushed velvet over them
Stuffed white tiger with black spots
Vivitar 285 HV flash shooting through a white umbrella (1/16th power)
White cloth background
camera on tripod in foreground