I often ask how much gear do I need to work on location.

There is really no simple answer. I tend to bring a lot even if I don’t need all of it.

It’s best to have it in the vehicle. Most of the time, I use one body to shoot and in this case I used the 50mm the whole evening.

On the Canon 40D, a 50mm is more like a 85mm, ideal for portraits.

Setting up is usually the biggest chore. Assembling the backdrop stand, threading the muslin on to the pole and then hoisting it in place. 

That’s why it’s always a good idea to run some tests to determine light ratios between the main light, fill and the backlight.

In a perfect world, all my subjects would be the same height and I wouldn’t have to raise or lower my lights, but that’s not how things are in the real world.

So I had my buddy Ted shoot some behind-the-scenes video.

In photographing a lot of people in a short time span, there will be many technical challenges besides the usual reflections from glasses, and folks who blink every time the flash goes off.

The one thing that’s great about digital? You can always take a quick look to check that eyes are open right after you take the picture.