One Hour, One Strip Light: Portraits of Dana Isaiah in Brooklyn
An off-the-cuff hour in a Brooklyn studio, built on my go-to men's portrait setup, one strip light between two black v-flats.
One of the things I love about working with Dana is how easy it seems to be. We touch base when we're in the same town, decide the plan is coming together and pull off a fun shoot that always pays off with great photos. This was the definition of an off-the-cuff shoot, and a testament to what two creative people can do when they really want to.
I was back in Brooklyn for another shoot and couldn't help reaching out to Dana, knowing he was in town. We'd stayed in touch since our first shoot in LA and had been waiting for another chance to get together. My timeline was tight because I was flying straight from New York to LA the next day for more shoots, so we piggybacked on the space I'd rented for my other shoot.
The plan
First, I put together a quick storyboard so Dana could pull a couple of outfits and we'd come in with a plan for mood and style. I'd already have shot in the space, so I'd know what it could do for lighting, and I came up with two or three quick setups to rotate through. We had about an hour of studio time and a plan to execute three or four looks.
Look one: one strip light between two black v-flats
When Dana arrived, I'd already switched from my previous shoot to the first setup. It has become a go-to for me as a first set when photographing men, and it couldn't be simpler:
- Two black v-flats set up close together, one on each side of the subject.
- One light: a Profoto B10 Plus with a Profoto 1x4' strip softbox, turned horizontal and angled down slightly, at about head height.
The key is the height. Know how tall your subject is, and set the light just low enough that it catches in the eye. Too low, and the image looks flat and washed out. Too high, and the light won't reach the iris, leaving odd shadows and a dead-eyed look.
The black flats really shape the face, and the single source, soft yet contrasty, gives a flattering look in my opinion. Dana put on a horizontally striped shirt, and we went to work.
Look two: adding a catchlight
The second look used almost identical lighting. I added a second light with a 3' octabox to camera left for a small pop in the iris and a bit more direction on the face. Dana threw a coat over the shirt, and we played with the collar and with frames of him turned away from me. Afterward I noticed his eyes were close to the gray of the coat, so I knew I'd favor the close-ups over the pulled-back frames to highlight that detail.
Look three: a cinematic chair
When we'd exhausted that setup, Dana changed while I rearranged. I brought in a great old chair from the studio and flipped the lighting. I pulled one v-flat out entirely and backed the camera-left flat away a little, keeping some darkness and contrast on that side while opening up space.
I swapped the 3' octa for my 69" Elinchrom octabox as the main, to camera right and about 6.5 feet up, so the bottom of the octa sat right around eye level with Dana seated. I feathered it across the scene for a soft, cinematic quality, knowing most of my light would come from it. Finally, I turned the strip softbox back to vertical and set it back to camera left, just to add a dynamic catchlight and the slightest fill on that side.
Dana is a pro and doesn't need much feedback, so we cranked the music and let it drive the mood. I still like to give feedback and keep the subject moving. When I see something I like, I'll have them hold it or go back to it, and we'll massage that look with some coaching until I really have it. We shot on the chair, off the chair, backward and forward, then swapped the chair for a stool. Dana had seen an image he liked and a pose he wanted to try. The collaboration between creatives is one of the things I love most about portrait shoots, so I was all in. We brought the coat back and fired off a few quick frames.
Look four: movement
For the last set, I wanted movement. Dana put the coat back on, and I raised the lights since he'd be walking back and forth. The trick was catching a frame where Dana was posed well and the coat had enough movement to look like action rather than awkward. It took a few tries to get the shutter timing right, but we got some cool frames.
The whole thing went by in a blur, from planning through execution, but we came away with strong images and had fun catching up and talking about being dads raising young boys. It always comes back to the relationships you build with the people you work with, and Dana's friendship will always be the best takeaway from any shoot we do together.
Originally published on the Ruddock Visuals blog, August 2019. Lightly edited in 2026.