The 10 minute challenge

Shoots in studio can be anything from 20 minutes for a headshot to a full day of fashion. Even then you can still be under time pressure with a one day lookbook shoot. On location you can be under time pressure because of fading light or more likely here, the oncoming rain. With photo calls, you might have 10 minutes with 5 other photographers vying for the same shot. Even for editorial work it can be in and out, thanks very much and hope you got the shot. So a little practice never hurts.The goal for this photo was to get a shot I was really happy with in a location with 10 minutes to setup, shoot and strip down. I choose musician Paul Ward on his recent gig in The Quays. He had no clue beforehand, but was well up for it. We went to the dressing room where I set up the gear and did a few variations before deciding on this look. The 10 minute mark hit as I was leaving the dressing room, all packed and done. I'm happy with it. I wasn't aiming for award winning, just a solid portrait.I started with front lighting with my portable octabox in a butterfly configuration-a typical start point for me, but opted to go for a short lit look to bring more mood, and to darken the background more in the tight space. For the black and white conversion, I've just set the saturation slider to -100 in Lightroom to retain the tonal balance from the original. Finally I added Grain @ Amount 18.Gear: Fuji X Pro-1 with 18-55 lens @55mm 1/125 f10 ISO 400. Godox V860C flash in manual controlled via the FT-16s trigger, with the Wide Angle Diffuser out (14mm). Flash at half power. 120cm Octa on Ebay flash bracket with Manfrotto Nano 001b stand.