Camera: NIKON D700

Shutter: 1/160 s

Aperture: f/6.3

Exposure Setting: Manual

ISO: 100

Strobe Flash: Studio Lights

Lens Focal Length: 38 mm

White Balance: Manual

Shooter's Comments:

A portrait of Dick Stoner, owner of Stoners, a novelty market in Coldwater Crossing, today in the studio. Stoner came into the studio for a quick photo with his "No Cash" sign. Unfortunately his establishment has been robbed twice already.

I made sure to pay attention and avoid eyeglass glare from the strobe. It's an easy fix, I just raised the light.

I asked Stoner to keep both hands on the sign and hold it close to his face to keep all the elements in the photo close together so there was little empty space.

Lastly, I chose to shoot with a wider angle lens and moved in close to make the sign appear bigger since this was the subject.

I used a three-light setup.

1) On the camera's left, raised, with a square softbox.

2) Fill light, on the camera's right, pointed up and at the opposing wall.

3) Background light, fired into the black seamless paper to provide some separation.

-- Swikar Patel, photojournalist

Editor's Note: There was one piece of equipment Swikar didn't need that used to be essential: a light meter. In the studio, most shooters now use the camera as a meter. Simply shoot, look at the photo, adjust, then shoot again until you get it right. It's actually a pretty fast and easy system once you get used to it.

-- Lara Neel, visual editor