Ditch the lights and go for a nice window instead. The nice
thing with B&W is that colorcast doesn't matter, it's all about
light and dark. You'll get far more satisfying results with
natural light in natural settings. A side lit portrait, where
the subject is back slightly from the window so the light wraps
around the face some is classic.
Of course, it all matters what the purpose of the portrait is.
I shoot portraits completely differently depending on whether
they are senior portraits, wedding stuff, business cards or
headshots.
My preferred studio lighting is a strobe blasting into a large
umbrella. I'll face the person almost directly in front of the
umbrella and I'll shoot from as close to or in front of the
umbrella myself. My seamless paper is a good six to eight feet
behind and is separately lit to provide washout white background
or a neutral gray, or black. If I'm feeling lucky, I'll hang a
strobe up up and behind the subject for "hair-light" effect.
My B&W portrait work is now 1000n Ilford Delta 100 or 400. The
tonalities are lovely, grain is tight, not in-your-face like
Tri-X or HP-5, and the film scans exceptionally well.
Good choice in lenses. In portrait work, there is no substitute
for millimeters. The more, the better. Also, think
"fuzzy-sharp". You want the eyes to be razer sharp, yet you
want the picture to have a softness too it. A friend of mine
used to keep an array of skylight filters in his cooler. He'd
take one out, screw it on the lens and breathe on it. The glass
would instantly fog over. As the fog dissapated he'd shoot the
picture. Just incredible results. I've personally had really
good results with a star-filter.
Personal preference for portrait lens: Zuiko 100/2.8
Silvernose. Insert "glow" here.
AG-Schnozz
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