Smurfasaur  picked the warmest day in November and we changed outfits, locations, and lighting multiple times to get some different looks throughout the day. Over the next few days I'm going to add a few images per day explaining how i created the images.

I decided to limit myself to two lenses and two flashes for the day with one camera.

D810, Nikkor 24 1.4, Nikkor 70-200 2.8 II, SB-910/SB-700

I also went with no modifiers for the day, choosing instead to use the zoom head on the flashes to get different looks in different situations. 

Photoshop is limited in these images to sharpening and in some images a bit of cropping. All Light control, exposure was done in camera. Smurfasaur beautifying an abandoned buildingBy JC Carey for JCPhotoMedia

1/1600th f2.8 Iso 320

The sun was out and bright outside so I had to underexpose in order to avoid the window being the dominant figure in the scene. A big part of lighting is bringing the attention to the desired focal point of the image. This doesn't have to mean the focus point but more where you want the eyes to linger and go to first. As in most of my work the model is the key. I picked 2.8 to control depth of field (DOF) and bring the focus literally to Smurfasaur. I'm shooting at 320 to get a little faster recycling times and battery life out of the flash vs 100 while still making sure that noise is controlled and giving myself the most dynamic range possible. My Nikons get over 14 stops of dynamic range according to DXO tests but that does go down slightly as the ISO goes up so for the type of shooting I do ISO choice has more to do with flash power/duration/longevity than with light sensitivity. Having the ability to push the ISO and get great results is an amazing ace up my sleeve but i don't have to pull it out too often for fashion work.

The window is helping create separation by letting the sun act like a third light in the scene. By the time we shot this it was 2:15 so the sun was high and not very directional into the window but just enough to create a nice line on the coat to camera right. The two flashes were set in ITTL (i do most of my work in ITTL due to the fact that I move the flashes and models often). the flash to camera right was low on a stand at nearly 90° to the model and set to -2.7 in the CLS menu. I only needed a slight kiss of light on that side so that the pants (some of the other shots from this set are portrait rather than landscape) wouldn't disappear into the shadows. The zoom on the flash was set to 85mm so that it was tight on the subject and would not spill too much onto the wall. The light to camera left is the main light on this shot and was zoomed a little wider (35mm) and placed as close as possible to the subject to create some softness. No modifier meant it was going to be contrasty regardless but that fit the mood of the shot.

I'm using the 70-200 zoomed to 70mm.