Baby Portraits By Evan Kafka

“For the past year I’ve been focusing on really tight headshots, trying to make them as intense as I can. I want to bring out the character of the subject, the landscape of the face. I’ve always been interested in this kind of shot. I was doing them with my Mamiya RZ on film for years, but I felt I could only get so far. With the advent of digitial and new lighting techniques, I feel I’ve finally found a way to arrive at something I’m interested in. I’m really concentrating on the eyes, for one thing. There’s a lot of catch lights, a lot of texture in the eyes, and it’s all done through the lighting. My main light for these kinds of shots is a Profoto Softlight Reflector. That’s my favorite key light at the moment.”
As far as gear goes, Kafka’s main camera is a Canon 5D Mark II. He uses a Sekonic L-558R light meter. Profoto gear features large in creating his signature style. Kafka does this with two 1200w Acute packs, one 2400w Acute pack, one 600B Acute pack, and six Acute heads. He also owns one Magnum reflector w/grid. His Profoto rigs are fired by two PocketWizard Plus II transceivers and one receiver. Kafka also transports his lights in Tenba cases. “I got into Profoto products because of the quality of the light shaping tools,” says Kafka. “I was always renting them when I first started out. They’re the industry standard. The reliability is always there, and you don’t have to worry about them not firing. Profoto gives a certain high-quality look to images which I think is identifiable. When I look at other photographers’ work, I can often tell when Profoto gear was used.”