I let my assistant attempt her idea again. The only things I controlled was the camera and the lighting, but everything else here was her idea. I use assistants for my work when I can, and two things I will say about assistants:
1) Treat them well. You want people to work with you? Then have a reputation as someone who works well with others. That means treating your assistants well. Not to mention that they aren’t just helpers, they are people who allow you to focus on fewer things meaning you will do those things better which in turn improves your end result.
2) Train them. By training the people who work under you not only improve the quality of their work but also their capabilities. Furthermore, by training them you can tailor their abilities to the work you do. Again, this improves the end results of your photo session.
Now the only catch, especially with the second point, is that at some point your assistant will likely move on. Very few people just want to settle for the title of “assistant,” so you have to understand that at some point your assistant will move on and you will likely have to start all over again. This is a headache for sure, but keep in mind that likely means you are on good terms with one more professional in whatever field you are in – you trained them after all. Being on good terms with other photographers is a good thing.
For this session, we used two strobes, each with an octagon softbox. One was back and to the right and the other was forward and to the left.