First try with homemade studio kit

Dear friends,

Over the last year I have wanted to getting started with basic amateur studio portraits. Primarily I wanted the big Elinchrom studio strobe kit and a nikon D800 and a new Porsche, but reality - and the fact that I already had two SB-900's -  made me go with the following set up:

2 x 100cm lastolite umbrellas on stands.

2 x Nikon SB900 Flashlights on wireless remote from camera

3 m wide background on telescopic mounts and black and white 3m roll of 200g paper.

my camera is a Nikon D7000 and my portrait lens i a 50 mm Sigma 1.4 EX DG HSM

The photograph below was shot i RAW, ISO 100, Shutter 1/250 and aperture f7.1

The flash to the left of wife and daughter was set at 1/4 power the one to their right 1/16

The umbrellas were placed directly opposite of each other 90 degr and thus illuminating directly from the sides. The distance from the models to the umbrellas was about 1 m - and they were approx 1 m in front of the background.

PP in Aperture 3.0 was

Skin tone wb slightly towards warmer tone

addition of vignette effecth

Exposure to 1,38

Highlight recovery 100

I would appreciate your thoughts and comments

Kind regards

Jacob