But also with these shots I used neutral density filters so that I could keep the shutter open long enough for the whole wheel to go around but without overexposing.
Here's this one again - I am rarely so pleased with a shot as I am with this. Ad astra per aspera
I have some continuous studio lights too. I like the light reflected from the white umbrella and through softboxes but not from silver umbrellas - too harsh. I did some portrait shots for a couple I know through work and they were really pleased with the results. Good practice for me too. Getting the lighting right technically isn't too difficult but getting the best out of the people you are photographing is much harder, especially if you want to capture some natural looking shots and some humour and fun at the same time. Ad astra per aspera
Having a daylight neon mean you can you use it in natural light portraits to bring up the face.
In movies I mostly like the soft light from neon banks - 6 long tubes stacked against a reflector backing. They come in a case that is easy to to trasport and fast to put up - but you need to carry 'ballast' or a hefty choke control box. Or then soft hooded redheads. Sometimes in the bluescreen studio we have hung up lots of white Japanese lanterns with 150 W photofloods in them. They have to be high up - but they give a very good feeling of a sunless day against the bluescreen with few shadow problems.
I liked the same portrait as you, but as the sofa was close to the wall it became tonally the same as the faces. It would have been better slightly darker or lighter than the faces, and the 'canopy of light' from the bounced flash would have been more easily controlled - you could have bounced in front to make the wall go darker, or bounced behind them to brighten the background. You can't be me, I'm taken
