One Light

As is routinely pointed out on the Strobist blog, you can do an awful lot with one light. This shot was taken with a single studio strobe and a shoot-through umbrella, very close to the subjects (myself and my son). The umbrella is barely out of view.

This is also a testament to what can be done with Aperture... I had configured the light just for me for a headshot and so had it much closer. My boy hopped up and wanted a picture so I just pushed the light back until it was out of the frame... this resulted in a very underexposed frame. With Aperture's RAW fine tuning, I was able to decrease its "boost" and reduce contrast, thus making the massive increase in exposure less harsh.

This was finished in Photoshop CS3, with the B&W conversion and minor retouching in the shadow noise.