Advice, Gear

Vergara family portrait part 3

Moving closer to the water--working in late evening as you can see with the setting sun on the left, I anticipated that the color temperature of the sun would require the use of a color temperature orange gel for my flash.
Moving closer to the water–working in late evening as you can see with the setting sun on the left, I anticipated that the color temperature of the sun would require the use of a color temperature orange gel for my flash. WIthout the gel, it would be very noticeable that I used flash on the right. ISO 100 1/60 sec @ f8 80-200 zoom lens set at 135mm. Canon 5D Mark2 on monopod to minimize camera shake.
Steffen watches over my Softlighter and WLx800 strobe as I shoot. Notice the 1/4 CTO gel on the flash.
Steffen watches over my Softlighter and WLx800 strobe as I shoot. Notice the 1/4 CTO gel on the flash.

Once you have an idea of how big your group is, you will have a better idea of a suitable location.

Obviously if it’s a number that’s more than 5 or 6 persons, you should plan on doing the photo outdoors.

For our second location, we moved closer to the lake because I wanted to use the warm evening light reflected by the water.

The only problem was there was very little fill light.

So I had to remove the diffusion fabric on my Softlighter.

My WL x800 was set to full power (300Ws) and it wasn’t sufficient to fill the harsh shadows.

 Equipment

Low shutter speeds in the evening make hand holding long lenses difficult. That's why I have a monopod handy.
Low shutter speeds in the evening make hand holding long lenses difficult. That’s why I have a monopod handy.

Speedlights are wonderful but they don’t have the oomph or necessary power output by the time you  use light modifiers like umbrellas or softboxes.

(Mouse over the family portrait to get an idea of my light placement.)

Taking a break now and again to share what you have can boost the confidence of your subjects. But only do so if you are confident in your skill.
Taking a break now and again to share what you have can boost the confidence of your subjects. But only do so if you are confident in your skill.

In the previous setup I had to combine 1 x800 White Lightning studio strobe with 2 Canon Speedlites.

I used my Cybersync radio slaves to trigger all 3 flashes.

ISO 100 1/60 sec @ f2.8 200mm Canon 5DMark2 body on a monopod.
ISO 100 1/60 sec @ f2.8 200mm Canon 5DMark2 body on a monopod.

An umbrella, even one weighted down with sandbags is extremely top heavy.

It doesn’t take much for a gust of wind to send your strobe crashing into the ground, so having an assistant like Steffen Urban is a necessity.

The assistant’s job is to stand by the lightstand to prevent that from happening.

Halloween Still Life

Please visit Marvin Sesuca’s website Theory of Madness and Steffen Urban’s website to support them.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2
Peter Phun Photography

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