Assignment

Using Speedlights at Tios Tacos restaurant

Bringing together 5 beginning students of off-camera-flash with  5 models I recruited in unfamiliar surroundings  last Sunday was a lot of work.

But the results from my students made it really worthwhile.

In the 2nd part of my Small Flash Lighting workshop, we took what I showed them in the confines of the indoors in Part 1 on location to Tios Tacos restaurant.

It’s a whimsical place that Martin Sanchez, the owner,  has built over the years using recycled items from his restaurant like bottles, tin lids, bottle tops, oyster shells, barbie dolls, broken pieces of electronics and stuff that folks throw away.

For photography purposes though, this location is certainly a challenge.

It’s a good testing ground because most beginners of portraiture think expensive lenses are the sure-fire way to getting better pictures.

For the picture of Izzy. I looked around for a background that was as uncluttered as possible. Then I made sure I could use the setting sun to backlight her. I used a CTO gel on both my Speedlites inside my Octodome (my key light)
For the picture of Izzy. I looked around for a background that was as uncluttered as possible. Then I made sure I could use the setting sun to backlight her. I used a CTO gel on both my Speedlites inside my Octodome (my key light)

The marketing department of Canon, Nikon and other lens manufacturers want you to believe that having a lens  with good bokeh is all you need to make a good portrait hoping you’ll spring for their lenses with  gold ring (Nikon) or red ring (Canon).

Yes, there’s no denying the ‘creamy-out-of-focus-bokeh’ of fast lenses is  extremely hard to resist for us equipment junkies.

In the above picture of Izzy, mouse over the image and you’ll  see the image I got out of the camera without any any manipulation.

Pay close attention to the background.

You will notice there is minimal post processing on my part because I lit the Izzy.

Exposure was ISO 100 1/200sec @f4.

I could have easily removed Kavita who was in the background had I wanted to, but I feel she wasn’t that much of distraction.

Kavita dressed in an Indian sari moved around during the exposure. I intentionally used a slow shutter speed so I could get some blur and make the image for interesting instead of completely freezing her.
Kavita dressed in an Indian sari moved around during the exposure. I intentionally used a slow shutter speed so I could get some blur and make the image for interesting instead of completely freezing her.
Behind-the-scenes showing the position of my 3 sets of Speedlites. The accent light is on the left, the background light is behind Kavita and my key light is on the right inside the Octadome. Photo by Ashante Lindsey
Behind-the-scenes showing the position of my 3 sets of Speedlites. The accent light is on the left, the background light is behind Kavita and my key light is on the right inside the Octadome. Photo by Ashante Lindsey
This view shows the entirety of the storage area with the giant masks in plastic bags
This view shows the entirety of the storage area with the giant masks in plastic bags

So in such surroundings like where my students shot, I hope they saw lighting trumps bokeh.

That they have to be more selective about their backgrounds so  they should to pay attention to how their backgrounds are lit.

Case in point was this picture I made of Kavita in the storage area where Martin stored his collection of giant Tlahualilies & Tallwowlillies masks.

The wider shots of the scene by my student Ashante Lindsey gives you an idea of where we were working.

I stepped back and shot with my zoom to minimize the depth-of-field.

I also intentionally shot with a slower shutter speed to give Kavita some fluidity and blur.

I always forget to do a group photo during my workshop. This time around we had 5 students and 5 models.
I always forget to do a group photo during my workshop. This time around we had 5 students and 5 models. John Moya (right) had my iPhone which triggered my camera on the right. (l to r) Terry, Ariana, Maria, Ashante and John. Kavita is in the middle.

By the way for those of you reading this who are in the US, “Happy Thanksgiving!”

Next: student’s pictures