Tag Archives: location

Photography

Off-camera flash–a 1st attempt

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A regular reader and now a friend, Mike Hayes, shared some pictures he made of a fire dancer recently.

It’s great when someone I barely know offers up their pictures for a critique. It means someone out there thinks I know what I’m talking about.

I picked 3 pictures out of the 10 in his Flickr photostream.

First off, for this being Mike’s first foray into off-camera flash, I have to say he picked a tough situation but it’s certainly worthy of the effort.

There is plenty of potential for him to get some nice pictures with this especially since he tells me he may have a 2nd shot at this.

Some disclaimers: if I think a picture can be taken with a minimum amount of gear, I”m all for it. But in this situation, I think Mike could certainly use a 2nd flash.

The fire dancer lights her "swinging balls of fire". A second flash or the use of a reflector with a backlight is needed to create separation so she doesn't blend into the darkness

The first picture showing the dancer firing up her swinging balls of fire needs a second light, mostly behind her to create separation so that she doesn’t just disappear into the background.

Since I don’t know the exact circumstances behind why she came to be performing on a tennis court, I’m going to assume that the location can’t be changed.

Mike tells me he had a 16-foot off-camera sync cord from his hotshot to the 580EX flash set to 105mm which his son held.

So if all he had was one flash.

I would suggest the flash be held as close as safely possible to the dancer.

2 reasons: Shorter flash-to-subject distance means quicker recycling for the flash and also softer light.

I would also suggest the flash be held high and aimed downwards towards the dancer’s head.

Then a reflector can be used in front to kick the backlight back into her face.

For this to work well, Mike will need to make sure the light from his flash at the back doesn’t strike the front of his lens resulting in flare and loss of contrast.

If he is not getting the results he wants, then he has to figure out the exposure manually. It’s actually not that hard these days with the instant feedback of the LCD monitor.

Suggestions

I’m  torn between this:

  • Shoot with the beautiful sky in the picture, but get the tennis court fencing
  • Shoot downwards on the dancer, lose the beautiful gradient sky, but get the distracting white lines of tennis court
This is the cropped version of the original.

That’s why I cropped the original vertical into a horizontal to make the dancer more prominent.

Her feet don’t add much to the picture.

If I were to keep the feet, then I would try to crop out  the lines of the tennis court on the bottom right.

Try setting flash to rear-curtain. It may not make much difference since the she is not moving from the spot, just her arms.

Thanks for sharing, Mike.

Mike, by the way, won the 11 x 14 print of the shepherd the one and only time I ever had contest to guess my favorite picture.


Photography

Using available light & one flash for a portrait

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Earlier this year, I met a very talented budding actress by the name of Victoria Walcott who needed some headshots.

Available light–Portraiture in available light requires an awareness of locations and times. Generally speaking available light portraits have to be very static because light levels tend to be  so low. With today’s DSLR’s low light ability, a fast lens and some practice can give pleasing results. ISO 200 1/40 sec @ f 2.8 100 mm macro 2. 8 lens. See the catchlight in Victoria’s eyes  where the main light is a large window on the left.

I tend to pack a lot of gear when I work. I may not use them all, but I sure like to have them at my disposal even if it means they are in my trunk.

Force of habit from working at the newspaper. I never knew what assignment I would draw, so I had all kinds of stuff in my trunk.

For this particular shoot, I kept it simple.

Needless to say, picking a good location can save you the hassle of bringing in lots of lighting equipment.

This is what I had to work with:

  • A large window facing north
  • My grey muslin backdrop
  • 1 lightstand with reflector secured by a clamp.
  • 1 shoot-through umbrella with Canon 580EX Speedlite triggered by off-camera sync cord

If you plan to shoot with available light, consider what lens you have, the shutter speed you can hand hold and if your camera’s noise level at high ISO is acceptable.

Consider having your subject sit or lay down. It might help them relax especially if it’s your first time working with them.

Once you’re sure you have something you like, don’t stop there. That’s when should push on and try something different or even outrageous.

Why? Continue reading Using available light & one flash for a portrait →

Photography

On location group photos

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Hadia Habibi & Al Nar Bellydancers

Working on location outdoors can simplify matters especially if you’re photographing a group.

A well-chosen location and an equally well-chosen time of the day  can free you from having to set up a seamless or Muslin background if your subject is a group of more than 5 or 6 people.

You see, the problem with photographing any kind of group is deciding what to use as your background.

What lens to use? Wide angle lenses make everyone smaller, introduces a lot of clutter in the background and has too much depth-of-field. I used the 80mm setting on my 80-200 zoom. The downside? I have to step way back from the group and that means if you’re soft-spoken, you’ll need a bullhorn. The other problem?  How do you position your light without it showing up in the picture? Since your light will be closer to your subjects than you are physically, that may mean using a boom to raise the lights out of the frame. I got away with moving my light just outside of the frame on the left. Marvin, my assistant, was also holding  a reflector on the left to kick back the directional sunlight coming in from the right.

Unless you plan on cramming everybody so close like sardines, the bigger your group, it follows then, the more space you’ll need.

Realistically, once you have about 8 people, you’re almost assuredly out of space indoors in most studios. And even the biggest seamless paper or Muslin background hung on the long side up will not be enough.

Continue reading On location group photos →

Photography, Tutorials

On location single flash lighting

Graduating High School Senior–Samantha Some of you might recognize Samantha who modeled for my students when I taught my Small Flash Lighting workshop a few weeks back. She’s got such a pretty face and great skin, it’s hard not to get a good picture of her. I kept things simple for the most part. I used one Speedlite and a silver reflector for this picture.

One of the most invaluable skills I acquired while at the newspaper was learning to assess my lighting options on scene quickly.

Most of time it meant I would use what’s already at the scene. This approach means you have 2 light sources:

  • what you bring (your small portable flash units) and
  • what available light there is

Continue reading On location single flash lighting →