Tag Archives: off-camera flash

Assignment, Photography

A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 2

Cutting the rug– I dragged the shutter shooting at ISO 400 1/6 sec @ f2.8 and set my flash to 1/32 power.

As twilight approached, we went one deck below for our scrumptious dinner.

My choice of fish delectably decorated with a bright red pepper  looked mouth-watering.

Had our waitress not warn us that the pepper was a jalapeño, all the drinks in the “Open bar” wouldn’t have been enough to quell its hotness.

By the time I finished, the late evening light was just too good to ignore.

It was also time to raise the ISO from 100 to 400 to get a shutter speed that I knew I could comfortably handhold.

Using my 580EX off-camera in manual mode, even at 1/128th power, in such close quarters required me to feather its output some more.

The built-in white diffuser card was actually kicking in too much light.

I ended up using my fingers over the flash head.

Continue reading A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 2 →

Assignment, Photography

A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 1

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Michelle’s dad, Lee, gives her away at the ceremony as Alex looks on. Extreme contrast is always a photographic challenge. I was at least 40 feet back. Because the 580EX had to kick in quite a bit of light from that distance, I used the external power pack to allow for quicker recycling. 1/200 sec f5.6 ISO 100. I should have raised the shutter speed to 1/320 sec from 1/200 sec to retain the highlight in the bride’s veil in retrospect. My 580 EX speedlight was at 1/2 power.

There is no doubt, a wedding on board a ship is romantic.

I’ve been a part of 3. My first time  was on board the Star of India in San Diego too many years ago now.

Though the cutter never left the dock and the temperature was  too hot to be in a suit and tie, I can still remember the name of the vessel.

Two days after I quit the newspaper business I shot my first wedding “professionally” on board the Dandeanna, a yacht which circled Marina Del Rey for 4 hours.

On that occasion, I remember borrowing a 2nd camera body from the person who replaced at the newspaper.

Waiting for the guests–The Empress at the dock before all the guests board her for the evening’s cruise and festivities.

Those of you thinking about doing weddings for a living, yes, you should never shoot a wedding with just one camera.

It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

This weekend was a special treat and a delight.

My nephew Alex married his sweetheart Michelle on board the Empress as we cruised  the Sacramento and American River. Continue reading A Wedding & Cruise on the Sacramento River 1 →

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.

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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

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