The other day I was driving way out in the country looking for locations for upcoming shoots. I came over a hill and there, standing in the middle of a field, was a prison cell…I’m not kidding. I couldn’t believe it. What was a jail cell doing by itself in a field in the middle of nowhere? After finding the owner I realized he loved making things out of scrap metal, and in his collecting he found two parts to a maximum security prison cell. So he welded them together and added them to some other old machines he had in his field. This was a gold mine of locations, a jail cell with no one around and I could use to shoot in…I was giddy with excitement!
I returned with Chris, one of my favorite models to work with, and also someone who would be a perfect ‘prisoner’. All that was needed was a little lighting magic.
We tried lots of different lighting, gel and fog set ups. I liked a lot of them, but I really like the shadows in the top shot, and the gelled lights in the other image. Critical for effect in all the shots was a Rosco 1700 fog machine. This thing cranks out enough fog to get the fire department’s attention! The top image was lit with two Elinchrom Quadras. One light with standard reflector was to the left lighting Chris and adding shadows to the wall. A second blue gelled light hit the back wall and fog. The other image had two Quadras and one Ranger. One Quadra was shot through an overhead gridded square Rotalux softbox (held on a boom arm). The second Quadra shot into the smoke behind Chris with a blue gel attached. The Ranger triggered an A head shot through a 20 grid and red gel through the door window. This light was hidden behind the door. All lights were triggered by the Elinchrom wireless Skyport system. Tech: Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/200 at F13, ISO 200.
As much as I love an excuse to get out every Ranger and Quadra I own, sometimes one simple light is all it takes. I love the quality of the Elinchrom Octabanks, from the ‘big daddy’ over 6 feet in diameter to the smaller sizes as well. I was working on images for an upcoming story the other day, and Dayna, the model, was the perfect subject for soft light. Since it was cold outside, she was bundled up in a coat that worked out to be a great shot. I used one 39 inch octabank to add just a touch of light but kept the ratio between strobe and ambient light pretty close. Dayna didn’t need much retouching (lucky girl), but I used an easy technique Katrin Eismann discusses in the latest issue of Photoshop User. If you do any work in Photoshop you should take a look at www.photoshopuser.com and join to access the excellent tutorials. Tech: D3, 24-70mm, f7.1 at 1/100, ISO 100. One Elinchrom Ranger shot using a 39″ octabank triggered by the Skyport wireless system.
Back in the office after being on the road awhile. The weather is starting to warm up in Fort Collins, so more and more bikers are hitting the roads. I decided to photograph a local rider near the foothills the other day. Since I think of road biking as a fast high energy sport, I decided to shoot a really edgy image.
Since I have been shooting a lot of portraits lately at F2.8 during bright daylight hours, I have had to shoot using high speed sync to get the right exposure. The other day I photographed Tory, a model in town, and we were going for that selective focus look. Exposures of 1/1000 and faster at 2.8 were the norm. High speed sync confuses a lot of people, maybe it should be renamed “shallow depth of field sync”, or SDFS mode…or not! But anyone using flash and wanting selective focus at wide open apertures needs to master this technique. If you are a Nikon shooter you can set this mode in your custom functions in camera, for Canon shooters this option is on your flash. In high speed sync mode the flash is shooting a rapid burst of flashes so there is always flash occurring no matter where the shutter curtains are in the exposure. This allows you to shoot at any shutter speed, but it also reduces your flash range a lot, especially if you are shooting through an umbrella.
To help with the power issue I have been using the Lastolite Triflash bracket. After Lastolite provided me one for an article I was writing, I went right out and bought another. These brackets are really handy, allowing three TTL flashes to be mounted and shot through an umbrella. This greatly reduces recycle time and really helps when shooting in high speed sync. And if you are close enough, the optical slave will trigger all three flashes even though the optical eye isn’t facing the camera directly. Lastolite is coming out with a new version which will lock tight the TTL flashes in the bracket.
I used this set up for all the images here. For the images of Tory high on the staircase I used a manfrotto 24 foot lightstand to get the umbrella high enough.
Tech: Nikon D3, 45mm tilt shift lens, ISO 100, top shot 1/800 at F4.2, lower image 1/1000 at F2.8
Recently we did a shoot in a gym, photographed a table tennis player. I really like playing, but when I learned the model, Chris, had a $300 paddle…well, I’d be happy shooting pics instead of playing against him. I wanted to create a number of images, smash shots, static portraits, moody dramatic scenes. We carted in a ton of lighting gear, hauled in a table and set up the scene.
One issue we dealt with, and this one comes up a lot, is trying to control the light in a white space; in this case, floor, walls and ceiling. We first set up an exposure so only our flashes would render, no existing nasty sodium lights. But the trick is adding directional light to the picture, using grids and snoots. We wanted to use a softbox, but this bounced off every surface and watered down the nice dark scene we wanted. To solve this, we added a grid to a small overhead softbox, and used 20 degree grids on the other heads in the scene. This eliminated spill on the white surfaces.
This final shot of the day was a subtle moment. Everybody was winding down, and Chris was leaning on the table bouncing a ball. This presented the prefect moment to use overhead light and the tilt shift lens to add some blur. Tech: Nikon D3, 70-200mm and 45mm tilt shift lenses, Elinchrom Rangers, Manfrotto stands and Skyport wireless system. Action shots around ISO 200, 1/200 at F11. Tilt shift shot ISO 100, F4 at 1/250.
Just did a drive across the mountains in Colorado, and a lot of it was in a whiteout…hazard lights blinking crawling along the highway looking for the road. But as soon as the snow started to slow down, I realized we were missing a great photo op with all the fresh snow in the trees. We grabbed snowshoes and headed into the forest, a magical quiet place, and I knew once again my tilt-shift lens would add the effect I wanted. I photographed my wife heading down the trail for the first image.
I liked this image a lot, but I also wanted to add some interest via flash. I set my camera to high speed sync, positioned a single SB900 off to her right, and shot away. Using a fast shutter speed allowed me to darken the daylight exposure about 1 stop. Tech: Nikon D3, 45mm tilt shift lens, 1/500 at F2.8. High speed sync used with one SB900, triggered by a SU800.
Working more with the tilt shift lens, really like the mood the soft focus creates in images. Here is a surfer on Hollywood Beach in Miami photographed using this lens. Since using high speed sync with this lens works fine, I was able to shoot at f2.8 to maintain the shallow depth of field I wanted with mid day light. Tech: D3, 45mm PC-E lens, 1/5000 at F2.8, ISO 100. 2 SB900s with no diffusion, high speed sync.
I’m always looking for new tools and techniques to use in creating images. Sometimes it is learning a new technique, other times a new piece of gear allows me to do things I haven’t done in the past. I recently bought a Nikon 45mm PC-E lens to add some selective blur to my shots. Tilt shift lenses allow you to tilt the front focus plane which allows you to get incredible depth of field, or silky soft focus. My interest in this lens is more towards portraits and distant landscapes. I love the soft mysterious look this lens creates, it gives me a new tool in creating the mood I want in an image. One bonus feature of this lens I didn’t realize is how close it focuses…you can focus down to about 8 inches from your subject with macro like effects. Recently I went to the zoo and photographed this Lorakeet using the tilt feature of this lens. Tech: Nikon D3, 45mm PC-E lens, 1/800 at F3.3, ISO 200.
A question that comes up everytime I teach a flash clinic is “what is the best kind of light for this subject”. I think the best way to answer that is “what are you trying to say, what mood do you want to capture?” At one end of the spectrum is hard edged non-diffused light, say a standard reflector on a studio head or straight TTL flash shot right at the subject. On the other end is super diffused soft light, say light produced by firing TTL flashes through umbrellas and then through a big white sheet or scrim, or using a 6 foot Octabank. And there are endless styles in the middle, combining qualities of light in one image. I really like using edgy light along with a more diffused source. For this running image shot on a track, we used hard edged rim lights on the model’s hair, and a small softbox to add light to her face. Combine this lighting with underexposing your background, which makes your lighting more apparent and snappy, and you get one of my favorite styles of lighting. Right now this is very popular with many sports magazine, just take a look at the magazine rack. And sometimes your lighting is determined by clients. We shot an editorial spread the other day, and the photo editor really wanted soft flattering light that matched the uplifting story theme. So out came the giant Octabank, and we shot the entire assignment with soft light. Tech: Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/125 at F20, ISO 100. Three Elinchrom Rangers RX packs with A heads, two with standard reflectors using 20 degree grids, and one shot through a 2 foot Rotalux square softbox. Skyports used to trigger and control flash output.
