Tom Bol Photo Blog

Had a great shoot today with Sir Greg, a local athlete who is very talented in a number of sports.  Wanted to work on some really edgy portraits, raking side lighting and some ring flash fill.  We used three Elinchrom Rangers for this image.  Two Rotalux strip lights are left and right of the model for soft accent light.  I climbed up a ladder to shoot down with ring flash for fill on this shot.  Light falls off rapidly, so this effect makes the model appear to emerge out of a sea of black.  Interesting angles always catch the viewer’s eye. Try shooting from high or really low angles to mix up your portraits.

Next we added a sword into the image.  This picked up some nice reflection from the strip light.  I eliminated the ring flash and other strip bank for a single strip light on this shot.

We went back to two strip lights in a cross lighting position directly opposite one another for the final boxing stance.

Tech: Nikon D300s, 24-70mm, 1/200 at F8, ISO 200.  Elinchrom Rangers, 2 14×35″ Rotalux Strip Banks, 1 Elinchrom Ring Flash, Skyports triggering the strobes.

Some years you get all the luck.  I have spent my last 26 summers in Alaska, and some years Denali and the Alaska Range barely peak out. Other years you see it day after day.  I just returned from 3 weeks of shooting in Alaska, and had some great windows of clear weather for incredible aerial photography.  After flying and shooting on the south side of the mountain earlier this summer, I had a chance to fly and shoot on the north side of the mountain in July.  Without a cloud in the sky!  Even though Denali is the most prominent and famous mountain in the Alaska Range, a highlight for me was flying right over the French Ridge on Mt. Huntington.  This is a mountain I have some history with…

I flew in with 3 climbing partners one summer season to climb the classic Harvard Route on the West Face.  To access the face,  we had to traverse a double corniced ridge appropriately named the Stegosaur.  This ridge is dangerous, you never really know if you are climbing on a cornice or the actual ridge.  On top of that, we waited weeks in a tent below the face waiting for a break in the weather.  When we finally got good weather, we raced up to start climbing the Stegosaur.  We spent a day just tunneling through deep snow to get on the ridge.  The next day we started our climb across the ridge, and set off a huge avalanche, almost burying two of our party.  We retreated to the tent, broke out some whiskey, and stayed away from the route for a few days.  And then the weather got nasty again.  Mt. Huntington would not be climbed by us that season…sometimes you make the summit, sometimes you don’t.  Better to be safe.

As with all aerial shooting, dial up your ISO and shoot at as fast as you can to ensure sharp shots.  One thing we found with the windows of this plane is using a polarizer resulted in a strange color balance.  Off with the polarizer, and keep on shooting!  Get your lens as close to the window as you can but without touching it to avoid reflections.  Better yet, fly with the door off if your pilot will allow it.

Or maybe I should say planes, helicopters, jet boats, atvs and dog sleds.  In the middle of assignment work in Alaska this summer, always love going back to where we used to live and work with great clients.  These shoots get really crazy.  The sun sets after midnight in June, and the night never really gets dark.  I had some great weather, so here is a breakdown of a normal day shooting on assignment.

12PM/midnight: clear skies, shoot Denali from overlook, set up tent and climb in sleeping bag.

1:30AM grizzly bear running across road by camp, I’m the only person in a tent…hhmmm.

3:30AM up to shoot early morning light on denali, already plenty light out .

5AM drive to next shooting location.

6:30AM shoot Denali from a new location

8AM board float plane for aerial shooting

10AM drive to next shoot, Musk Ox farm

12Noon lunch

1pm drive to next shoot

3pm board helicopter for aerial shooting/dog sledding

4pm jump on snow machine to chase dog sledders across glacier

6pm dinner

8pm shoot nice light on mountains

10pm bed

I had some great shooting from helicopters and planes this assignment.   The trick with shooting from planes is getting enough shutter speed to reduce blurry shots, and put your lens right against the window if you have a window (some pilots will take doors off for shooting).  I like to shoot 1/500 or faster with my VR on.  This improves my odds for tack sharp images, but shoot a lot since you don’t get these opportunities a lot.

I also use a Singh-ray LB color polarizer for many of my landscape aerials.  This filter really punches up the color and contrast.

I have been working on some video projects for an upcoming article and really enjoyed exploring the capabilities of DSLR video. I worked with Chris the other day in an urban part of town. We have done a lot of shoots together and practically know what the other person is thinking when it comes to poses and concepts. The difference this time was shooting video along with stills on the same shoot.  Take a look at the HD video.  

I used my 45mm tilt shift lens for a number of the soft focus clips. And I used the Redrock Micro Captain Stubling for hand held video and follow focus with my lens.  Using the Stubling really opened up camera angles for us.  I found shooting video very easy on the D3s, and was amazed at the quality.  720p HD video at 24fps has a great cinematic quality to it and worked perfect for this shoot. For lighting on the video we used Litepanel Micro Pro lights.

For lighting on the stills we used Elinchrom Quadras.  I am using these lights more and more… light, convenient and powerful.   I really like being able to use the same accessories as with our larger Rangers.

We have been using some new post processing technique in CS5  I learned from Matt Kloskowski.  Matt is a great guy and gladly shares his wealth of knowledge about CS5 and Lightroom.  If you haven’t checked out the videos at Kelby Training (www.kelbytraining.com) on his techniques and much more, you should take a look. We also had a chance to do a couple training videos for Kelby Training, stay tuned for these episodes soon!

Tech: Nikon D3s for video (variety of lenses), D3 for stills; 24-70mm lens, 1/250 at F11, ISO 200.  Elinchrom Quadra packs with A heads for lighting, one light shot through a gridded (rotagrid) 27″ square Rotalux softbox, the other shot with a standard reflector attached. Skyports triggered the lights wirelessly from the camera.  Video: Capt. Stubling rig from Redrock Micro used for handheld shots, Litepanel Micro Pro lights used for video.

Had a fantastic shoot come together the other day.  I have a neighbor who has a classic Lincoln Continental and he offered it as a prop for a photograph.  Of course this brought to mind lots of different ideas, something like a vintage 50s drive-in.  Then I met Rachael, a model in town, whose green eyes and red hair just seemed to fit this concept perfectly.  We set up at a local park, and thanks to lots of grip help, things went great.

When I shoot on a sunny day I like to put my subject in the shade, or create my own.  I want only my lights to be illuminating the model, not harsh sun.  To accomplish this we put up a big 78″ x 78″‘ Lastolite Skylite with diffusion material to soften the sun on Rachael.  The main light on the top image was an Elinchrom Ranger shot through a deep Rotalux Octabox. Next we placed another head gridded to 40 degrees and shot through the back window to add highlights to her hair. To add some highlight on her right side we used another Ranger head gridded to 30 degrees coming through the windshield to hit her right side.

Tech: Nikon D3s, 24-70mm lens, 1/250 at F10, ISO 200. Elinchrom Rangers used with A Heads, one deep 39 ” Rotalux Octabox as main light, gridded heads for accent lights.

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.

It is interesting to see what motivates people to shoot. Inspiration to create comes in many forms, and nothing gets me more excited than seeing an interesting sky develop.  I have never been interested in stripping in a sky that wasn’t there in my shot.  I like some of these images, but I would rather have it in the frame when I take the shot.  The other day we had some great clouds streaming overhead, and I had a portrait shoot set up with a local mountain biker.  Right on cue the clouds filtered in for a great sky background.  I did a time laspe to really highlight these clouds, it’s linked below.  Elinchrom Ranger with a 39″ deep octa on the left, 20 degree gridded head and Ranger on the right.  Triggered by Skyports. Tech: Nikon D200, 18-135mm,  1/160 at F13, ISO 100.

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.

Here is a look at the photo shoot from the other day and gear we used.