I get a lot of questions about gear at the workshops and by email. I have lots to say about gear, but I am not a gear-head. I love gear that helps make my work easier, and couldn’t care less about cost or prestige. If something works well I like it. And if it isn’t worth a premium price, I wont spend a premium price. Period.

There are lots of camera manufacturers, lots of lighting manufacturers and lots of gear manufacturers to choose from. And this article is in no way stating that other peoples choices are wrong. These are the tools I use and like a lot. I do not do negative reviews, so if I talk about it, it is because I like it.

Before we get to the specific items, I want to let everyone know that the workshops are going to be offered again next year and we will have the schedule up soon at Learn to Light. They have been very successful for us, and we are kicking them up a notch with a lot of interesting learning tools for next year. Everything will go up but the price. We are holding at our current price and still keeping to our very small 10-12 participants. If you are thinking about a workshop for your photography, I hope that you take a look at our schedule and mark one you like.

I want to link back to a few other gear articles we have done before getting going here.

Simple Setups for Dramatic Lighting
Mini Workshop: Location Portraits and Glamour
Speedlights: Unleash Their Creative Power
ON LOCATION: with Jerry OConnor, Jim Vigileos and Christina
Enough Modifiers to Keep It Interesting
Shoot Thru Umbrella and Bounce Umbrella – A Comparison
Twenty+ Non-Photographic Essentials For Location Photography

And a few recent articles you should be aware of:
Still Life Shot for a Magazine Ad
Modifying Natural Light with Simple Tools
And this 10 post long series on Going Pro. We are adding more to the Going Pro real soon.

Some new blogs and sites that I love are also something I want to share.

Heather Morton is an Art Buyer in Canada. Her blog is so damn interesting I cannot recommend it more. Absolutely amazing look at the real world of advertising photography. Also there is the wonderful blog by Nick Onken. Nick is one of my favorite shooters and his blog is very insightful. Rodney Smith is also one of my all-time favorite shooters. He now has a blog and it is fascinating reading.

I hope to meet more of you next year, and we are sure loving the fact that so many of you are telling your friends about Lighting Essentials. Thanks so much for your support.

And we still have a few openings in Pittsburgh and Boise. One spot left in Boston and one in Detroit. Florida is full. We will be starting next year with San Diego and Houston. See Learn to Light for more information.

So let’s get going on the gear post.

Let’s start with the Honl Gear that I have been carrying and using for several months now. Excellent build, and incredibly easy to carry in a small camera bag. I use the Flag, Snoot, Grid and Color Correction Gels.

What I like about them:
1. They go on all my speedlights no matter what brand or model.
2. The strap system is rugged, and powerful enough to handle wind and heat.
3. Quality of the light. From the snoot and the grid-spot, it is clean and easy to manipulate
4. They travel so well. A very small footprint for travel. I usually pack them in the front of my small travel camera bag.
5. After being taken to at least 12 workshops and passed all around in all kinds of weather and circumstances they still look and work like brand new. And that is really impressive.

How I use them:
The Honl System works so well for my work these days. I use the Snoot tool as a way to gently highlight a small area. And I can modify it to be a bounce fill for my speedlight if I need one. Versatility and build quality makes this Snoot exceptional. I use this thing for so many little nuances in shots that I would really not like to get on location without it.

In addition to the traditional snoot, I also like to use it as a very controlled bounce for my speedlight. In the shot below you can see how I will fold it to give me a little wink of fill from the flash. I do this to taste and not as a formula.

Snoots are used to bring a controlled light with a tight fall off to an area that a photographer wants. I have also used the snooted light as a main. It can be very dramatic. You should experiment with these tools to find out how much you can actually do with them. That is what makes them so cool, and being able to carry it in your bag is a huge reason for not having excuses for less creative light… ya know.

The Honl Flag is quite versatile as well. I use it to block light from spilling over onto areas I don’t want it to. This traditional tool is so powerful as there are places you may not want the spill to light. It also works really well to block potential spill from a backlight speedlight on your lens.

The Flag (Gobo) has a white and black side to it, so the white can be used as a smart bounce card above the camera, and I also use it to add a bit of rim light when needed. To block the light from spilling over on the background or other areas, I use the black side.

Grid Spots are amazing little tools to bring tightly controlled light with a soft edge to to it. Unlike the snoot, the light falls off a bit more gently from the honeycomb Grid Spot. Grids do kill a bit of the power, but there are so many uses for them that I have several.

The Honl color-correction gels are so easily handled with the Velcro system that it lets me be creative and exact with my light… fast. There are times when you really need to get that light right. The ability to quickly add a color-correcting Gel to any of the Honl tools is a real selling point to me.

Creative lighting sometimes calls for these special tools. And having them be so portable makes them very powerful. I have Grids, Snoots and Flags in the studio, but they really do NOT travel well. The Honl gear does what it says it will do and gives photographers the freedoom to take these creative lighting tools with them easily.

For more information on the incredibly powerful Honl gear see Expo Imaging.

A note about DIY:
I suck at it really bad. I have no time to develop the artistry that it would take to make these tools to the specs and presentation that I require. A Pringles Can snoot will only go so far before it is no longer a snoot, but a beat-to-hell Pringles can.

I work with people who expect the best from me. I expect the best from me… and my equipment. I want it to work well and look good. Look professional. That is so important for my work and my client’s clients. So I spend a little money to get what I think will do the job and get stuff done.

Honl Gear can be found here.

Two shots from a recent workshop showing the Honl and SpeedLightProKit tools being used for a beauty shot:

Another shot from that setup:

Next up is the Kacey Beauty Dish from Kacey Enterprises.

I love this thing so much. It is very light, and very easy to use. But lightness and ease of use is not the most important thing to me. To me it is the quality of the light. And this thing rocks. It has a Mola look to the design. That makes it look quite attractive and the light is really beautiful falling on the three dimensional faces I shoot.

Beauty dishes are quite large and most are pretty heavy. It adds a bit of a challenge to using them. My studio currently has three beauty dishes… two for my large studio kits and this Kacey Beauty Reflector for the speedlight work that I do. I recommend that you get it with the dual speedlight adapter as there are times when you need a bit more power (DBL Speedlight Configuration).

As I said, the light is really sweet from this Dish, and I love how I can dial down the power and get a true Beauty Dish look with an aperture of 2.8 or 4. Limited Depth of Field with the look of a powerful lighting tool. My other large strobe Beauty Dishes will not go much below f-11 or f-8 within the distance that I like to use a beauty dish (18″ – 42″) from the subject. That close proximity of the light means that my ProFotos – even when dialed all the way down – are still too powerful to use wide open apertures. It comes with a mirrored diffuser for the speedlights efficiency, but the Kacey can be ordered with an optional non-mirror diffuser for more powerful lights.

I use the Kacey Location Bag as well, and it makes carrying the Dish, attachments, and speedlight mounts so easy.

Here are three shots by Bill Millios of the Kacey Beauty Dish in action at the Lighting Essentials Workshop, Fredrick, Maryland. There was a fairly stiff wind on the bridge shots, but the Kacey with the painter pole really held its own.

This shot shows the Kacey working to provide a beautiful light in an overcast situation.

In this shot, also by Bill Millios, the Kacey is paired with an Alien Bee for a somewhat surreal image. It helps to have exceptional talent as well as a concept that makes it work.

Kacey also makes grids and softlight covers for the beauty dish, but I rarely use them. They are also high quality tools, but I prefer an open face beauty dish. However, the Pole Adapter is simply an amazing little tool for adding your Beauty Dish to a long painting pole. Available at most any Home Depot or Lowes painting departments, the extension pole can be adapted to holding your beauty dish with one of these little devices.

The Kacey Dual Mount Speedlight Mount:

The Back of the Kacey Beauty Dish with one Light Bracket:

For me, this light and totally modifiable reflector makes perfect sense. I can get an adapter made for my other, more powerful units, or simply choose to use it as is with an assortment of speedlights, my choice. For now, it is my go-to light on the speedlight front whenever I can get it there.

However, sometimes I cannot take my Kacey Beauty Reflector because of space or if I am flying and I cannot get another piece of luggage on. For that, I use the SpeedLightProKit Beauty Dish. It folds up so easily and packs in the lid of my suitcase. While it is not quite a beauty dish, lacking the sharp edge, the light is really fantastic.

Here is a shot of it in use in Mexico. This shot is by Bill Millios:

This simple technique is one I have discussed on ProPhotoResource.com. The article is here.

Images courtesy Hopeland Studios.

The beauty dish comes in a neatly packaged box which can be used for travel. I have the beauty dish, a large softbox and a small softbox in it with some barndoors and gel pack. I reinforced the sides of my kit box with a small amount of perfectly cut Gaffers tape so it is both rugged and attractive. The beauty dish itself is in three parts: the two that snap together to make the large dish and a diffuser that fits inside the opening. It was a little tricky the first time I set it up, but now it goes together real quick.

As I stated, there is no ‘lip’ or tight edge to this beauty dish, something that traditional beauty dishes have, so it doesn’t have that ‘snap’ at the edges. I don’t think that is a bad thing… it is actually pretty good. The flash seems to fade pretty fast at the distances I use it, and I love the fall off from this thing. So while it may not be ‘exactly’ as a beauty dish would perform, I love what it does do a lot.

The SpeedLightProKit Beauty Dish will be available soon. Check their website for more information.

Some words about the SpeedLightProKit products that I use. I particularly like these units for a lot of reasons:

1. They are solid and very well made.
2. The footprint for travel is nearly nothing. I can take a bunch of modifiers in my luggage whenever I need.
3. The light is smooth, well defined and color correct.
4. The units deliver a lot of light for small tools.
5. I cannot tell the ones that have traveled all over the country, been used hundreds of times, and packed/repacked over and over again from the absolutely brand new ones I just received.

My personal kit for the SpeedLightProKit tools is as follows:

1 Beauty Dish
2 Large Softboxes
2 Medium Softboxes
2 Medium Box Grids
And an assortment of grid-spots, gels and diffusers.
That is equal to two ProKit Pro Sets, two ProKit 6 Reflector kits and most of their other modifiers.

I usually tell my students at the workshop that if you are going to buy a lighting modifier – umbrella, softbox, reflector, grid etc… – to get two of each. There are times when having two lights that totally match will be important. That may not be true with beauty dishes or the larger umbrellas or parabolics, but it is definitely something I press on the smaller to medium tools. Two that match. Important.

For those of you who may already be familiar with the SpeedLightProKit tools, I would like to point out a few changes. They have created a new mount for the Large Softbox (ProKit 6) that works extremely well. Here is a look at the ProKit 6 Large Softbox and New Mounting Ring.

Another New Item is the PR4-T tool. These are a pair of diffused panels to match the ones for the ProKit Pro and ProKit 6 modifiers. They can be mixed and matched to make a traditional ‘event shooter’ speedlight top, or something more esoteric… like a softbox with a diffusion panel to add light to a bounce card below. Or a Large softbox with some diffused light to escape and fill in ambient… the uses for this set of tools is limitless.

Here I use a small ProKit Softbox to light Frank against the sun over his shoulder camera left. Speedlight is a 430EX on half power.

The shot after removing the light in Photoshop.

For a look at the SpeedLightProKit tools I reviewed earlier this year, see this page:
Enough Modifiers to Keep It Interesting

In the end, the tools above are simply tools. You must make them work for you. I hope you consider them in your gear purchases. Most can be found at MPEX or at their own sites to which I have linked. I hope you found this article informative and useful. Please join me on Twitter or Facebook or any of the other Social Media sites listed top right of this page. Thanks.

Next Gear Review will be on Flash Units for studio and travel.

SHARE/SAVE

I get asked a lot about how my methodology works. What am I thinking about when setting the light? How do I know what the settings should be.

For this post I have pulled some shots from last years workshop tour. I will explain the exposure planning as we go along. From mixing the ambient with the speedlights or overriding the ambient altogether, the knowledge of what the image should look like will help you decide.

And what should the image look like? Well, that is up to you. In photography there seems to be an endless amount of possibilities and you can pretty much do what you want. Stylistically and artistically, you can make the image you want by working with the light your way.

The neat thing is that the light works the same way, every time. So you can “learn” the light and its abilities and controls and be comfortable that the light will do what you expect it to.

I always carry a little book with me to sketch ideas in and also to document how I do something for later review. I decided to scan those extemporaneous drawings so you can see how simple it is to do the shots, and how important it can be to carry a small notebook for making notes. You don’t have to be an artist, but it sure helps to LEARN what you are doing by writing it down. I don’t do every shot, but sometimes I like to just sketch it quick and then see if there is anything else I could do.

Before we get going on this post, I want to remind you about the upcoming workshops: Akron, Omaha, Montana and Chicago. These workshops are intense and full of information that goes even beyond lighting. From professional working methods to using social media to gain exposure, we talk about photography all day long. For two full days. Visit the Learn to Light website for more information.

If you are currently looking for a new way to present your work, take a look at our Professional Photographer Websites built on the power of WordPress. Just click the Essentials link on the menu bar for more information.

Now lets look at five different portrait setups that use speedlights and ambient light.

You may want to take a look at this post for some information on calibrating your lights and learning exactly what the power is going to be at the distances you choose. My 430 and 550 are both right at f-8 at 1/8 power at about 5.5 feet. That knowledge means I have total control by power setting and distance

The shot above represents a neat ambient blend of speedlight and soft ambient light that wraps all around the subject. After getting the exposure with my Minolta meter I could begin to plan the lighting and what it should be. I usually take an ambient light shot without strobes so I can see how the light is falling and get an idea of the image as it will be presented.

The shot on the left shows the ambient only photograph. You can see that it isn’t bad at all, but the one on the right has a little more snap to it. F-4 at 1/160 was the meter setting and I took several shots with the ambient only before adding the strobes. The ambient shot isn’t bad, and we shot several shots with the ambient as it has a nice, soft look to it.

When it came time to add the strobes I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve. I wanted the ambient look but with a little pop from the strobes to open the shadows on her face and give the skin a brighter look. I didn’t want the strobes to overpower the ambient, just to add a little bit to the shadows. I did not change the exposure of the image with the strobes, as I knew they were so close to the ambient exposure.

Here is the diagram for the light:

Below I have the shot of Briana after some minor Photoshop work.

You can see how gentle the light is here. We didn't want to overpower the ambient, just add a little spark to the image.

Here is a shot of Briana on the sand bridge heading over the hill. It was very cold and blustery at this time. We were both cold, so we wanted to make the shot and get it in the can before we both froze…

The shot with the ambient is terrible. To open the shot with the ambient would have meant that the sky would have gone white and the shot would be very flat.

I needed then to add some strobe to it to bring the shot up in value and leave the sky dark. To add light to the subject and not change the shutterspeed was the goal. That allowed the shutterspeed to control the background (the dark gray sky) and the strobe to fill in the light up front and the subject.

Looking at the shot now, I realize I should have used a flag on the front part of the image to darken it a bit. I had to lower the values in Photoshop, as I didn’t want the image to look flashlit so much. Below is the shot at ambient and with the flash. I used a 430 on a stand, bare with no modification.

Here is the diagram for the above shot:

And here is the final shot. I brought the values down a bit in the front with photoshop and some layer blends. Creating a more even transition of light from the foreground to the background keeps the shot from looking too “over lit.”

Next up is this shot of Briana in Nova Scotia:

I like the look of the light and background matching.

This shot shows what the background looks like without the strobe. I generally make a few shots to see what the background is going to do before I start to add the strobe. I want to see how the light would look without my added lights. What happens to the leaves and the shadow that is being thrown forward? Will there be any issues with the bench?

I find it very important to “build” a shot. Starting with the ambient exposures gives me a great starting point. I new that 1/160 was within my strobe sync speed on the Canon, so all I really had to do was add my strobe at the position I wanted and at the power I need to get f-14. Since I know that at 1/8 power at 5.5 feet it would be f-8, I simply had to change the power to get to f-14. 1/4 power would give us f-11 and 1/2 power would give f-16. I simply moved the light back about 6-7″ and it would give me f-14.

Lighting Diagram:

I made sure that the flash would not throw any shadows across the face or create any difficult lighting problems. I do that by making sure that the axis of the light was straight onto Bri, not too far to the side or too high. At the level I have the light, it throws a shadow under her chin, but it is nearly straight back. It is one of only a few flash “tells’ Making the light seem natural was my goal.

In Photoshop, I was able to make sure that the light was nice and smooth and I added a bit of contrast with Tony Kuyper’s Luminance masks, and painted some gentle highlights on the arms and dress. Overall, there was a little Photoshop, but not too much.

Here is the shot after the Photoshop:

I wanted to match the background: after a shot with no strobe, I knew that it would be easy to add a strobe.

It is so important to make some shots first and to see what the light is going to do before you add some of your own. Knowing what the strobe output at specific distances makes this rather quick. At that point it is angle to subject, the angle to the camera and camera angle to the subject… the triangle that is the basis of lighting.

There are two more in PDF form if you would like to download them. Thanks for stopping by. And please let your friends know about Lighting Essentials – a place for photographers.

SHARE/SAVE

I use my speedlights frequently when on location, but truth be told I would rather have a more robust selection of tools to modify the light. I will admit to sucking pretty bad at the DYI approach. I will simply not go into a shoot with grubby or ‘home-made’ equipment unless it really looks compelling.

That all changed with the tools that I am telling you all about on this post. There are softboxes, softlighters, grid-spots, bounces, color filters, barn doors and even some little softlight tops similar to the Stofen. The Speed Light Pro Kit is an amazing set of tools and modifiers at a price that anyone can work with.

Here’s the cool thing, at least one of the cool things, they all fit flat into a tiny space. I can throw them into a small bag or my suitcase and be off knowing I have enough modifiers to do the job. From small softbox, to tightly contained grid-spots, I have enough gear to be effective with my lighting for most challenges.

This will be an bit different post. I will run it until this weekend, updating as I go along with new images taken with the different tools. Saturday will culminate in a webcast where you can ask questions and I can show you how I use them. We are scheduling the webcast for 11AM on Saturday, Phoenix, Arizona… we are on Pacific Time here, so mark your calendars appropriately.

There will be a link here on Saturday morning, March 21, and you will be able to click and visit the webcast.

Some items before we begin. Upcoming workshops are filling, so get signed up. We are very small in our groups, and that gives us lots of shooting time as well as learning the tools and techniques that will lead to more control in your lighting.

Let’s start with what is in the package:

The kit comes well packaged in protective sleeves. On the above illustration we have:
1 Medium Grid Spot
2Tight Grid Spot
3 Medium Soft Box (2 included)
4 Medium Soft Grid
5 Medium Soft Box two pieces

The Grid Spots are well made, and very smooth with the spot effect. There is a very tight beam and a medium beam included so you can have both in one shot if you have enough speedlights. The light is clean and the build is solid.

The two medium softboxes have a soft panel and a grid pattern. The interior of the boxes are covered with a silver, slightly studded material that really bounces the light in and around the box. The diffused softbox has a double layer of diffusion built in to the unit that gives the light a very nice effect. The medium grid spot has a wider throw than the smaller grids, but there is a softness that is added from the interior silver material.

I put my 430 in the shot to give you a sense of scale. You can see that the softboxes are fairly good size for the small light tools.

Continuing:

The second image shows a speedlight bounce tool (6) that fits on top of the strobe and has versatile mounting for changing how it works. You can choose to use it as a diffuser or a bounce tool, and you can shoot through it or have it above your strobe for a lighting modifier.

7 shows a set of color filters for the medium softboxes. They work really well and are great for effect lighting. Pop one behind the medium grid and get spot color effects. 8 shows the barndoors (2 sets) that can be used with the medium softboxes to control the throw of the light or flag off any unwanted spill.

9 is an assortment of colored strobe toppers to soften and color the strobe light. They attach very quickly and do a nice job with the softening of the direct flash. 10 is some extra softeners that come with the kit. You have enough soft lighters to handle a half a dozen speedlights.

But wait, there’s more:

Group three shows the larger softbox that is included, as well as the different fastening tools to keep it on the flash. Setting this light up takes about 30 seconds, and the light is really smooth. They have included a silver cover in the center of the softbox to keep the highlight from being too center weighted. The 430 shows how large the softbox is in relation to the strobe.

I very much like the shape of this large light. While not a square, it gives a slightly more rounded catch light in the eyes. The unit is solid, with a good build. The light is clean, and open and the softness is wide and bright.

Below you will see the light assembled and its size in relation to the speedlight.

With this high quality, widely diverse and easily packed set of tools, you can go into a lot of situations with some confidence that you can have the main and effect light that you want. It is a well designed set of tools that can modify any speedlight. There is no compatibility issues and the tools look professional enough to go on a pro shoot.

The durability and build seems to be very strong. I can imagine that they will take some punishment, but they are not indestructible. As with most things, care and proper use / storage will increase their longevity. The snaps are brisk and the material is very sturdy. They lay flat in most cases, only the grid-spots wont lay flat.

You can visit the Speed Light Pro Kit site here. They are offered in the US at MPEX, and are available now in other parts of the world. See the website for more information.

EDIT: The products shown here came to me as a single unit. They are sold as groups and individually in different ‘packages’. I do not sell these items, but I do recommend them at this point. You can buy the full set of tools, or just the tools you need. The great folks at MPEX can help you configure the right set of tools for your needs.

SHARE/SAVE

There is so much talk on some forums about the ‘softness’ of shoot-thru umbrellas and how much it works to provide a soft light. And there is certainly some truth to that statement… especially with umbrellas at a distance.

But finessed lighting that is done close to the subject finds that the shoot-thru umbrella has no ‘wrap’ to it, instead it scatters the light from the source instead of focusing the light. And those of you who know me, know that I don’t usually run in a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ mode on lighting. I only want the lighting to be what you want it to be… and learning lighting from someone who tells you to always do ‘a’ to get ‘b’ will do you no good.

You must get out and work with the tools, see the results, tweak and repeat. And repeat. Learn what the light does, then reconstruct it to provide the light you want.

We are going to examine a couple of shots we did with both in the same light. I also shot the setup so you can see how simple it is, and what I am referring to with the light.

NOW: Workshop News.
We are so excited about the workshops coming up. Please let me know if there are places you want to see Lighting Essentials Workshops. I am looking to book July and August now. And, of course we have all the workshop signups working so you can get signed up and ready for the workshops in your area… from San Diego to Montana to Washington DC… even Nashville!

I hope you are aware of our new Lighting Diagram tool. It is awesome and really can help with sharing the diagrams with friends. Treat the grid as 1 foot square and be precise about placement.

Now, let’s go look at some shots with shoot-thru and bounce umbrellas.

First I took a reading of the ambient bright light by walking over to camera right to get some sunlight on the meter. I wanted around 1/1oo of a second for ambient sharpness, and it is well within the sync-speed of the camera. At 1/100, the ambient light was around f-8. I moved it to f-6.3 for the exposure because the f-8 rendered the background light too dark. I wanted a feeling of sky back there and I wanted the feeling that Bri was being lit by that sky light.

I set the flash to a distance of about 6feet from Briana and changed the power from my starting point of 1/8 power to 1/16 power, then moved the stand in toward her about a foot. At 6ft, 1/16 power I would have gotten f-8. I wanted it to match so lowering the power took the light down one full stop – f-5.6. That is not enough light, so I moved the light toward Briana a foot or so and that would increase the power of the light by 1/3 stop – f-6.3.

Now my backlight and my strobe created backlight match. NOTE: the sun is actually behind the building and setting much farther south – we are looking West here.

Here is the shot we did without the front light firing:

You can see that the backlight is even all around her. Speedlight is matched to the ambient backlight from the lit sky.

Here is the shot with a bounced umbrella:

You can see how the light wraps all around her and creates a lot of light on her arm. That is because the light from the edge of the umbrella is lighting her arm farthest away… it is the wrap effect.

Here is the set-up shot:

Notice how much light is hitting that bounce card on the stand next to her.

Now, compare that shot with this one with a shoot-thru umbrella. Here’s the setup shot.

Here is the shot:

You can see that the image is more contrasty, with her arm going darker and the shadows under her neck and the dark side of her face being more defined.

Let’s get one thing straight, though. Neither one is better or not so good. They are both good representiations of the subject. It becomes a matter of choice… what do you want YOUR shots to look like. I can certainly see me using the shoot-thru umbrella and get the slightly deeper shadow when I want it. It is all about you creating the light you want and now you have another way of doing the shots.

A couple of things to see:
The diagram shows a couple of things. The light from a shoot thru falls away from the subject. And although it creates a soft light from size and diffusion, there is a dispersion AWAY from the subject.

Additionally you will see that the sides of the face and arms are not visible to that light source, so there is no light being thrown on them. There is some ambient, but in contrasty scenes, it will be less than what we see with naked eye.

The bounce umbrella, a parabolic in shape, keeps the light closer to the same distance from the subject. It also forms a light that can be seen from the side of the subject (wrap). While it is less diffused than the shoot thru umbrella, the bounce creates a more even light with the added wrap for cutting contrast.

I will point out though, that lighting for me happens close to the subject. Finessed lighting anyway. I want my lights to be as close to the subject as I can get them because there I can manipulate to results that can range from subtle to dramatic. Finesse.

Once the light moves out farther from the subject, it becomes a little less possible to finesse on that level, instead the addition of spots, grids and such are more useful for creating finesse.

Here is one last setup shot. I wanted to create something that seemed backlit by the sun, but in actuality was lit by a speedlight behind Bri.

I wanted the backlight to very much match the front light and set them so. The difference is that the backlight is a hard light, and creating speculars as it hits shoulders and hair, and the front light is an umbrella giving soft, all over light. The resulting portrait is natural looking and inviting.

I love the look of this shot. It seems natural, and yet has a contemporary look to it that makes it a little sexy.

Look for our contests to be announced soon, with some great prizes and fun awards. For now, I am off to help pull wardrobe for a large shoot on Monday. See you on this Friday for another tutorial.

And remember to get our RSS feeds for automatic notifications of new content.

SHARE/SAVE

Our Tech Sheet on using a meter will be next time, we decided for a variety of reasons to bring you this Tech Sheet on beating the sun for effect instead. Explanation could come soon on why, but I wouldn’t wait for it… heh. It just happens when you are a one man publishing mogul. LOL

OK, there are times when you want to be able to beat the sun, that is, provide light that is equal to or brighter than the sun. When using small strobes it becomes even more tricky because there is a limit to the speedlight’s power. And to beat the sun we do need some power.

We are going to take this in two parts, the first being this tech sheet with small speedlights, and later this year with some large strobes. We will be using one and two lights for this exercise, so it should be something most will be able to do easily.

Before we get going, I want to say how cool it is that people are calling from all over the country asking me to bring the Lighting Workshop to their town. We have added Montana, Omaha, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, and they are filling up pretty fast. I have decided to lower the attendee count a bit because of how well they have done with a few less photogs. We would like to keep it at 12 with an assistant.

Now, let’s get on with the Tech Sheet for the end of February, how to beat the sun with small strobes.

Red Dress, Blond hair and a strange totem pole thing. The sun had slipped a little below the fog bank and it was getting a nice, ambient warmth everywhere. I decided to create our own light with the speedlights. One to camera right and one to camera left. I took an ambient reading and found that at 1/125 the ambient was just a little brighter than f-5.6. So I set the camera at f-11@1/125 and moved the strobes to a distance that would give me f-11 at 1/4 power. Shooting at f-11, we end up with an exposure that is a stop and a half under in the ambient.

Download our Tech Sheet on Beating the Sun here as a PDF file.

Sometimes you end up shooting straight into the sun, and there are all kinds of challenges with that… flare being one of the most challenging.

I couldn’t see the model as she was posing, so I had to trust her to do a great job. She did. I caught the flare by accident, but it made a nice touch to the composition. I underexposed the ambient by shutter speed, keeping the flash to expose the subject. See the tech sheet for more information on this particular shot.

Briana on the roof in Mexico. The sun is coming in over her shoulder and behind her. I took a meter reading of the light hitting Briana from the back and it was f-16@1/125 at ISO 100. I wanted the ambient to be darker so I lowered the ambient two ways: First, I changed the shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/160. This darkened the ambient by 1/3 stop. I then changed the f-stop from f-16 to f-20, effectively darkening the ambient 2/3. Combined, the ambient is 1 full stop under the metered light. So I left the camera setting at f-20 and 1/160 then moved the speed light into a spot where it would provide an exposure of f-20. That put it at 1/2 power, so there was a bit of a wait for the recycle. I hate that, but it is certainly a doable situation.

Trikita in Bermuda. What a wonderful place and exceptional young lady. We had her in the shade, and the ambient was a full f-16 @1/100 – perfect Sunny 16 – and I wanted it to be more muted. I decided to lower the ambient light by a full stop, creating more bang for the flash on Trikita.

Shutter speed was upped to my highest possible sync with those triggers, 1/200 would sync, and that lowered the ambient 2/3 stops, then I set the f-stop at 1/20 which is 1/3 stop less than the ambient exposure reading. Combined they are a full stop less than the ambient light. Keeping the strobe at 1/2 power at 6.5 feet gave me a full f-16 at a medium zoom. The ‘zoom’ setting created a sort of spot light on her and I like that look a lot.

Assignment:
Place a subject with the sun slightly to fully behind them. Take a reading to find your ambient light. If it is a sunny day, you should be around f-16 at 1/100 of a second. Put a speed light on a stand at about 6 feet, then put it on 1/2 power. Adjust to a point where it is giving you an exposure of f-16.

Put the camera on 1/60th and take a picture. At f-16 and 1/60, the background should appear light and bland. Continue at 1/80, 1/100, 1/125, 1/160, 1/200, 1/250. Check the images. The subject should remain fairly consistent, but your ambient background will get darker and darker.

Now change the power of your strobe to full power. That should render f-22 on your subject. Set the camera f-stop to f-22. Do the series over again… 1/60 through 1/250 and examine the images. The darkest images will be those of the 1/250 @ f-22.

This exercise will show you how the ambient is controlled by the shutter speed and the flash exposure by the f-stop.

I hope that you will try some of these tips and download the Tech Sheet for your collection… you do have a collection started, right?

Exciting news to be announced Monday. I think you will like it. See you next week.

SHARE/SAVE

There are occasions when you need to work very, very fast and still deliver a shot that makes both client and subject happy. These types of shoots can be frustrating and challenging, but it keeps the adrenaline going and when it results in an image that everyone likes, it can be very satisfying.

I was called at the last minute to shoot an interior designer in his studio / workshop. Because of schedules I would have about an hour to get what they wanted. Assignment was three shots and a lead… that means I had to do 4 shots total with one of the shots being a full page vertical. You want to make sure you know what they need before going out on the assignment, especially one where the timing is short and there are no realistic time slots for a reshoot.

Coni Bourin was the art director for the magazine, and although she rarely involves herself in the shooting, she does like to be there when it is happening. We met at the studio at 8:30am to get some ideas for the shoot that would take place about 9am. We were told that the subject had to be out of there at 10 for an appointment.

One of the things I always do is get to a place early enough to start to plan the shoot. I also get some equipment out and at the ready. A couple of stands, fill cards, lights and modifiers are at the ready. I don’t want to take precious time running to the car to get a stand. This gives me time to look at the place we are shooting and begin to plan out the shots.

Before we make the jump to the next page, a reminder that next weeks Tech Sheet goes up tomorrow afternoon… it’s a good one and something quite different for Lighting Essentials. You will have to let me know what you think of it. We have desktops for this month here, an article about shooting with clamshell lighting and an article on shooting with two speedlights on the beach that you may have missed. And as always, visit the LEMagazine site – link on left – for some interviews of photographers and other articles.

Now on to the shoot…

The studio / showroom was in a very cool building on North Central and Coni and I met there early with Starbucks in hand. A quick walk through of the space revealed a very large two story window facing West, and lots of skylights. Knowing that the magazine likes a more natural style of images, I immediately formulated a simple lighting scheme in my head. We would go with natural light augmented with some stobes to keep the light open and the subject lit even if he were in a darker area under the skylights.

Natural light augmented with a little speedlight calls for finesse, not heavy handed lighting. I worked at about 1/16 – 1/8 power into umbrellas.

Our first shot is one of the first ones we did. He came into the shoot with some plans in hand and was talking with his assistant. I quickly placed a medium umbrella to camera left, high and asked him to stand in the spot where his head was against the flat backround wall. This ‘frame’ seems to make him even more the ‘subject’. His choice of a white shirt was great, and I knew he would pop out of the dark background pretty well.

I got up on a little ladder to shoot down on him and show more of his showroom behind him. Placing him where there was a nice amount of skylight gave a nice separation and was fast.

I had already tested my lights and knew that at the distance of the umbrella from him, the light would merely wink in the shadows, filling the shot slightly and adding some soft speculars. I was able to get about 6 shots before his cell rang and we had to move on to another shoot.

The next shot is one Coni and I had a moment to set up. It was going to be our lead shot so we wanted a nice vertical and Coni wanted some space at the top for the headline / intro. I set up a shoot thru (rare, yeah… but in this case perfect) to light the top of the wall and placed it on the foyer above and to camera right. Camera left was a medium umbrella with a speedlight up high to open the shadows and keep him evenly lit. Light from behind me was a two story window and there is a skylight directly above. He walked into position and I was able to get about 20 shots before another emergency brought his assistant running.

I did some post on the picture for my portfolio and am using it instead of the more natural look the magazine went with. That is the luxury of digital and it is, after all, my shot. Heh.

We did a few grab shots of him on the phone and such and were wrapped about 10 minutes early. We headed outside and he was talking to us about his building and the plans he had for it. He leaned against the column and I knew I had another shot. Coni held a reflector in close from camera right and I shot natural light… previsualizing the post as more illustrative. The magazine loved the shot but decided not to use it because the post was too stylistically different. I included the ‘normal’ shot that they loved as well, but in the end went with the stairs shot for the magazine. The client ordered a large print so that was cool.

Being ready for what happens and having your gear at the ready makes the challenge of a short time frame at least better. I keep the gear I need close and at the ready so we can do what we need to do as fast as possible. I can see the light better when looking at it instead of looking in my bag for batteries. Working fast means working smart.

Tomorrow is the next Tech Sheet. See you then.

SHARE/SAVE

A friend and fellow photographer and I were sitting and having some overpriced coffee when he asked me a question about one of my shots that we were looking at. “Why did you light it that way?”

It took me a bit by surprise because most of the time I am asked “how” not why. I mentioned a post at Flickr I had made earlier about asking why instead of how, but he insists he doesn’t do forum stuff on the internet (and I believe him) so it was unrelated.

And I was off guard.

The shot was one I posted a while back and I had to make some decisions about how to do it and what tools I would use to do it. It is a shot of Briana taken on the Mexico trip and with the look of a candid.

I had nearly anything I would have wanted at my disposal… great house for a set, studio lights, soft boxes.. you name it.

But I wanted the shot to look natural and without the ‘hand of the photographer’ in the image.

Bri is wearing a teeshirt and boy-shorts and it was very late at night so there was no sun ambient present. I wanted to create a shot where the light helped define the mood, so I had to bring it all or shoot at 1/8 at ISO 1600… Nope. That doesn’t work for me for this shot.

The background is the kitchen area and I wanted it to look bright – as though it had its own illumination and that light was more powerful than the area Bri is looking into. I am using the bright back light as a background, a base so to speak, for Bri to be over. Figure ground sort of thing.

That meant that I had to keep my light in front to a lesser amount so that it would seem as though she were looking into a space from a space… and those spaces were not equal.

They were different. Different illumination values mean different spaces. By bringing her to the edge of the cabinet I was able to use the pillar to help the definition along as well. The strong backlight plays well along the edges of the architecture and Bri as well. See the hairlight and small amount of separation on her left side.

This is the full shot. I love the graininess that the ISO 800 gave me, but I did temper it a bit in Photoshop. Other than some minor skin repair, there is no manipulation of the image.

Briana takes a break at the beach house in Mexico

To keep the light natural, I kept it high as that is where kitchen lighting would be normally. You can see how it falls on her shoulders, hair and back and then falls to almost nothing on her thighs. That helps define the light as coming from above because light from above could not backlight her legs.

The light from the front could not be flat however as that would lose the feeling of ambient. It had to have shape to it.. some light/dark. Notice how her legs go dark toward the back… only to be presented with that bright back light and the definition that dark/light can cause.

Using the wrong tools could have caused the light to overly wrap there and lose the immediacy of the image. It looks very accessible this shot… like a snapshot of a pretty girl drinking her hot tea with a ton of sugar and milk… Heh.

I needed shadows to the front light. Natural looking shadows that would say “light source here” but not say “strobe’ or worse – “flash fill”. That meant a source that would create a soft, but directional light from the front. It allows shadows to be cast, and a definite direction to the light, but not a harsh or overly powerful light source that would remove the intimacy I wanted.

Intimacy is the essence of this shot. Intimate in location, pose, direction, gesture and light.

That’s why I lit it that way.

Did all of that happen with those exact thought patterns as discussed above? Yep… but they flood in, not methodically trickle… but a flood of understanding light and psychology of the shot I wanted and more. A flood of past images and current images, of the space and the model and the light and the feeling I wanted to get.

Intimacy is the reason for this light.

How it was done:

There is a speedlight on a stand behind Bri and to camera right. It is about 7feet in the air and pointed nearly straight up. It is set at 1/16th power. To the front of Briana is a 60″ satin white umbrella in the bounce position (I rarely use shoot thru’s). I have a speedlight in that umbrella set at 1/32 power. It has the zoom pulled way back to 24mm and was giving me a pretty nice soft, but directional light. I shot at ISO 800 and the lighting is approximately 1:2.3 – a stop and a third over the main on the back light.

NOTE: This article is a repost from a Flickr forum posted the same day, but earlier, of this posting.

See you next time at Lighting Essentials.

SHARE/SAVE

I have shot natural light for many, many years. I have learned to use it, define it, control it and exploit it. It can be such a great main light, and working with some reflectors can add to the natural feel as well.

On this shoot I had decided to get back to my roots of shooting with lots of natural light and concentrating on the image, pose, attitude, expression and composition without adding lights. I think you will enjoy how the shoot came together.

Megan came along as well and shot with her speedlights. She has graciously let me use her images to show how two different approaches can work on the same shot.

Our first shot is one of Megan shooting the driver’s seat of a cool old 57 Chevy we found in Miami, Arizona. The owner was happy to let us hang all over it and make our images. I wanted to test the shot with Megan while Bri and Christina were being styled by Lisa. The car is in the shade of a two story building with the sun behind. The car was about 10-12 feet from the shadow line so there would be way less of the “up light” that can sometimes happen when the subject is right on a shadow line with a bright floor or ground. You can see where the car is in the shade here and you can also see where we had placed our strobes.

Here is the car with and without the strobe firing.

I wanted the natural light to be my main, but I also wanted a feeling of direct sun to be interjected into the image. For this I added a speedlight at a very low setting. Without the speedlight adding a bit of backlight, the image would have been one dimensional. All the light would have been coming in from the front and the image would have been a little flat possibly. Now, there would be times when that would be totally acceptable, but that is what I love about being able to create what I want when I want it. This time I wanted that kick of ‘sun’ to make the shot sparkle a bit.

As you can see, we added the speedlight to the back side of the car – passenger side – to throw the light back into the car and hit the back side of the models. This would give us a feeling of direct light which would contrast with the very soft main light – all natural – on the girls faces. The main light was the brightly lit buildings all around the scene as well as the bright open sky. The natural light exposure was f3.5 at 1/125 @ ISO 100.

That meant that I was OK within the flash sync of the camera. Since the f-stop was so open, I knew that the strobe couldn’t be too hot or it would blow out the interior of the car instead of adding the feel of sun. Dialing down the strobe to 1/32nd power was all I needed to add a wink of light for effect. That also meant that the recycle time would be minimal and I could shoot as fast as I would with the natural light.

Remember that even at 1/32 power, that little flash is capable of adding some significant light to a scene that is in the shade. When attempting these shots, start low and add if needed. We only want a feeling of light, not a blast of light.

Here is Megan’s shot using a speedlight for the main and keeping the ambient up for fill. Again, the speedlight is dialed way down to only interject a little punch to the image.

In this shot you can see how hi-tech my strobe mount is… LOL. Bungees and a clamp. Yep, only the best equipment on my shoots. In the back you see Megan’ very cool adjustable mount.

This shot is with Christina. I had the strobe aiming right at the side of her and it bounced all over the car and lit the side of her face and hair. The look has the feel of sunlight coming in the side window. Exposure is f3.5, 1/125 @ISO 100 and the strobe is set at 1/32nd.

Here is Megan’s shot of Christina in somewhat the same pose. Megan is using a speedlight for her main light and letting the ambient deliver the soft fill. Megan has a speedlight behind the passenger side window and one off camera to add the main. The power is way down to let the ambient fill in gently.

Here’s another crop of the shot by Megan of Christina in this set. Again you can see how the strobe lights blend with the ambient light for a subtle look, not at all ‘flashed’.

Briana was standing next to the car and I wanted to make the shot look like late day sunlight so I placed the speedlight on a stand a bit above Bri’s head and only a little out of frame. I didn’t change exposure on the camera, leaving it at the point of correct exposure for the natural light. I wanted the sunlight to be brighter than the ambient, not to lower the ambient. With the flash at 1/32nd power and at that distance it only added about 2/3 stop to the shot… that was all I needed to add the feeling of the sun as a main light. Briana’s pose with the hand over the eyes adds to the illusion.

In this shot of Briana, she is standing next to the car. I wanted the light to seem as if there were some sun to her right (camera left). Here you can see how the exposure for the ambient did not change, I only added the highlight with the strobe.

And this is the shot we did, with some post processing to make the image have an older feel. I did not try to make the highlight less ‘blown out’ as the look of this kind of shot calls for the blown out look.

I have been doing this lately as well. Here are some unedited images on a contact sheet. You can see how I work with the models within the space. First up is Christina in the drivers seat.

And here is Briana. I hope you appreciate letting you ‘under the curtain’ so to speak. It kinda feels funny to be showing people the work behind the work, but I think you may get something out of it.

In the contact sheet of Briana you can see how the flash adds light from inside of the car, but also how the ambient and reflected light from the bright buildings add hairlight to the camera left on her hair. Here is a final shot of Briana in this last set of images.

We headed toward a very cool old fence with Christina to do a second variation shot. In this image Megan is using a strobe for main light against the sun backlight while I am using only the available light bouncing around in the narrow little street. Behind me is bright sky and two story buildings with very light color. The street is a tiny two lane street so you can imagine how close they are.

The sun is enough south these days (mid September) to give us pretty good backlight. We stood Christina in front of the iron gate and each of us did headshots. Megan’s flash is again dialed way down to only add a wink of strobe to the already available light (see background density on both images).

First is Megan’s shot with a flash for main:

Next up is my shot with natural light for main. As you can see, both shots are lovely images. There is no right and wrong way to do these things, only the personal vision of the photographer and the look they have in their head.

Thanks for coming along on our roadtrip. We enjoyed having you. Watch for more images from this great day in upcoming issues.

SHARE/SAVE

I know, I know… late for the update on speedlights. I apologize a thousand times. Been unimaginably busy, and things have drifted. Bermuda workshop was so intense there was no time left for much other than sleeping (and a little dancing to reggae on the beach… but, I digress.) NOTE: This is part two of the Speedlight series: Part one is here.

This week we are going to look at using one speedlight with no modifications… no umbrellas or softboxes to modify the light, just the bare strobe. This can sometimes seem like pretty harsh light, but there ways to use the single light that can create a very modern, clean and sometimes become almost not noticeable.

We will take a look at a group of images that use only one strobe, in different ways. I want you to try some of these shots when you get a chance. I use a stand or a human boom (assistant) to position the light, and it is very important that it is positioned perfectly.

Images discussed in this article

The line from the camera to the subject is called the axis. It is one third of the triangle caused by the placement of the light, the subject and the camera. The wider that triangle, the more shadow is caused from the light across the subject. Keeping the light on axis of the camera can create less angular shadows. Keeping it on axis of the subject can create less angular shadows as well, especially the nose and chin area. You will have to make the determination on how that works for you as you are shooting.

First up is Megan in Seattle. I had her sitting on a small table near the water in Pike Market. The sun was about an hour from sunset so it is kind of low on the horizon, but not a ‘setting sun’ by any means.

For this shot I used a speedlight in close and at lower power for faster recycle. It also creates a kind of spotlight look that I like a lot as the proximity of the flash and the subject are so close that the light doesn’t have the distance to ‘spread’ and cover more subject.

Notice the small shadow on her nose and the direction of the shadow under her chin. This is a direct affect of the position of the strobe. In this case, I was making sure the angle of the light and her face were as close to ‘axis’ as possible… even moving the light as she moved to maintain that angle. The strobe is slightly off to the camera right by a few inches and we still get that shadow. (It doesn’t bother me, and the ‘hot’ effect is exactly what I wanted… a dramatic hard light that adds a bit of drama.)

In this contact sheet you can see how keeping the light in context with the angle of her face mitigates the shadows that may be caused if the light remained stationary.

If the light had been stationary to any angle, the shadows would have grown and diminished as she moved her head. I kept the light right into her face from a very slight angle wherever she moved. This mitigated long nose shadows and chin shadows that could have been distracting.

Below are a couple of shots I recently did of Trikita in Bermuda. I wanted the red dress to stand out and her pose to be almost statuesque.

Using the natural light as ambient fill, I wanted the speedlight to seem like an un-natural light source… a shining beam of light that was totally at odds with the surroundings. The sun is high overhead, and slightly… very slightly behind Trikita to the camera left of her. You can see the sun causing a hot spot on her elbow on the left shot, on the right shot you can see how it is lighting up the old fort walls around her. The light is without shape at noon, simply falling straight down on the landscape.

Using a single speedlight, I went from the opposite side of the sun and kept the axis of the light straight into her face. This was an effort to keep the face and dress well lit and not cause any more shadows than necessary on her face, but allow the light to shape and augment the dress’ shape and design.

Keeping it to one added source I allowed the light to ‘fall off’ as it went down her dress. This light to dark gradation adds some interest to the image as well. It plays well off of the underexposed, rather flat, ambient light.

For this shot I underexposed the background 1.5stops. The ambient exposure was f16 at 1/125 so I moved the aperture to f-22 (1 stop darker than the metered light) and moved my shutter speed to 1/200 (2/3 less exposure from ambient – close enough for me to call it 1/2). Then I moved my flash into the range to give me f-22. In this case it was about 6 feet from her at 1/2 power, zoomed to 50mm. The shot setting of f-22 @ 1/200 resulted in good exposure for the flash lit area and a 1.5 underexposed ambient area.

The next image is one I like a lot. Briana on a deserted dirt road in Prescott. I loved the setting sun and the moon was an extra special catch.

I used the flash as an on-axis fill for this shot. You can catch the slight shadows from her legs going back from the camera. This cross shadow effect is kinda fun, and the light is doing a great job of showing her form and expression. With the sun as the only light source, I would have had shadows from her nose, chin, cheeks and even hair. I didn’t want any extraneous shadows on her, so I elected to fill in from camera axis to eliminate the shadows that were caused from the sun.

I used a 550EX at perfect balance to the setting sun. This allows the sun to be my right side light, and the strobe gives me the main. Briana is well lit without difficult shadows. The 550 is being held in my right hand and is as high as I could get it, and very slightly to camera right axis to give the light a tiny bit of ‘shape’.

Otero, the Bermuda model that can jump over the moon if asked, did this shot with me during the workshop. I wanted to do something with all the models so I had the two ladies stand in the surf and asked Otero to do one of his martial arts jumps for me. I had one of the workshop attendees hold the flash and I had Otero jump on ‘three’.

This shot uses the sun as the main light, and adds the strobe to open the shadows and add some pop to Otero… especially in the shadows as he crunches up.

Sun was f-16 at 1/125 at ISO 200, so I made the strobe equal that by putting it on 1/2 power and metering in the spot where f-16 would occur. That is the precise spot I wanted Otero to jump in. By making the strobe equal in power to the sun, I opened the shadows and ‘popped’ the colors of his clothes and skin. You will notice that the models and the ambient surroundings are also lit correctly. Using the flash at equal power does not mean that it will ‘overpower’ the sun.

My human-boom assistant was very careful to consistently aim the flash at Otero’s face, not watching me… but the talent. The two models were directed to the look of distraction and the light fell on them well because I turned their faces away from the harsh light of the day. Without turned heads, shadowed eyesockets and under nose would have killed the shot.

The wind was crazy on the mountains outside of Palm Springs when I made this shot of Briana. I wanted to include the windmills and the strange landscape. But I wanted Briana to dominate the shot. How better to do it than use a speedlight to light her from a different angle than the sun, and underexpose the sunlight a little as well, deadening the color.

The light was heavy overcast, so it was flat and uninteresting. I didn’t want the light I provided to be flat as well, so I decided on a sidelight look. Holding the light at about 30 degrees to camera left, I was able to create the look of light from a direction, instead of from above. the slightly zoomed nature of the light created that pool of light that I like and the exposure was created to be one stop over ambient. That means that the ambient exposure (f-8 at 1/125 was allowed to be one stop under exposed by shooting the flash at f-11 (at 1/125) at ISO 100. The flash exposure of f-11 renders the f-8 exposure as one stop underexposed. This makes Briana ‘pop’ from the background and really shows off the colors of her dress.

The light is a Canon 430 on a collapsed stand that I am holding like a boom on my left hip. I wanted the light to come down instead of across at her. The light is close and slightly out of camera range to camera left. It is set to 1/8 power for fast recycle and the overcast day made that plenty of light. The strobe is zoomed to 50mm for a slightly narrow throw.

Notice how the angle of the strobe doesn’t show harsh shadows on Briana’s face. I was carefully watching the angles of her face and following it with the strobe on the stand on my hip. Takes a little doing, but it can certainly be done.

Our last shot is Megan, a friend of mine who is also a photographer and a doctor.

I wanted the feeling of light coming both ways on her as it pertains to the kind of doctoring she does. The sun was very low and it came through the dead plants with such warmth that I wanted to keep that look to the image as well. The light is a single 430EZ on a stand to camera right, slightly above Megan’s head and slightly tilted down. Zoom is all the way wide to give maximum coverage. I metered the ambient and set the strobe to match it. In other words, the strobe is giving the same light towards Megan as the exposure would be from the sun on her back.

Notice again how having Megan’s face turned ‘toward’ the light gave less shadows on the face and added to the overall feeling of softer light.

I will add a few more to this post as the week progresses, so check back again.

Thanks for visiting Lighting Essentials, a place for photographers.

SHARE/SAVE

Let’s look at a way to create some interesting, and somewhat ‘ethereal’ light on location without taking 200 pounds of lighting gear with us. We are going to use two strobes to ‘sculpt’ the subject and a bit of careful angling to get the image we want. Backgrounds count a lot when you want a dramatic image.

Before we get started, I want to remind you of some recent posts that really rocked… in addition to Briana’s two part series on posing, part 1 and part 2, we had a post on “Making Your Own Reality” with small strobes, and some great interviews over at LEMag, Jay, Laurie and Keith.

OK, then let’s get going on this post about creating some fun lighting on location, with only a couple of speedlights.

Learn to Light with inexpensive tools at Lighting Essentials

The shot of Somer was taken in an alley in Miami, Arizona. We had some dramatic skies, and I wanted to feature Somer in a different sort of image. I didn’t want static, I wanted movement and a sense of whimsy to the shot.

First off I needed a background that would show her off. Simply shooting straight down the alley wouldn’t work as she would have that bright sky behind her and diminish her shape. I wanted the darker buildings so I angled the shot to pick them up behind her and still show the depth of the alley.

I really liked that pool of water in front of her and it contained just a hint of reflection. It also had some raindrops making little splash patterns that I thought were pretty cool. (I was also watching them to make sure they didn’t increase in number as we were setting up the lights and with a camera around my neck.)

The angle I chose put Somer in front of the dark building and kept her brightly lit frame as a point of interest in the shot. You can see that if she had been in front of the sky, she would have somewhat been diminished.

I placed a strobe on a boom and had John place it nearly on camera axis and coming down on Somer. This boomed light was in a small softbox. We put it in pretty close to Somer to keep the light soft, yet dramatic. It is about 3 feet from her face and just out of camera view. The down angle lit up her face and tops of her arms and legs. (Note: for this shot we used a Nikon SB600 and a Canon 430EZ. They were triggered with the Elinchrome wireless trigger system.)

John has the main light boomed out over her head and would bring it slowly down into my frame and then I would have him lift it a tiny bit… just enough that I couldn’t see the edge of the softbox.

The second light was placed on a stand to camera left and behind Somer. It was about shoulder height and was a bare speedlight, no modification. The job of that speedlight was to add dimension and a feeling of light coming from an unknown location. We psychologically understand front light, but both front and side makes our minds take notice.

I placed Somer on that little dry area that you can see at her feet and we worked through some more static poses to make sure I got a good one there. This was literally my first shot with Somer, so I didn’t have any idea if she could jump. I work with some models who can really get in the air, so I was a little hesitant to base the shot on her ability to jump when it was untested for me.

I generally count down for my jumpers… 1, 2, 3… kind of thing. In this shot I had Somer not only jump but throw her head from left to right to get the hair flipping back instead of on top of her head. This technique takes a little getting used to, but once the model finds it, she can usually repeat it several times.

It is really important to catch that jump right at the apex (the top of the jump) and you will find that your digital camera has a bit of a delay (yes, even some of the more expensive ones) and you must anticipate. The delay is not as dramatic as some point and shoots where you could have a sandwich while it is deciding to shoot, but it is more than my film cameras were. I have photographed a lot of dance and skating so anticipating the top of the jump is second nature to me. With digital, I find I have to be a microsecond early or I don’t get it.

She was a little tentative at first, then just leaped into it with abandon and I got this shot. Thanks Somer. BTW, Somer is an MM model that actually shows up and is ready to go. Wow.

We metered the front light with our trusty Minolta Flashmeter IV and set the back light to match. The meter said f5.6.5 at 1/125. I wanted the shot to be more dramatic, so a bit of underexposure was called for. I moved the f-stop to f8 (effectively underexposing by one half stop) and then moved the shutter to 1/250 rendering another 1 stop underexposure. Total amount of underexposure 1.5 stops. There was a lot of ambient in the alley way behind, so it is actually only about a stop underexposed. You can see the diagram below:

The above shot shows a more static image, but one I still like. I made a lot of changes in post, so I thought I would upload one of my post images with notes on it. These aren’t terribly extensive notes, but they did help me visualize it before starting on the post. You can see on the diagram that I chose a wide angle lens for the shot. I used my Canon 21-35mm L and had it out to about 28mm for this shot, That focal length let me pick up the background and keep Somer in the center of the frame. The light helped to ‘isolate’ her from the surroundings.

One more shot from that shoot to show you another look. I used a lot of post in Photoshop to add some texture and drama to the shot. I like the look, that’s why I do it. You may choose other options, but the light is what makes the shot seem ‘ethereal’ to me.

SHARE/SAVE