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.

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This is a cover shot that we did for the fragrance company. We wanted a larger space and a more natural looking scene for the cover so we sought out a warm environment. Our AD found a beautiful home that fit the bill.

I knew the item that I would be shooting was small, and knowing that the idea was for a natural looking space, I didn’t need the big guns, I took a small, traveling kit we had at the studio and was off.

The space was a very pretty, large living room with 18′ of north light coming through floor to ceiling louvered windows. The room was simply awash in gorgeous, ambient light.

Before I get started, apologies for slow posting… I have been crazywickedbusy… and working on a book for final publication (although private) is taking every spare minute. I would like to thank SmugMug Professional for coming on as a sponsor. Every workshop attendee for the rest of the year will receive a free one year Pro Account at SmugMug. We also welcome Midwest Photo Exchange to the LE family. A big shout out to BorrowLenses.com and MightyImaging.com for their continued support.

Upcoming workshops are Atlanta and Mexico. I have openings for a few at both. The lineup for the summer is looking great. All attendees receive the workbook, a new DVD for the workshop attendees only, a copy of my book on PDF, the SmugMugPro account and more. We are currently doing weekly webcasts on New Media Marketing. As soon as we have the bugs worked out, that free weekly workshop will be available to all workshop attendees.

Well, let’s go on and take a look at how simple tools can be used to make a natural looking still life.

This is the room as we entered it:

I will often pull the camera out and simply shoot in either Aperture Priority, or take a reading and shoot in manual to get a feeling of how the light is falling within the scene. This is very important when I want the ambient light to be included in the shot. Here you can see how it is falling across the background.

I made the choice to obviously keep the light at the same angle on the glassware. But as you can see in the shot above, there is no finesse to the light falling on the glass vase.

Bringing in a small softbox with a monolight at very little power added both, the rim light of the reeds and the large, white shape on the vase. I kept the light in as close as I could to give the larger shape. Knowing what the ambient was able to produce meant that I had to match it with the box.

We wanted very little depth of field, so I knew I would be shooting as wide open as possible. Using the 20-35mm 2.8 L Canon at 20mm gave me a very sharp foreground and some softened background textures. Getting in close to the subject fills the frame, and adds some more softness to the background.

Coni, the AD, wanted the light from the lamp to be included in the image, so that was a parameter that helped me define the shot as well. We had to move a lot of furniture around to get the shot we wanted. The background can be very distracting if there are gaping holes or something that stands out too much. The shot looks natural in the background because we set the background to the shot – moving things in at various angles till it looked good from camera. They may look askew in the real world… I only care about what they look like through the viewfinder.

Here are a few shots that we did as we were setting up the shot.

The glassware was looking better, and we had some nice color and light in the background. But the far side of the glassware – that side away from the light – was simply dying. I had Alisha, the client, holding a white card to the camera right side, and way back behind the glassware to add the little highlight you see on the right side of the vase. This adds a separation edge and also looks natural. The reason I had her hold it way back was to create a very small highlight, not a wide stripe that bringing it closer to camera would provide. Keeping the lamp in the shot also added a little warmth from the tungsten and the red lampshade.

We also decided that a little bit of flare from the side would create a more natural look. We shot it with both a little flare and with no flare. Blocking the lens from the light makes the shot very sharp, but the flare adds a little warmth to it.

You can see the setup in this shoot shot that Coni did. Here we are checking the light and the highlight placement to get the look to the glassware we want.

Here is the setup shot. You can see the small softbox, boomed in from the left, and the tethered computer showing what we are doing instantly and keeping the client and AD informed of what we are doing. These shots require placement of typography, and sometimes other considerations. The Art Director knew exactly where she wanted her negative space for adding the copy and headlines for the cover. The tethered shooting gave her a lot of confidence that we were shooting the shot she needed.

The final shot, sans headline and type.

Thanks for coming by. I will be making more updates in the following weeks – I promise.

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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.

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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.

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Photographers in Phoenix like dramatic skies. We get so many days in a row of bright, blue that when it gets dark and moody up there some of us grab cameras. My friends Jim Vigileos and Jerry OConnor did that recently and along the way they grabbed Christina to add to the mix.

Both shooters use small strobes a lot for their work. Moving fast with speedlights, they shoot everything from classic pinups to glamour to portraits both on location and in the studio. Today was big light day… Jim with his AB’s and Jerry with his Elinchrome Ranger and beauty dish.

The day started with me having a ton of work to do and sitting in front of the computer getting ready to do it. A text comes in from Jerry saying he and Jim were working with Christina, did I want to come down and hang and have lunch with them. Pile of work versus hanging with a couple of fun guys and Christina… no brainer. It takes me about 25 minutes to get to Maricopa, a tiny, but growing, town south of Phoenix.

The day had started with lots of bluster and the skies were threatening rain. Perfect. We had lunch and headed over to a site Jim had scouted earlier… an old grain elevator on the tracks there in Maricopa. I was happy to go along to photograph them making pictures.

Before we continue, be sure to check the 2009 Workshop Schedule. I have been working on the new workshop daily, with workbook and shooting with Briana for it… It will be a truly amazing two days and the amount of lighting we will cover will be staggering. The workbook and supersecret DVD for only the workshop attendees will make the experience even more valuable.

Let’s see these guys in action.

Photographing on location is very serious business. After we determined that the fence had been knocked down well before we got there, we checked the area out. What seemed like a good place to shoot if it rained also turned out to be a wonderful place for pigeons to sit after eating… ya know. Nixing that, we decided to keep the gear close and under many of the little buildings… if it rained we would drive the vehicles to the gear and go.

Location work is serious business... sort of. Christina doing the patient waiting thing while trunks are unloaded for the shoot

The shot we start with is Christina on the stairs with a red top and black leggings. The buildings were all a uniform gray color on a very gray sky day with flat light. I mean nearly no shadows at all. Christina’s blond hair and red top would be a wonderful subject against that very monochrome surrounding.

Jerry shoots with an Elinchrome Ranger kit that has become his favorite lighting tool. Combining it with the very large beauty dish, the unit is self contained, battery powered and pumps some of the nicest light you have ever seen.

The Ranger with Jim taking a shot and Jerry keeping an eye on the sky.

Here is a shot of the setup Jim did. That’s me sneaking in there to make a shot of Christina and Jerry shooting on the steps. Jim fired the ranger from his position so you can see how the light falls from the beauty dish.

Jerry shares an image with Christina on the steps.

Jerry wanted a deep and moody sky, so he has set the light to give him a two stop difference from ambient to flash. The beauty dish is in pretty close to keep the power needs as minimal as possible and to provide a nice wash of light with a little wrap to it. No fill cards were used here, and Christina worked toward the light to keep from being too contrasty on the shadow side of her face. (Briana’s recent Model Behavior article addresses models working with the light.)

Here is Jim in close with his 14-24 Nikkor.

Notice how the sunlight is peeking through and adding some hairlight. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Christina is working with Jerry on the steps. Beauty dish just is giving perfect light.

Some of Jim’s shots in the same light:

Notice the wonderful bit of flare to the left. As Jim was shooting the sun was peeking out behind the dark clouds.

Jim was using his new Nikkor 14-24 f2.8 for this outing. He was wanting to both get shots of Christina and make sure he was familiarizing himself with the new gear before using it on a job. That’s a great way to work, BTW. Know your gear before committing to working with it on someone else’s dime.

The sun adding a little kicker to the shot of Christina in Maricopa.

Jim used his softbox, AB800′s and a Vagabond to set this shot up on the tracks.

Softbox for main and a very slight kicker from a speedlight to the right gives this shot a very unique texture.

Here is Jim working on getting it set up:

Setting up on the tracks for a shot of Christina, Jim takes a call.

Keeping the softbox for his main light, Jim wanted the ambient light to be darker and moody. Here the ambient is two stops less than the exposure for the softbox and speedlight combination. Jim metered the ambient, tested a few shots to make sure that two stops under would be the look he wanted in the sky and the surroundings and then built his light to give him the exposure on Christina of two stops brighter… choosing that combination for his shot.

When we first arrived, Jerry wanted to try out something with his 50MM 1.2L. He set the aperture to 1.2, and using the TTL set the background to -2 and the strobe to +2. He made a few exposures of Christina on the tracks to see how it would work. I played human boom and the speedlight was about 4.5 feet from Christina. The high speed Canon flash worked nicely and Jerry got this shot with minimum DOF from the 1.2 aperture and great dramatic lighting… even at a shutter speed of 1/3200.

High Speed Sync shot with Canon 5D and TTL speedlight.

Jerry set up this shot on the side of the silo there. He liked the shape of the curve and what it would do with the light as it fell off of Christina.

Jerry setting up the Elinchrome Ranger for a shot of Christina and the silo.

Jerry checks the exposure as he is tweaking in the light

Jerry knows his light pretty well and knew that at the distance he had it, and the power setting he wanted, the Elinchrome would perform quickly and give him the soft, yet punchy light that is becoming a stylistic choice for him. He takes great pains in chimping in the background to make sure it is exactly as he pictures it and then lights Christina with that ambient setting in mind. Keeping a loupe with you for viewing the image on the LCD as close as possible is a great idea and you won’t find Jerry far from his loupe.

Here are a few images from that set. You can see how well the large beauty dish performs on her skin and face as well as the subtle light that seems to pool around her.

Another wardrobe change and we find Jim shooting Christina in an old doorway. Using a speedlight with a gel in the room behind her, Jim used his medium box with the Alien Bees AB800 for his main light. Both he and Jerry use wireless triggers to fire their strobes remotely. Jerry uses Pocket Wizards and Jim uses the Alien Bee wireless setup. Both also use large battery units for their on location strobe work.

Keeping the angle of the box at an definite angle to Christina, Jim was able to provide a nice wash of light as she stood in the doorway. The distance of the softbox also let a nice, defining shadow fall on the unlit side of her. Controlling that falloff is the angle and distance of the softbox. Jim worked the backlight from an opposite direction and that little nuance helps give the image even more depth.

Christina works the light for Jim in this doorway shot.

One more shot from Jim. On this one he used the speedlight at a low setting to get a nice, subtle rim light to Christina on camera right. This subtlety is so important when trying to make something stand out.

A stylized shot of Christina by Jim Vigileos. Jim is using Photoshop to create a very contemporary look to this shot.

Well, thanks for having me along guys. And thanks to the readers for coming along on what ended up being a very fun, and challenging day. It never rained, and that was good. The sun started going in and out behind lighter and darker clouds so you had to be aware that ambient was changing by as much as a stop and a half.

Jim and Jerry both know the value of learning the equipment you use inside and out. Testing the limits and playing with the units in a somewhat real situation can give you the practical and valuable experience you need when on assignment.

I hope you all enjoyed this shoot. I enjoyed bringing it to you.

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This is a simple shoot that can have some very nice nuance as you work two speedlights into a shot with the sun as back/side light. Using two sources a bit apart can cause multiple shadows, so you have to be very careful to make sure they are not a problem.

For this shot we used the sun as a bright side/slightly back light. I added the light from two flashes to smooth out the light, seemingly creating a wider side light. I love shadows, and the shadow cast on the little building was very nice.

I had to find a way to attach the strobes quickly on this trip, and hit on a unique, fun and easy way to securely attach the strobes. After the link, I will show you how we did it.

But first a question for the readers. I have been wondering if this Blog setup is working as well as a web site would. Currently we are using WordPress, but I have been thinking about working with a web site with CMS so it could grow laterally as well as vertically. The site under current configuration seems a little less than user friendly. Your thoughts please.

Now let’s take a look at using the two strobes with the sun for a cool swimsuit shot on the tower on the beach.

The image above shows the placement of the strobes and the height we used to get the shot lit so it felt very much like the setting sun. Both strobes are set to 1/8 power and are about 5-6 feet from her. I have them mounted vertically because people are vertical and the light needed to be thrown in the shape of the subject.

We are using cheap wireless remotes for this shot. I decided to use a wide angle lens so the distance of the strobes can be a little closer due to the angle of the wide lens increasing the perceived distance between lights and subject.

I metered the sun and found a workable aperture that would also be within the shutterspeed allowable for sync. I decided that f-13 at 1/200 would work well… keeping the background underexposed enough to get some color, while allowing some nice subtle direct light on the subject. The aperture at f-13 allowed me to get the two strobes in close with less power than if I had shot at f-22 at a slower shutter speed. The image would have looked the same at f-18 at 1/100 but I would have had to boost the power of the strobes to account for the smaller aperture. And that would have been more power needed, 1/4 power, and that would have meant a slower recycle.

Lighting Diagram:

Using a cheap Home Depot clamp and two cheap bungee cords we can mount them on a stand easy enough. And keeping the bungees tight keeps the strobes in place very well. Easy, cheap and fast.

Here is a shot where the flashes didn’t fire. You can see what the sun alone would do with the shot. While it isn’t lit like the other shots, it is kind of cool n a dark, mysterious way.

Now one with the strobes firing.

I came in close as the birds were swooping over and caught a second shot. Having the flashes with a faster recycle, because they are at 1/8 power, means I was able to get a few of the shots with the birds.

I always try to get something different at every shoot. If I was shooting a wide angle far away, I will try to move in closer. If I am closer, I will move back from the subject to see what the shot can look like. It keeps the brain fresh and lets me try to get some dynamics to the shoot that would not be there if I settled for only one shot.

In this shoot I decided to come in close to get something fun of Bri looking angry at me. She growled and shouted and then burst into laughter. That’s when I got this.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you enjoyed this shoot tutorial as much as I did shooting it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Seattle’s workshop was a blast. I wanted to share some images that the folks did there. We will update this page as long as I see fresh images.

I arrived in Seattle to a wonderful 74 degree afternoon. Yeah, coming from 107 it was really refreshing. Got all in line for the workshop and was met by Kyle Goldie who is assisting me on this workshop.

We headed to downtown Seattle to do a little scouting and make a few pics of some model friends of his and John (a workshop attendee who met us down at Pike Market.)

NOTE: due to trip obligations, the Part two of the Speedlight article will be posted tomorrow. Thanks for visiting.

While we were shooting we found ourselves in the middle of some sort of protests. There were people everywhere with banners and protesting and I was laying on the ground getting shots of Megan with the sun behind her.

We left that area and found some interesting locations along the water.

The cover shot features one of the images I did of Megan, and this shot is Melinda. Both were lit with speedlights. Megan is sunlit from the front with an assist of a small powered speedlight to camera right and high and a speedlight behind her. Melinda below is lit with one speedlight at 1/8 power on a short cable… I hand held it for the position I wanted.

The workshop started on Saturday with our full out lighting studies and studio setups. We mixed in some natural light and blended strobe and daylight for a great day. The rain came down in buckets, and we thought the day was scrubbed a little early. I guess we underestimated the Seattle weather change possibilities. Just as we were heading out, it cleared dramatically and we started taking advantage of strobe blended or mixed with the sun (which kept peeping out of the clouds for real drama.)

Sunday’s workshop started at the Gasworks Park and we shot all over the enclosed area. Natural light, mixing light, adding fill with cards and strobes and both, and using the natural light as a main with strobe as a backlight/accent light. Added in was a lot of additional lighting ideas and some fun things to do with a strobe at 1/16 power. The models were really great and we had makeup from a fantastic MUA named Sheila. Wow. Add to that the wonderful support from When and her group of talent and it really does become a special weekend.

Sunday afternoon found us at Seattle Center for some really amazing work around the area. We shot natural light, full sun, bounced light, stobes… even a beauty dish with battery power was seen in use that afternoon. Finished the day at the Opera building and it was amazing. The models had really grown from all the work they had done and we shot until about 8pm.

Two full days of workshop… and I gotta tell you that the images I saw coming off the photographers cameras was really an exciting part of it for me. I love seeing the work that gets created… Could I spend 4 days on a workshop… oh hell yeah. But two days gives us a fantastic look into the basics of lighting and creating the image you want.

During the workshop we did this shot of Rose in a highly compressed lighting setup. Taking a large light and forcing it into a tight pattern through flags and modifiers. Sometimes creating a dramatic lighting situation can be a lot of fun.

My niece Isabel showed up for some modeling for us. She was spectacular… nothing else to say. You will see a ton of images of her soon.

Ron Dugdale shot these two shots at the Saturday workshop. We focus on the creative aspects as well as the technical. I think Ron got the idea here.

This shot of Isabel leaping into the air was a favorite shot of some of the guys who stayed after the rainstorm. What a magical time with the still air and the freshly rained on city.

Isabel was shot by Chris Boaro at the Lighting-Essentials workshop. This shot was by a single beauty dish and with no fill of any kind.

Kyle Goldie is an up and coming shooter in Seattle. He helped me do a lot at the workshop and did this great shot at the workshop.

Here is another shot by Ron Dugdale. He shot this one today.

Ron Dugdale shot this image of Isabel at Sunday’s workshop too.

Danielle Bortone-Holt shot this image of Melinda in the red dress. It was something she had wanted to do for a long time. With a little strobe work and some shutter speed adjustment, she got the shot she had seen in her head for a long while.

And here is Larry Grant’s image of Melinda taken at the workshop. She really did a great job with the photographers and they loved her red dress.

Below are linked images from some of the attendees of the workshop. Please visit their Flickr site for more images.

Be watching this page for more images from the workshop.

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