An icy cold day in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan … and a brave model that insisted on going bare feet.  That’s just a glimpse of the latest NYC Photog Shootout gathering that took place on Saturday.  This shootout is part of the ongoing series of events arranged by Rob Nicholson.  There were many familiar faces in today’s group amongst the new.  Good opportunity to say hi to old friends, and make a few new ones.

As with the previous NYC shootout in June 2009 , I gave some instruction on some of the basics of manual off-camera flash to the groups. We worked with a Q-flash and a softbox (and sometimes without the softbox), and a bunch of Pocketwizards that I handed to anyone in the group who didn’t have.  Strange thing – I ended up with one more pocketwizard than I started out with.  Bonus!   (Actually, if you were there and you’re missing one, let me know.)

It was a bit of the Wild West out there with the huge groups of photographers firing away.

The second group had an interesting addition to the shoot …

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Hopefully everyone got some images they like, and even learned something about lighting.  Thank you to everyone who came up to me to introduce themselves … and re-introduce themselves. ; )

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And a little something for everyone else who wasn’t there – more info about the image at the top:

Since we already had soft available light there, we used flash with the softbox to control our lighting better.  While the available light might have been soft, it was top-heavy.  To effectively use only the ambient light, we would’ve been limited to posing our model in specific ways.  But with using flash in a softbox, we now had control over the quality of light.

The approach there in using flash in this scenario, was to figure out the available light exposure.  Once we had agreement on what our settings would be … we under-exposed by a stop.  Here’s the resulting under-exposed available light image:

settings:  1/250 @ f5.6 @ 200 ISO

Now we have to add manual flash (in a softbox), at f5.6 @ 200 ISO … by controlling the other two variables – distance and power.

And there you have it:

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The final workshop of the year!  And what a wild interesting ride it’s been the past two years with the workshops.  Wonderful people that I’ve met; interesting cities and places .. and some adventures.  (Those who attended last year’s workshop in Dallas, will remember the belligerent cowboy!) 

The workshop in Dallas was a great way to end up this series of workshops – two fantastic models in an interesting venue, and a great group of people.  As always, it felt really good seeing how things click into place for the photographers who attended.  Thank you to everyone! 

The image above was from the session where we played around with video lights.  In this case, finally getting the two models together in a dramatic pose;  then lighting them with a video light from either side.  The sconce lighting on the walls then helped make the image more compelling that a bland background would have.  A few tweaks in Photoshop, essentially bumping up the contrast and saturation, also helps give the image more impact.

I always like visiting Austin with its vibrant music scene and night life, so it was good to visit again.  I also met up again with Juliana who was our model at last year’s workshop.  That’s her crazy self there on the right-hand side of the image, along with her friend Tatiana who also modelled for us at the workshop.

Some techie details:
The photo was taken during the practical session where we work with manual flash (via speedlights in softboxes).  In this instance we had both softboxes in use, one on each model.  Both were set for the same output.   The flash output was chosen such that the ambient light is under-exposed by a stop.  It allows us to get clean controlled lighting on our models with the diffused flash.  My final camera settings were:  1/250th @ f5.6 @ 250 ISO   .. but I had to pull back the exposure in RAW by 1/3rd stop.  

Thank you to everyone who attended – it was a nice group of people and it was great meeting all of you.  Also, a thank you to our two models.

Regarding the workshops in general – The Austin workshop was the penultimate workshop of the year, and also the travelling workshops.  Next stop is Dallas .. and then from next year, a restructured revamped 2-day workshop on lighting which will include more practical sessions with on-location lighting.

The recent flash photography workshop in Jupiter, Florida was one of the final workshops of this year.  (There are still two coming up – Austin and Dallas.)  The workshop material was the regular mix of seminar portions and practical sessions, going over technique and then putting it into practice.

The image above was from the session where we specifically look for the direction of light from our bounced flash.  Just bouncing flash in an arbitrary direction might not give us the best results .. but being specific about the direction we want our light to come from, will be the key in getting superb results.

Since everyone will be interested in the settings .. here they are:
1/100th @ f2.8 @ 800 ISO
Nikon D3,  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR,  SB-900

The settings aren’t all that important in the success of this image.  It’s the direction of light that is essential with this simple portrait.  The settings were chosen such that enough background light registers to give some seperation.   With that in mind, there is a range of settings that could’ve worked .. with TTL flash technology taking care of the actual flash exposure.

Thank you to everyone who attended this workshop, and made it such a fun day.  And a big thank you to our two models.

The near-penultimate workshop for this year was held in Atlanta yesterday, covering the range of topics relating to flash photography and lighting.  As always, it was good to meet and work with a group of people – and then throughout the day, watch and experience everyone’s progress in getting more familiar with the subject.  Thank you to everyone who attended!

For anyone who is interested in still attending one of the workshops this year, there are still three upcoming workshops – Palm Beach (FL), and Austin and Dallas (TX).   From next year there will only be a series of 2-day workshops held in the NYC / NJ area.

And as usual with the workshop feedback posts, I always like to add a little bit of useful information for everyone else …

The image above  of our model, was taken in the hotel lobby.  The wall behind her had an interesting pattern, and I wanted to use that.  Even though the lobby had a fair amount of broad window light streaming in, I felt we’d have a more controlled scenario by using manual flash in a softbox.  Instead of completely over-riding the available light with flash, we metered for our ambient light, and took a few test shots to get to a base exposure.  (Around 1/60th @ f4 @ 400 ISO)  

Then, to use flash in addition to the available light .. and have it such that the flash now gives us more controlled light, we under-exposed the available light by about a stop.  I ended up using 1/60th @ f3.5 @ 200 ISO.  By using a flash-meter and adjusting the output of the speedlight attached to the softbox, I arrived at a power setting where I got f3.5 @ 200 ISO for that particular distance we had the softbox set up from the model.

And there we have it … enough available light still registering on the background (with some spill from the flash), but with the softbox delivering a cleaner more dramatic look to the light falling on the model’s face.

One of the final workshops for 2009, was the one held in Philadelphia in the prestigious Ritz hotel!   Working inside the  hotel and the surrounding areas, provided us with some stunning backdrops while photographing our models.

Still staying with the updated format with the flash photograph workshop, if I am guided by the response by those who attended .. then the workshop once again appears to have been a hit.  I had a great time as well, and I am sure there will be a few interesting photographs surfacing again.  Thank you again to everyone who attended, as well as our two models.

And as always with a report-back on a workshop, I like to add a little bit of useful info for everyone else.  So, about the image above ..

With an idea in mind of how I wanted to position the model in front of Philadelphia City Hall as a stark urban setting, I now had to decide on the exposure and lighting. The available light at that point was actually really good – the sun was covered by a layer of clouds, but enough of the sun was coming through to give some directional light.  However, we wanted to play with some off-camera lighting .. and I wanted to use flash to add a touch more drama.

Here is the starting point .. a grab-shot to check that the exposure settings for the existing light, as metered with our cameras, are correct.

[ 1/250th @ f5.0 @ 400 ISO ]

As always, there is a specific reason for starting with maximum sync speed.

The next step is to purposely under-expose the subject by 2/3rd stop or 1 stop so that we can add flash to the final set-up.  Here is the under-exposed test-shot ..

[ 1/250th @ f6.3 @ 400 ISO ]

Then it becomes a simple matter of metering for the manual flash until we get f6.3
and add the flash via a speedlight in a softbox.  And there we have it.  
The lighting helps pop our dramatic looking model in this stark setting.

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As mentioned with previous report-backs, I’ve expanded the material covered, and gear used, with the workshops this year.  Now in addition to working with flash, we also play around with video lights as our source of light.  During the practical session here, we took our models outside while using video lights.  By exploiting the widely different colour balance of the tungsten light compared to the existing shaded day light , we were able to create an interesting dynamic with the colours.  Using video light on our model, and with our cameras set to Tungsten WB, the background becomes an interesting shade of blue – in this case mixed with the green colours of the foliage outside. 

And as always, the lighting pattern from a video light is quite dramatic ..

Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop (and our models), who made it a hugely enjoyable day!

As an example of some of what we played around with, here is an example from the practical session where we used areas outside to bounce flash off and use that to clean up the existing light.  Working in the early evening in lower light levels, it becomes easier to get effective light from our speedlight even when bounced off the side of a building or other objects.

[ settings: 1/60th @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO - TTL flash ]

And to show you what we bounced our flash off ..

.. it was the side of this building.  I bounced my flash a bit more forward of where you see that splash of light from the flashgun.  I bounced my flash off part of the glass side, pillar and ceiling.  I used the black foamie thing to flag my flash so that I was able to bounce it ‘forward’ towards our model, but NOT get any direct flash on her.  This also gave me that directional look to the light from my flash.

Again, thank you to everyone who attended, and also to our two models.  Keep in touch!

And well may you ask what is going on here!

The flash photography workshop in Seattle was one floor up in the hotel from where Electronic Arts where holding a Community Day for a video game titled “Army of Two: The 40th Day“.  A community Day is when a video game company (such as Electronic Arts) brings in some of their biggest fans, as well as bloggers and site owners to get an exclusive look at the game before it releases to the public.

As we were walking back from the session outdoors where we worked with manual flash and softboxes, it just seemed like a good idea to have our two models, Julia and Jamei, join the two characters from Army of Two for an impromptu session there in the hotel lobby.

For the techies amongst us who would want to know about the lighting .. the lighting was with two softboxes at 90′ from each other.   The one softbox was on my left, and close to me.  The other was 90′ from me to my right, pointing at the models and beleaguered warriors.  Each softbox had a speedlight, with the one to my right set to twice as much power as the one to my left.

As for the wild child Julia sprawled there on the ground .. um, yeah .. that’s all Julia.  No direction needed!

Here are some other favourite images from the workshop ..

Julia, from the session outside on the streets of downtown Seattle.
Lighting is by a single softbox to my right:  1/200th @ f5.6 @ 200 ISO
The image has seen a fair amount of retouching in Photoshop.

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Jamei and Julia, lit by two video lights.

Thanks again to everyone who attended and made this workshop an energising experience!  And a big thank you to our two incredible models.

Aside from the images already shown in that post, here is another favourite image of one of our models, Crystal.  This was taken during the session in the early evening where we went outside, and used some of the found surfaces to bounce flash off.  The trick here is to find that combination of bouncable surface, a good background, and then to position your model so that the additional light from the flash adds to the final image.

What I like about this image is how the sign (and the reflection of the sign) outside the hotel creates a halo around Crystal.

[ click on the image to see a larger version ]

Here is the image without flash, and also a pull-back image to see what surface I bounced the flash off ..

I bounced the flash off the wall here to my left.   I bounced the flash ‘towards’ Crystal, and then of course had to use The Black Foamie Thing to flag the flash so that there is no direct flash on her.

Thank you to everyone who attended, and to our two models for making this a memorable day.  Stay in touch!