After our first, and very successful collaborative photo session with the Modern Gypsies, I was quite eager to meet up with them again. And today we had another series of photo sessions with them .. and it was one of those invigorating experiences you have working with truly talented and creative people. During the course of the day we photographed several set-ups and costumes and performers.  I will post more of these over the next few days, showing the results … but also the progression of ideas; the setting up, and some of what went on behind the scenes …

The first performer we photographed was Martin, who is amazingly adroit on his stilts.  He travels and performs across the world!

Preparation before the photo session – applying make-up.

Goofing around in the apartment before hitting the streets for the photo shoot …

… walking towards the park where we were going to start the photo session, Martin did his signature move … copying Elvis’ pose on stilts.  He would just pop into this position and hold it for a few seconds before moving on.

When we got to the park, Martin completed his costume, and then we started shooting.  I was using off-camera flash in TTL mode, triggered and controlled by my on-camera speedlight.  Since Martin was so tall on his stilts – about 11 feet tall – I opted for the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens as the main lens here. But as we started shooting and working towards a few definitive shots, Martin popped into the Elvis pose again … and we heard something go ‘crack!’ and he went down …

… we were all immediately concerned he was hurt or had broken a leg.
But it was his one stilt that had snapped.

Back at the apartment he more closely inspected the problem … and then he and Michael Saab devised another pair of stilts for Martin from Michael’s set.

Just about ready to roll again and hit the streets …

Finally, two images that I selected from where we shot in an alley.
Both these images were lit by the softbox.

More articles on off-camera flash …

Equipment used during this photo session:
Nikon D3;  Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H);
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H);
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H)

Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);  Manfrotto quick-release plate (B&H)

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Continuing with the monthly theme where I look at search engine queries,
and answer a selection of 10 questions more directly…

why two flashes with rear curtain sync?

TTL flash exposure is calculated with a pre-flash signal that the flashgun emits before the main burst of light.  The main burst of light is what gives you (hopefully) correct exposure.  But the camera needs some way of determining what that correct exposure should be. In order to do that, the camera measures the amount of light returned from that pre-flash. Looking at this diagram of the sequence of events when your shutter opens and your flash fires, you will see the pre-flash there:

Now, if you set your camera to first curtain sync, then the preflash and main burst are so close together, that you can’t distinguish these as two discrete bursts of light.  It looks like one blitz.  Now, if you go to rear-curtain sync, and set a slower shutter speed … then there is a discrete time interval between when the preflash is emitted, and the main burst is emitted.  You will see this preflash then as distinctly separate pulse of light.

You can test this for yourself by setting your camera to any aperture (but let’s say f4), and any ISO (but let’s go to 800 ISO just for this exercise) .. and set a 1 second shutter speed.

Set your camera to first curtain sync, and fire your shutter.  You will see one burst of light. But when you now set your camera to rear curtain sync, you will see two separate blasts of light.

benefits of 1/500 flash sync speed

A higher flash sync speed is a real boost when working in bright ambient light.  The higher shutter speed implies a wider aperture, and hence more range on your flash.

An alternate way to look at it, is that in bright light, you have a better chance of over-powering the sun with a higher flash sync speed.  The higher flash sync speed cuts more of the ambient light for the same aperture.

how can I take photos at a slow shutter speed and not over-expose?

The problem experienced here is that the photographer asking this question, most likely did not keep an eye on his camera’s built-in meter.  Whatever shutter speed you choose, the combination of aperture / ISO / shutter speed needs to be such that you’re not over-exposing the ambient light.

stopping zoom lens from changing aperture

If you’re using a variable aperture zoom, and you find the change in aperture annoying, then don’t set your flash to the maximum aperture for the widest zoom setting.  In other words, if you are using an f3.5 – f5.6 zoom, then use f5.6 as your maximum aperture.  Or use a smaller aperture.  Now if you zoom, your aperture won’t change on your.  This is of course assuming a modern camera.  On older cameras with a mechanical link between the lens and the camera, the aperture would change regardless.

will my exposure settings change if I move my position?

It depends on how you are moving in relation to the light.  If you are moving towards or away from your subject, then your settings will remain the same.  If you are moving around your subject, then your exposure settings will need to change.  (This is of course assuming a single directional light source.)

difference between E-TTL / TTL flash and manual flash

The essential difference of course is that with E-TTL / TTL flash, the camera is calculating your flash exposure.  With manual flash, YOU are the one calculating the flash exposure. This of course implies a whole bunch of other things, and this is where flash photography becomes confusing interesting.

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chinese UV filters any good?

A cheap filter is never a good idea. While I seem to be the lone proponent of the idea that using a filter is sometimes a good thing, I would agree that using a cheap filter is always a bad idea.  Stick with the known name brands.  And if you’re looking at a filter that seems horribly over-priced, then you’re probably looking at the kind of filter you should be using instead.

tutorial for pop-up flash photography

Here’s my complete tutorial:  I have good news for you – you’re going shopping!

the final one for today:

wedding photography with pop-up flash?

Oh dear. No. Just a no.  It’s not negotiable.  If all you have is a pop-up flash, then wedding photography isn’t in your immediate future.  If you decide it is, I believe that Judge Judy will also be in your immediate future.

Just like this person who is considering something very dangerous:

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wedding photography – looking for the less obvious image

While waiting with the bride and her bridesmaids before the ceremony, their excitement made for good candid photos.  But, as ever, I was on the look-out for the less obvious photo. Trying to find something unexpected …

Changing my position and perspective, I saw this scene.  Nothing spectacular, until I zoomed in close through the back of the chair.  Using the swirly pattern of the chair’s back, I was able to frame Diya, the bride, as in the photo above.  I took several frames, but liked this one the most where Diya was looking at the bridesmaid to my right .. her gaze nearly towards the camera. I liked how her eyes were accentuated by the loops in the chair’s back, with everything else going softer as a result of the chair.

I bounced my flash to my left, and slightly towards Diya. Using the black foamie thing, my intention in how I bounced my flash, was to get soft directional light. By bouncing off to the side, the exposure for the chair wasn’t blown out in comparison to her. Processing the image to post here, was similar to that described in this previous article, (but minus the B&W layer).

settings:  1/125 @ f3.5 @ 1250 ISO … TTL flash
70-2oomm f2.8 lens, used at 200mm

One thing that is imperative for me in wedding photography, is to get clean simple portraits of both the bride and groom .. and of course, portraits of them together.

This image below is typical of that.  I had Diya stand under the entrance of the reception venue, and bounced flash into the ‘ceiling’ of the area where the cars and limos arrive. The bounce flash helps open up the light on Diya’s features.  It’s a way to make sure the image is a success, taking little risk.  So while I do try to be creative and finding the less obvious images, I also have to make sure that I have certain images ‘in my pocket’.

In this photo, I made sure there was NO direct flash on my subject.  The 2nd photo is without bounce fill-flash flash, just for comparison.

settings:  1/125 @ f3.5 @ 1250 ISO … TTL flash (1st image)
70-2oomm f2.8 lens, used at 185mm

Two more photographs to show some variety:

The first image is a semi-candid image as the bride was secretly watching her groom arrive on a horse, surrounded by dancing and singing family members and guests.  (Indian weddings are very colorful in every respect!)

settings:  1/800 @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO … no flash, just ambient light
70-2oomm f2.8 lens, used at 150mm

As Diya walked back to the bridal suite, I noticed the way the trees were lined on either side of the door.  I knew it would give an interesting half-hidden image with the compression a longer focal length would give.  I quickly positioned Diya, and managed to get this portrait.

settings:  1/250 @ f3.2 @ 200 ISO … just a touch of on-camera TTL fill flash
70-200mm f2.8 lens, used at 100mm

A big thank you to my friend Jason Groupp who invited me as the second photographer on this day, and graciously allowed me to post these images.

Equipment used for these photos:
Nikon D3;   Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H);
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)

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Flash Dedicado – Técnicas para fotografia de casamento e retrato

Estou muito feliz em anunciar que meu livro sobre técnicas de fotografia de flash flashes da câmera foi traduzido para Português e foi publicado no Brasil.

O livro é baseado nos artigos publicados neste site, mas o material foi clarificado, para uma abordagem coerente e completo para pegar o melhor de seu flash na câmera. Houve um cuidado especial para apresentar tudo isso com um fluxo lógico, com a intenção de que tudo vai progressivamente ajudar o leitor a alcançar uma melhor compreensão da fotografia com flash.

O livro pode ser encomendado a partir deste site.

Para todos os leitores Português do meu site, peço desculpas se a tradução do Google é involuntariamente engraçado.

Neil

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on-location portraits – the progression of an idea

I had the pleasure of photographing musician Anne Drummond for her promotional portfolio.  (I also happen to be photographing her upcoming wedding.) The photo above is one in a progressive sequence of images, moving towards a final few photographs that will work in this setting here …

Where it started was when my assistant-with-an-attitood, Jessica, noticed this doorway to a nightclub.  The lighting inside looked interesting, but posing Anne in front of it, didn’t quite work out.  Here’s the test shot which showed that the interior was much darker than the exterior.  Off-camera speedlight in a softbox was used here for gentle fill-flash, to open the light on Anne’s face.

settings: 1/160 @ f3.5 @ 800 ISO …  70-200mm at 150mm

Then Jessica schmoozed our way into the club entrance, by batting her eyelashes at the club manager.

I was hoping that the incandescent lighting inside would be even and bright enough for some hand-held available light portraits. However, this (under-exposed) test shot showed that the light on Anne’s eyes would be too uneven.

settings: 1/160 @ f3.2 @ 1250 ISO … 24-70mm at 24mm

Time to bring in the softbox again.  I gelled the flash on the softbox with a 1/2 CTS gel, to bring the color temperature of the flash closer to the color of the incandescent lighting. (This makes the flash’s light less blue in comparison to the incandescent / tungsten light.)  And the image immediately worked.  Just beautiful!

settings: 1/30 @ f3.5 @ 1000 ISO … 24-70mm lens

Turning around and shooting towards the club’s entrance also looked interesting.  I kept the gel on the flash to force the ambient light outside to be blue in comparison to the flash’s color temperature.

settings: 1/30 @ f3.5 @ 1000 ISO … 24-70mm lens

A few more photographs from the rest of the session:

The following two photographs are interesting perhaps in that they were taken at exactly the same spot.

The top photograph was shot using the softbox.  The light is mostly from the speedlight, with little ambient light registering.

1/160 @ f3.5 @ 800 ISO … 70-200mm at 70mm

With this next photograph (below), I had asked Anne to stand away from the door, and then I just used the available light.  The use of light is exactly as described in this previous article.

1/80 @ f2.8 @ 800 ISO … 70-200mm at 150mm

Two more photographs using the softbox for light …

… and another two photographs using just the available light.

Hopefully this gives some insight in working with the available light, or working with flash and a softbox … easily flipping between the two ways of using light with a portrait shoot on location.

Equipment used during this photo session:
Nikon D3;   Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H); Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H);  Nikon SB-900 (B&H);
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);  Manfrotto quick-release plate (B&H)

If you found this and other articles valuable, then using these affiliate links to order equipment & any other goodies, would be a welcome way of helping towards the cost of hosting this site.
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Photoshop Tips – retouching for portraits

When retouching portrait photographs, I have a certain look that I (currently) like – a slightly ‘polished’ look, but still natural. Definitely not ‘plastic’.  With a few steps in Photoshop, and a few steps that I may or may not add, I can easily get to the styling in post-processing that I want.  Some of the steps are specific, but others are added depending on taste or ‘feel’.  Some of the steps involve Photoshop plug-ins which are essential for me …

The photo above is of Oktavia, taken during part of this photo session. Instead of off-camera flash in a softbox, I used bounce flash for clean open light on her. The out of focus background is a piece of artwork – a pointillist Mickey Mouse. I thought it might be a cute idea to place her in front of it, and have the ears barely discernible. Mickey’s face then creates a kind of halo around her. There is some ambient light coming in from camera-right.

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This is obviously not something you’d do in a high-volume workflow, but it does work well with individual portrait images. And of course, all this is a matter of personal taste. I leave steps out, and change opacities as I please. It’s all wide open to interpretation.

Finally, the comparison between the first retouching step, and the final image.

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progression of an idea during a photo-session

This post was going to be something entirely different – a mini-rewiew of an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Set that I got hold of to try out.  But a key part was missing.  Without the Skyport that allows you to control the output of the unit from the camera itself, a review would be less useful. Having booked Priscilla as our model already, and my friend Richard along to assist, we decided to just go ahead and have fun with a photo-shoot anyway …

So I took my Profoto AcuteB 600R kit (B&H), along with the Profoto beauty dish (B&H).  Enough juice to over-power the sun.  I thought of a cool place in Brooklyn to do the photo shoot. But then we got  stuck in merciless traffic en route to Brooklyn via Manhattan, and the sky became progressively more cloudy.  So no ‘overpowering of the sun’ to do with a high-powered flash unit. Eventually I decided we’ll just turn towards Jersey City and give up hope on getting to Brooklyn.  A complete change in plans.

We looked around for something interesting to use as a backdrop along the waterfront in Jersey City .. but with the overcast sky, the light was very even and soft.  Nothing really grabbed me during the quick test shots I took to see if there was something.

Then I noticed the way that the wall curved along the Path station. That metallic gleam only really stood out with that one section where it curved.

An available light test-shot with Priscilla proved that it would work as a simple but effective backdrop.  Zooming to a long focal length on the 70-200mm lens, a tight composition gave an interesting, even slightly futuristic, look to the background.

settings: 1/500 @ f3.5 @ 200 ISO

Now all that was needed was to punch up the light a bit with the lighting kit.  I used a sock over the beauty dish to create softer light.  I also wanted the light to be fairly symmetrical. In other words, I wanted even light on Priscilla.  So I shot nearly in line with the lighting setup.

A bit of direction and explanation …

.. and then we have the final image (which is the one that appeared at the top.)

The final image that I chose to post here, is one where I specifically went for a symmetrical pose and composition.  The highlighted curve behind her accentuating the central composition.

Final settings: 1/250 @ f4 @ 100 ISO
Lighting:  Profoto AcuteB 600R kit (B&H), along with the Profoto beauty dish (B&H)
I used a diffuser sock (B&H) over the beauty dish.

As you can figure out from the settings in comparison to the available light photograph, this was taken at only 1/3rd of a stop down from the other image.  But in the other image, her face was a tad under-exposed already.  So the flash added somewhere around 2/3 to a full stop of light to the final image.  Just enough to give some pop to the photograph.

This way of working is consistent with my usual approach when doing on-location portraits.  The image above was one from the first successful sequence.  Scouting around some more, and playing around with a few ideas with Priscilla, we eventually ended up with quite a few images in other areas that too worked well.

Equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3;   Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H)
Profoto AcuteB 600R power pack (B&H);  Profoto beauty dish (B&H);  diffuser sock (B&H).
Manfrotto 1004BAC (B&H);  Pocket-Wizard Plus II Tranceiver (B&H)

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positioning your subject – direction of light & choice of background

Taking cover from the rain under this awning, we ended up in the same spot where I took this available light portrait of Anelisa previously.  Looking along the wall at the same angle, the black paint of the wall reflected the light from behind, completely changing the character of the background.  Since the available light was low level, and not flattering, we added some light from an off-camera flash in a softbox …

Shooting nearly completely in line with the flash, the light on Catherine was very even.  Or flat.  (Depends on how you want to perceive it.  (One man’s meat is another man’s poison .. and all that.) As you can see here, shooting more straight-on to the wall, it does indeed look black.

But moving positioning the light, and myself and the model at angles to each other … I was able to get the light from the background, and more dramatic light on Catherine, as in the top image.  As you can see in the pull-back shot, there is a huge amount of random clutter outside the frame.  Zooming to 165mm and moving closer to Catherine, and shooting along the wall … isolated her against the out-of-focus colors in the background.

Even though off-camera light was used here, the approach is very much in line as described in the previous post where we just used available light to photograph Catherine.  But once again it was a combination of how I, as the photographer, position myself and the model and the background in relation to the light and the background. It’s a repeatable approach that works pretty much every time to give successful straight-forward portraits on location.

Settings for the photo at the top:
1/80 @ f2.8 @ 640 ISO;  TTL flash at -0.7 EV

Equipment used during this photo session:
Nikon D3;   Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H);  Nikon SB-900 (B&H);
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);  Manfrotto quick-release plate (B&H)

If you found this and other articles valuable, then using these affiliate links to order equipment & any other goodies, would be a welcome way of helping towards the cost of hosting this site.
Thank you!

posing your subject – direction of light & choice of background

Reinforcing the ideas from a few previous posts,
we’re going to look at that intersect where everything comes together:
- direction of light,
- choice of background,
- posing your subject,
- positioning yourself.

When we work with our subject – whether a family member or a model or anyone we’re photographing – then we have the opportunity to control at least a few aspects to make the final photograph more successful …

I usually take care to position myself and my subject such that the background is complementary, or at least neutral. I normally try to avoid a background that is cluttered and will distract.

Even when working in an urban environment and doing street photography, the various elements in the frame need to work together to make the image successful. A photographer like Matt Stuart has a genius for pulling disparate elements in the frame together to make images that are incongruous, fresh and striking.  There is a balance there, even if the frame is busy.  The point is that even with street photography like that, the photographer relies on deliberate framing for success.

Back to the portrait above of our model, Catherine, taken during a recent individual workshop – the choice of background is deliberate.  Here is what the wider street scene looked like …

From all that clutter, I recognized that with a longer focal length, I could use the defocused repetitive pattern of the shop-fronts. I then composed tightly with a 70-200mm f2.8 zoom.

The lighting in that photograph at the top is all available light.  No flash.  But I also noticed that the awning we were working under would block the light from above.  This meant the light wouldn’t be top heavy, but would mostly be coming in from an angle.  This deliberate placement of our model meant we had great light falling on her.  Now we just needed to pose her so that her back was somewhat to the light, but that she was facing outwards to the light.

The way that we worked with the light here, is exactly as described in a previous article about an available light portrait of Anelisa. We can work towards recognizing these light patterns and using them.

With that in mind, we’ll come back to the same topic with another examples from the same photo shoot.

camera settings for the image above: 1/160 @ f2.8 @ 640 ISO … no flash.
The 70-200mm f2.8 lens was set to 200mm for maximum isolation against the background.

Equipment used during this photo session:
Nikon D3;   Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H)

If you found this and other articles valuable, then using these affiliate links to order equipment & any other goodies, would be a welcome way of helping towards the cost of hosting this site.
Thank you!