When working indoors with surfaces that I can easily bounce my flash off,
the question that I always ask myself is:

If this had been a studio shoot, where would I place my softbox?

In a studio-type setup, you’d rarely place a softbox directly over someone’s head as a single light-source.  There are two places to commonly place a softbox in the studio .. to left (and slightly above) or to the right (and slightly above) your subject.  Which side of your subject is quite often dictated by how your subject is positioned.  The simplest and most effective position is so that the light falls onto your subject’s face from the side opposite to the camera’s view.  In other words, ’short lighting’.

With this photo above, the lighting is pretty much just bounce flash, with a touch of available light registering.  The boy is standing in front of someone wearing a very dark dress, hence the ‘black background’.

Now, looking at that photo, the large catchlights in his eyes should grab your attention immediately.  How did I get those catchlights?  The same way you would in a studio .. by the way you place your softbox.  So in a way then, these kind of catchlights in your subject’s eyes are near-predictable if you bounce your flash with that softbox idea in mind.

Here I once again used the black foamie thing to shield direct flash from falling on him.  I want indirect flash, and I want it directional and soft.  Hence I bounce my flash towards the area I want my light to come from.  That is how I ‘place’ my softbox.  The key here is not to think of your flash as being your light source any more – instead, the area that you’re bouncing your flash off, is now your light source.

The catchlights in the eyes can also be seen in these examples:
-  directional light from your on-camera flash,
- formal wedding portraits with bounce flash,
- portrait of Noreen at workshop in Cork, Ireland
- my choice of flash modifiers,
- directional bounce flash,
- the cutie.

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[ click on either image for  larger version ]

An aspect to flash photography that I frequently underline in the articles on this site, is that we need to carefully consider the direction of light from our flash when we bounce our flash.  Sometimes we just need to bounce the flash behind us into the room to get soft light.  But when we have multiple walls / surfaces we can bounce the flash off, then our choices become more interesting … especially when we do portraits.

This is Carly Erin, a delightful model that I photographed earlier this afternoon.   You’ll be sure to see a few more images of her in the coming weeks.

What I wanted to show with these two images, is how the direction that I bounce the flash towards, has a fairly dramatic impact on the final image.  I once again used the black foamie thing to shield my flash from directly illuminating my subject. I bounced my flash towards the area that I wanted my light to come from.

Lighting diagrams to show where I bounced my flash?  Not this time.  : )
Instead, look at the images, and look at the pattern of light and shade, and try and deduce from that where I had bounced my flash.  It’s all there in the final images.

Similarly, the approximate camera and (TTL) flash settings and approximate focal length are clearly implied.  More important than those relatively inconsequential details, is the direction of light.

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As mentioned elsewhere, I attended WPPI 2010 in Las Vegas the past week to present a masterclass there.  And in short, I had a great time.  I just love Vegas!  The constant hum of activity, and the glitziness of it, and the impressive architecture .. all of it energizes me the moment I step out of the cab from the airport.

Roaming around The Strip with some friends in the afternoons and evenings, I opted out of carrying a Nikon D3 with me all the time.  It just felt like so much brute weight when I’m not working.  So instead I kept it simple with just my iPhone.  And as you may have heard recently, the iPhone is now the most popular camera on Flickr!

Above is a selection of some of the iPhone photos. I think they look surprisingly good for so little control over the image-taking process!  The photos were manipulated with the ShakeItPhoto app on the iPhone.  No other work went into these.

As for the title … well, late one evening, going down the Strip in a cab with a friend, we waited at the Flamingo intersection.  And we waited.  The cabbie suddenly exclaimed, “Curse you, Flamingo!”  Apparently that slow intersection is the bane of all cabbies in Vegas.  We feel your pain, brother.

This very colourful street scene is – if I remember correctly – in the quaint town of Macroom in Ireland.  It was one of the towns we visited while exploring the beautiful country-side near Cork, Ireland last year.

It is my choice for this week’s entry for the ongoing Alive for 365 project.

To enhance the colours even more, I used my favourite Photoshop plug-in, Topaz Adjust 4 …

If you do order Topaz Adjust (or any Topaz product) through that affiliate link, use the discount code ‘planetneil’ for a 15% discount off any item in your shopping cart.  (There is also another time-limited discount in effect on their website.)

I used two of the Topaz Adjust effects in combination:

Topaz HDR Sketch, as a Soft Light layer, at 38%  and
Topaz Spicify as a normal layer, at 26%

This gave the image a certain punch, without toppling over towards the garishness of some HDR-manipulated photos.

Here is the original as a comparison:

With the run-up to WPPI 2010 in Las Vegas, I didn’t have the time to mention my latest entries to the Alive for 365 project.  My choice for week 9 is this image which I titled a very obvious, “Cappuccino”.

The slightly surreal image is part of a London cityscape, with a double-decker bus whizzing past.  The lettering in the sky is actually the lettering in the coffee-shop’s window.  I had flipped the image around to have the word read correctly.  I also juiced up the drab colours a bit with Topaz Adjust 4.  Big news!  Topaz just improved on it with a free upgrade to version 4.

If you do order Topaz Adjust (or any Topaz product) through that affiliate link, use the discount code ‘planetneil’ for a 15% discount off any item in your shopping cart.  (There is also another time-limited discount in effect on their website.)

The effect that I used was the Psychedelic setting in Adjust 4.  I pulled down the opacity, and even then masked the sky to reduce the effect further on the sky …

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Here is the original image:

The topic – Flash On The Run – was an amalgamation of material from my book on flash photography, some of the writings here, and a lot of new photos from recent weddings. The seminar was about how all the techniques fit together on a wedding day to give you the best results from your flash while still shooting fast. And specifically, how to achieve portrait-quality lighting from your on-camera flash.

If I have to go by the number of questions asked and how much longer the seminar ran, it feels like quite a success – and hopefully everyone gained something that will affect their own photography and approach to flash. To everyone who attended, thank you for being there. And do keep in touch with any questions you may have about the material.  I’d love to hear from you.

A friend of mine, Carol Beuchat, is a photographer who specializes in dog portraits and dog shows.  She was at the recent Westminster Dog Show, and needed to photograph this beautiful whippet, Chanel, for a magazine cover.  Since it was in Manhattan and it was ice cold freezing outside, we had to photograph the dog indoors.  The hotel lobby where the attendees to the dog show stayed would have to be the setting.  And would have to make a great setting.

The one foyer of the hotel had these gleaming metal elevator doors.  Carol carefully figured out the image’s background in relation to where she would let the dog’s handler hold the dog .. and positioned herself there with a long lens.  (Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS )

Since the dog would easily become bored, we had to figure out the exact place we wanted the dog to be, and also figure out the lighting well ahead of time.  Once we were ready, the Chanel’s handler would bring her down, and position her.  A few frames … and  Carol would have the shot.

We had to be meticulous about the setting-up – and still be very flexible during the actual shoot …

When I arrived in the hotel lobby before the shoot, Carol was already busy photographing a chair pillow in various spots in the hotel lobby.   The pillow was the stand-in for the dog while figuring out the lighting.  Doing various test shots of the pillow, we looked at the background and the lighting on the pillow (standing in for the subject).  The background had to be simple and uncluttered … and add to the image. The metal door really does help give a regal look to the final image.

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The initial setup:

I initially set up three speedlights to light up the subject.  
Carol had two Canon 580EX II speedlights (B&H) there, and I had brought my Nikon SB-900 speedlights (B&H).  She could control the two Canon speedlights with a Canon ST-E2 wireless TTL controller.  I put one Nikon SB-900 in SU-4 mode, which would allow the speedlight to be optically triggered by ANY other flash such as the Canon speedlights.  I set the SB-900 in manual mode, and used it to light the background.  I used a clamp to fix it onto the one railing in the background, and used the black foamie thing to flag it from causing lens flare.

My wife, Sara, who had accompanied me, helped by holding a speedlight and reflector.   The two Canon speedlights would then be held on either side of the subject / pillow, bounced into a reflector that Sara and I each would hold.    We held the reflectors about 6 – 8 feet from the subject / pillow. The reflector would create a large soft light source then.  The speedlighs would be in TTL mode, and triggered with the ST-E2.  The ST-E2 was set to Ratio .. and that would allow Carol to change the ratio of light from the flashguns on either side of the subject / pillow / whippet.

The test shots looked good, but we couldn’t get an angle giving us a clean background.  So we had to change position.

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The final setup:

Carol found her angle along the one row of elevator doors opening up.  That single elevator door there at 90 degrees to the others, would be the background you now see in the final shot at the top. But because the dog would now be standing about 4 feet from the elevator doors, there was no room to hold the second speedlight + reflector.   So I stood on the left-hand side of the dog, about 6 – 8 feet away  .. and bounced a single speedlight into it. By angling the reflector during the test shots, we got the light to fall evenly on the subject / pillow … and enough light would reflect off the wall and elevator doors opposite me, to give fill light.  Perfect!

The light in the background was now the other Canon speedlight, also set to TTL mode.  The ST-E2 on Carol’s Canon 5D mk2, would then be able to control the ratio of light falling on the subject / pillow / dog .. and the light bounced into the ceiling in the background, lighting the background.

And there you have it .. the dog handler stepped in with the dog, and Carol very quickly got the shots she needed.

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Final notes:

Chanel not only won Best of Breed in whippets, she won the Hound Group 1 (i.e. First Place in all Hounds).  For a dog barely 2 years old, this is huge.  So, she’s been catapulted in one show into stardom, and Carol has real hope that the cover pic of her might become her “signature” photo and will be reproduced many times in the dog press and history book.

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- I will be at Unique Photo’s booth on Mon – Wed, March 8 – 10 at WPPI in Las Vegas, doing a presentation on how our choice of equipment helps define our artistic approach in photography.
I will be there 11am to noon every day.  Come stop by and say hello afterwards.

-  the March 20 seminar at Unique Photo!  Booking is now open!

-  the week-long class on off-camera lighting in Wisconsin is open for booking.

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Here is the complete list of workshops and seminars coming up in 2010

March 01, (Mon) -  presentation at PPANJ
title: just give me the f-stop

March 07, (Sun)  -  master-class presentation at WPPI (Las Vegas)
title:  flash on the run

March 20, (Sat) – presentation at Unique Photo, NJ
wedding photography – approach, style and technique
The seminar will be from 11am – 5pm, and will cover a broad range of topics regarding wedding photography.  Details will be announced later this week.

May 3 – 7  (Mon – Fi) – Wisconson Professional Photographers School
a week-long class on off-camera lighting!

May 24 – 25 (Mon – Tue) – flash photography workshop (NJ / NYC)
July 12 & 13 (Mon – Tue) – flash photography workshop (NJ / NYC)
Sept 13 & 14 (Mon – Tue) – flash photography workshop (NJ / NYC)

more details about these flash photography workshops …

flash photography workshops

As mentioned in recent posts, I have decided that the last few workshops of 2009 will most likely be the last of the travelling workshops for the time being.  (The exception might be the possible workshops in the UK and Ireland again later this year some time.)   The workshops in other areas of the USA, away from home, have been rewarding, but the time spent travelling has taken me away from my work as a wedding photographer here in New Jersey, and I need to focus on that again in 2010 and onwards.

Therefore,  if you  are interested in attending a workshop, and don’t live in the tri-state area, then you might want to make it a trip to Manhattan, and include a workshop as part of that trip.  ; )

The workshop format has been revamped for this year as a series of 2-day workshops, and will be presented in the northern NJ / NYC area only.

The first day will be a workshop and seminar on flash photography.  The second day is a kind of after-party.  Everyone who has attended the full-day workshop in the past, loved the practical sessions. So I’ve decided to extend the workshop with a further optional day.

On the 2nd day we’ll venture into Manhattan with our models, and have have a fun day where we apply and practice what we know about on-location lighting.  We’ll find interesting spots and backgrounds, and work our models in getting superb results from our off-camera lighting.

This second part of the workshop is optional.  It will only be open to photographers who have attended either the workshop (now or in the past), or had an individual tutoring session.  Priority will be given to those who have registered for the current workshop.

Cost of the workshop:  Day 1 ($500); and Day 2 ($300).  Both days:  $800.
More details and registration on this following page.

During this recent shoot with Jeannie Dee, I immediately noticed that with these heavily backlit portraits, I was getting an unusual amount of flare …

… and removing the filter on front of the lens immediately helped.  Noticeably so!

Shooting towards a bright light source or a bright background,
is one time where NOT using a filter makes absolute sense.  
You risk getting lens flare, no matter how good the filter is.

This amount of flare doesn’t necessarily mean the image is unusable though …

Here is the image again, but with the levels and contrast adjusted, and the colours warmed up in Photoshop.

Here are the two points that I change on the Levels layer … the mid-tones and the black level.  Then I add some contrast with curves on another layer.  It is an improvement, but with this image there is still a gradation in tones noticeable from the top to the bottom.

As always, the ideal is to get the best image quality we can, IN camera already.

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Of course, lens flare can be used for effect.
In this image here, I feel that the bit of lens flare in the bottom of the image helps to frame  her face.

In comparison, here are two examples of where I filter saved me a lot of trouble, and a lot of expense.

This is the *splat* that a floating bubble left on my filter at a wedding shoot. When they have bubbles after the ceremony when the couple leaves the church, then the bubbles become hard to avoid.  And this spot is hard to clean without using water .. something I’d rather not put my lens through.  (The white stripes are just the blinds in my office reflected in the filter.)

This image of a shattered filter which had protected my lens, is something I’ve already posted about before.  I truly believe this filter saved my lens from considerable damage.

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So, should you use a filter?  It depends entirely on where you shoot and what you shoot. Do you need your lens protected?  Are you risking flare?  Balance these needs and requirements and there’s the answer.  Sometimes you need a filter, but quite often, it makes most sense not to use one. Best not to argue about it, and just adapt your choice on the shooting situation you find yourself in.

ETA: As mentioned elsewhere on this site: lens hoods are the best protection for your lenses.

The filters that I use:

B+W 77mm UV Haze 010 Filter (B&H)
B+W 77mm Kaeseman Circular Polarizing Filter (B&H)
B+W 77mm #103 Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 Glass Filter (B&H)
.

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In many of the articles on the Tangents blog, I’ve described the way that I bounce flash indoors when photographing events.  This photo is an example from a recent wedding – the bridesmaids are watching the bride and groom dancing.

The important thing to notice here is that everyone there is evenly lit, whether closer to the camera, or further away.  This is achieved by NOT bouncing the flash off the ceiling towards my subject … but rather to flag my flash so that there is no direct flash falling on my subject. And then I bounce my flash off some point equi-distant to everyone.  Then the light has the same distance to travel to everyone … and everyone will be evenly illuminated by the flash.  NO need for the local correction brush in ACR / Lightroom.  It’s all done in camera!

This technique is also very useful when photographing corporate events.  You will inevitably have someone closer to the camera – possibly with his back to you.  The way then to get everyone equally well exposed, is to bounce off a wall or the ceiling to the side of everyone … in such a way that there is equal amount  of light on everyone.

A regular reader of the Tangents website, Alex Perry, works as an event photographer in Washington DC … and he just posted an insightful article about this technique on his blog.  With his kind permission, I’m including the illustrative diagrams here.  But check out his blog post to see his description of how he uses this at events.

The idea here is that if you bounce flash towards the group using a bounce card or that infamous piece of tupperware … you still have the people closest to you over-exposed compared to the rest of the frame.

In contrast to that, here is what happens when you flag your flash, bouncing your flash ONLY off a surface parallel to everyone in the frame …

Hopefully these diagrams will help in making the concept more clear. Thank you for this excellent contribution, Alex!

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