Tangents

Ulorin Vex – window light (photo session 3)

April 27, 2011

Continuing the photo session with Ulorin, we worked inside the hotel room for the next part. The photo above is a candid shot of Ulorin fixing her hair between changes in clothing. Ulorin’s next outfit shown in this article, was more revealing than the previous outfits during the photo session. (Just a heads-up for the Tangents readers who are surfing from their workplace.)

Photographing inside the room, I initially tried to work with just the window-light, but hit a small snag. The indirect light through the window kept changing on me as clouds moved in and out. Instead of changing my settings continually to match the light, I decided to revert to using flash to mimic the window light. This would give me consistent light.

off-camera flash as window light

This is the quality of light that I was after … soft directional light that still added a sense of drama. The light shown here is mostly flash, with a bit of ambient light. It took a few adjustments though to get to this point where I really liked the look.

camera settings for both images:
1/250 @ f5.6 @ 800 ISO … manual off-camera flash.

The slight change in contrast that you see in the light on her face, is because Ulorin shifted in position relative to the light as she changed her pose. (I edited out the white bedsheets in the top image to see if the image was improved without the distraction of the white bed sheets.)

This is where we started. In these test shots you can see the table and clutter in the background. This is before we moved everything out of the way. What is also immediately noticeable is that the exposures here are different, even though my camera settings were the same:
1/200 @ f4 @ 650 ISO

The available light looked good (as in this image below), but it was too inconsistent. I’d rather be concentrating on the photography, than have the rhythm of the photo session be broken by constant adjustment of settings.

1/250 @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO .. available light.

I then thought I could mimic the window light by placing an off-camera flash in the window. The flash pointed outwards and up, bouncing off the glass of the window. I had the flash-head zoomed wide.

The result was a flood of light into the room. I guess this would’ve looked like window light on another sunnier day. And with the room not facing another hotel across the narrow road. It just didn’t look like I wanted.

The next step was the Big Adjustment. I moved the light to the left of the window frame, and rotated the flash so that it pointed to the left. Now the light bounced off the glass towards the top of the window pane. Yes, even though I am pointing the flash outwards, enough light will bounce off the glass to make the difference.

And now the direction of the light is exactly what I was after. I had zoomed the flash-head to a tighter angle to make the swathe of light less broad. I wanted the light to accentuate Ulorin’s face. And here is the result …

And in case anyone needs convincing that bouncing the flash off the glass had any effect, here is the shot without the flash.

Camera settings for both images .. in fact for all the images with the flash positioned here:
1/250 @ f5.6 @ 800 ISO

The manual off-camera flash was controlled in the same way as for the photo session with Ulorin in the red latex outfit. The speedlight was controlled via a PocketWizard FlexTT5 on which the flash was mounted. The output of this flash could be controlled as manual flash via the FlexTT5 and AC3 ZoneController on the camera.

As photographers we needs to pre-visualize what we want to achieve with our lighting .. and work towards that by figuring out where we need to place our light. Then we also need to figure out what we want to achieve with the light.

As shown in the previous post with Ulorin in the red latex outfit, the lighting set-up that we end up using can be quite simple. It needs some thought and adjustment and experimenting to get to where we want to be with the lighting. As in the previous post, a simple speedlight offered unexpectedly good results.

other articles on Tangents, featuring Ulorin:

model – Ulorin Vex
Ulorin Vex in red (photo session 2)
Ulorin Vex – Monaco foyer (photo session 4)
manual off-camera fill-flash (model – Ulorin Vex)

Equipment used with this photo session:

Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H); Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)
Manfrotto 1051BAC light-stand (B&H)

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If you need more direct help or instruction on flash photography,
I do present workshops & seminars and also offer individual tutoring sessions.

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by
using these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies. Thank you!

23 Comments »

Hi Neil, thanks for another great post. One question, how much was the flash zoomed in? My guess is 50mm?

Comment by Phi — April 27, 2011 @ 10:07 am
The flash was zoomed in to its max. No reason to do it half-way if the shot with the wide spread of light wasn’t what I was aiming for.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 27, 2011 @ 10:30 am
I search out your blog religously three times weekly. Your continuing coverage of Ulorin is great. Thanks for providing in the previous blog the link to Ulorin’s personal journal. I find the additional photos of this ravishing red head most interesting and I shall check her site frequently from now on.She is a good communicater as yourself and her journal is interesting reading for those of us on this side of the puddle.I am sure that her coverage is generating much more volume then regular. Thanks again.

Comment by RON LEMISH — April 27, 2011 @ 10:39 am
Seeing such beautiful closeup portraits brought a question to my mind. May be a little off-topic, but I was curious how you went about shooting with autofocus. Do you AF a center point and recompose your shots? Or do you compose your shot first and manually select your focus spot? Thanks for an amazing blog – I have learned more here than anywhere else!

Comment by foxfire — April 27, 2011 @ 10:51 am
With longer lenses, I use center-focus & recompose often. With wider focal lengths it can be a problem though to focus & recompose, since the plane of focus can shift dramatically, leading to soft images where you wanted sharp areas.

With these images, I did use off-center AF points closer to the areas that I am focusing on – her eyes.

And thank you for the kind compliments. Spread the word!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 27, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
Great examples of how altering the light in a given environment can greatly affect the “look” of a shot. We see a range from dark and moody (almost rainy day) to bright and commercial here. Of course, your desire to keep the flow of the session going by maintaining a consistent lighting is the way I like it, too. When you can’t count on the natural light to stay consistent, you either have to flow with it or overpower it to some extent. Nice, beautiful work, as always, Neil.

Comment by Ed Verosky — April 27, 2011 @ 12:38 pm
Ed .. thank you! We still need to do that podcast sometime. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 27, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
Another stunning post. Many thanks for your detailed explanations of the lighting setup (all it’s missing is a wide shot with the gear in place like in the previous post ;). I have very similar gear (D700, SB-800, SB-900) so seeing great shots like these gives me the confidence that I won’t need to spend any more money, just learn a lot more. :)

Comment by karohemd — April 27, 2011 @ 2:13 pm
The pull-back shot is there. Somehow you missed it?

Your observation about the simplicity of equipment is important here. It is something I wanted to under-line in this article and the previous one which also featured Ulorin. The choice of equipment is accessible by everyone. Meaning, everyone can achieve an f5.6 aperture.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 27, 2011 @ 8:44 pm
Neil,

The “Big Adjustment” looks awesome: realistic. Did you know immediately that the quality of light would change in your favor, or was it a trial and error approach? This is something I could use immediately in my photography focus. I look forward to your workshop in NYC in May!

Comment by Dajuan — April 28, 2011 @ 6:17 am
Partly trial & error. But the process here is as described. There were no in-between false starts. So it really has to do with a pre-vizualisation of what I want … and then changing the light setup to approximate that.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 28, 2011 @ 6:20 am
As stunning as the previous posts but even though the lighting is as you say “simple” what makes a world of difference is the thought process put in. With exactly the same gear I would never have acheived a fraction of this result.So the it all comes down to one thing that you remind us each time we see your work -its not the gear but the man behind.Thanks for sharing.

Comment by Alex-D — April 28, 2011 @ 7:29 am
Hi Neil,
This is another great post. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Did you have any problem with positioning yourself so you would not see your reflection in the mirror.
I was trying to do a shot recently where both front and back of a model was in the frame using a mirror but found it difficult not to capture a reflection of myself and the gear.

Comment by pawel — April 28, 2011 @ 7:35 am
Pawel, in a few of these shots I did have to edit out the top of my head in the frame. It was an easy edit though, since I was indistinct and out-of-focus .. but it was noticeable. I really tried not to appear in the image by hiding myself behind her in the mirror’s reflection, but it wasn’t always possible.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 28, 2011 @ 10:46 am
Hi Neil,

Thanks for another fantastic post. Do you retouch skin etc… before posting here or are these simply out of camera photos? I am trying with bounce flash and though I get softlight my images lack the “pop” in your photos. I am trying to figure out is it something to do with lighting or retouching.

Thanks

Comment by Sanka — April 28, 2011 @ 1:54 pm
Sanka … I do some retouching for portraits, as described in this linked article. With that, the contrast and saturation is increased a bit. However, the basic image is punchy already because of how I set up my RAW defaults in ACR / Bridge.

I don’t just use the ‘flat’ defaults there, I created my own which adds punch to the images even before I generate the JPGs.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 28, 2011 @ 5:14 pm
As always great photos.
Your flash light looks like natural light!!!

Comment by bart — April 28, 2011 @ 5:36 pm
Good stuff Neil, a few questions a bit off topic. When you choose your models, do you bring aboard your own makeup artist and deigner? Or do you simply leave that to the discretion of the model? Her outfits where fantastic so to was the hair and makeup. It also helps to have a great photographer bring out the best in these models. Good stuff, more Ulorin please.

Comment by charlie — April 28, 2011 @ 7:34 pm
Ulorin did her own make-up and hair, and provided the change in dress.

I nearly always leave it up to the model, but I do think that for the best results, the photographer really needs to make sure that hair and make-up is provided or taken care of. It makes a huge difference.

I would say that Ulorin is an exception to most models I have worked with – the Art Direction of the shoot is now a collaboration with the photographer, since she brings so much to the shoot in terms of dress and the final Look.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 28, 2011 @ 7:42 pm
Hi Neil,

Thanks for the info about retouching. Can you please share your RAW settings in ACR / Bridge or may be another article on that?

Thanks

Comment by Sanka — April 29, 2011 @ 2:14 am
Sanka .. I use the Nikon D3. My default settings for the Nikon D3 is different than the Canon 1D mk3, and the Canon 5D and the Canon 5D mk2. I haven’t bothered yet to calibrate my settings between different makes and models of camera, since when I am on a shoot, I only use D3 bodies (at the moment.)

So a screengrab of my settings would purely show how I like my ACR / Bridge defaults *now* and only be true for the Nikon D3. On top of that, there is nothing scientific or educated about it. It’s purely how I like the default RAW files to look on my screen.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 30, 2011 @ 2:07 am
This…. this is why I come here. Putting your flash in the window. Where else would I read about such crazy yet perfect ideas?

Comment by forkboy1965 — May 1, 2011 @ 9:32 pm
Hi Neil!

Thanks again! Your hide-nothing way of teaching and sharing is absolutely unique! I ve been here for almost 2 years and everytime that I return, learn a lot! as flash goes, YOU are THE MAN! Thanks!

Comment by Artur Ocubaro — May 17, 2011 @ 5:18 pm