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3 NYC photo sessions
NYC photo sessions with models
I met up with 3 models in New York recently for a photo session with each. The intention was to try out different lighting techniques, different equipment .. and just to have fun and see what we can come up with. First we roamed the Meat-packing District and Greenwich with Aleona and Laura Lee, and then later on met up with Sasha in Brooklyn. This video clip will be a glimpse of working with three gorgeous models in an ever-fascinating city. Enjoy! I think what might be interesting with this video, is to see the wider view in relation to the Read more inside...Flash photography: Overpowering the sun with flash
Flash photography: Overpowering the sun with flash
When we think about overpowering the sun with flash, we are most often really considering to match the sunlight with enough flash. We usually want to lift the shadow areas to the same level as the sunlit areas. There's a tiny bit of math involved here which makes the algorithm or thought-process predictable. Since the Sunny 16 rule has it that broad daylight is in the order of 1/200th or 1/250th @ f11 @ 100 ISO ... you'd either have to shoot with a bare speedlight, (which, as a small light source, will cause hard shadows) .. or use a Read more inside...using video light for portraits
using video light for portraits
In reply to some questions on using video light for portraits, here are some images of Sasha, a model who brought an entirely appropriate sense of the dramatic to the photo session. With vintage clothing and hats, the video lights appeared a good choice for lighting. For this session, I had an assistant who held up two Lowel ID-lights (affiliate), each with barn-doors to flag the light and stop light spill .. and in this way get a lot of control over the direction and placing of the light. The one light was used to light up our model, Read more inside...Syncing at higher than max flash sync speed
Syncing at higher than max flash sync speed
The model, Aleona, was lit with an off-camera Q-flash T5D-R, using Quantum’s wireless system, and a 24×32 softbox, mounted on a lightstand. The settings were: 1/1000th @ f4 @ 200 ISO It is noteworthy that this was shot at 1/1000th of a second with a Q-flash .. and they don't support high-speed sync. I never paid much attention to the physics and shape of the pulse of flash, or how the pulse of light is shaped, but after reading up on how the new PocketWizards work, I was curious .. and played around with the Q-flash. And to my Read more inside...NYC photo-shootout redux
Another photograph from the recent NYC photo shootout. We were a group of photographers working with Lea during this part of the afternoon. There are several parts in what makes an image successful - the subject, the setting, lighting and then the post-processing. There are limitations in working as a group with a model. So where I would've preferred shooting with a longer lens to compress the perspective more, you sometimes have to accept the situation. In this case, the setting wasn't ideal, and there was a fair amount of background clutter. Therefore this might be a good time to to Read more inside...
On-camera flash light modifiers? Remove the plastic diffuser cup!
Choosing on-camera flash light modifiers
One of the things I always emphasize if you want to achieve the best results from your on-camera speedlight, is to be aware of the direction of light from your flashgun. When you know which direction you want your light from your flash to come from, then the simplest way to figure out what direction to bounce your flash towards, is to consider the simple geometry of it all. Yup, triangular geometry from your days in primary school. And from Science class in high school, you can also consider the Angle of Incidence = Angle of Read more inside...NYC photo shoot-out
An exotic model in a bridal dress; manual off-camera flash with a softbox; some Photoshop fairy dust ... and there's an image I really like. Earlier today, a group of about 50 photographers, (along with 5 models), converged on the Meat-Packing District in New York - another of the photo shoot-out / get-togethers / super-fun events that Rob Nicholson arranged. I helped rotating groups of photographers, showing the essentials of using a single off-camera softbox with manual flash. The techniques included balancing the flash with ambient light, and also looking at the direction of Read more inside...
Shutter speed controls background exposure?
Shutter speed controls background exposure? Usually ...
Something I kick against when I try to teach others about flash photography, is the use of short-cut phrases. Those axioms that are supposed to help the understanding of how to mix flash with ambient light, can often mislead you since they don't give you all the information. Two of those phrases were recently discussed here: aperture controls flash exposure, shutter speed controls available light. These are merely reductions of the way that shutter speed, aperture and ISO inter-relate with available light and Read more inside...On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light
On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light
This photo of Precious, a model at a photography workshop, was taken during part of the practical session where emphasis was placed on getting soft directional light from an on-camera speedlight. The trick here is to absolutely have no hint of light coming from the camera's view-point. To do this, I once again used the Black Foamie Thing to control the light from my on-camera speedlight, shielding the light from the flash. I pointed my speedlight 90' to my left, so that the light reflected back towards our model from that Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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