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photo session – Modern Gypsies – PinkMan

September 10, 2010 Neil vN 6 Comments

Pinkman!  More from the recent extended photo session with the Modern Gypsies.  After the photo session with Martin on stilts, we moved to one of the many colorful areas in Brooklyn where we started with Dread Eye. Working in the same spot, Michael Saab fitted his character, PinkMan! out with jumping stilts. Absolute lunacy!

Working in such bright light, I thought the best approach would be to cross-light the sunlight with off-camera flash …

As you can see in this image below, I removed the front baffle on the Lastolite Ezybox softbox. It cut down too much of the light. But with just the one baffle, I was able to match the sun at that working distance.

Camera settings for all these images: 1/250 @ f11 @ 200 ISO
The flash was set to full output, in manual mode. That was the only way I was sure to get the most juice from my flash, with every shot. I used PocketWizard Plus II units to fire the flash.

 

related articles

  • other posts featuring the Modern Gypsies
  • Modern Gypsies – official site

 

photo gear (or equivalents) used during this photo session

  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S
  • Nikon SB-910 Speedlight controlled by PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver & AC3 Controller
    or alternately, the Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite controlled by Canon ST-E3 Transmitter
  • Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox

The first time I saw Michael on these jumping stilts at an event I was photographing, I wanted a set! It just looked so much fun. But then, common sense prevailed … as a working photographer, I can’t risk any injury, especially to my hands or wrists. But still, they look fascinating.

Filed Under: flash photography, Modern Gypsies, off-camera flash, photo shoot Tagged With: off-camera flash on location


 

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Neil vN

Books by Neil van Niekerk


 




6 Comments, Add Your Own

  1. 1rgordon says

    September 10, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    Great work as usual Neil!

    Reply
  2. 2Stephen says

    September 10, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Wow, stilts have evolved quite a bit. Michael is jumping very high in those stilts. Nice dynamic shots, Neil.

    Reply
  3. 3Corby Chapin says

    September 11, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    Neil,Awesome as always.

    I don’t claim to shoot my flash in manual so this may seem like a dumb question, but by throwing your flash on 100% power in manual how did you manage to still shoot at only 1/250 in full daylight at ISO 200? There must be a “neil secret” here.

    Reply
  4. 4Neil vN says

    September 13, 2010 at 1:07 am

    Corby .. there is a reason why I shot at 1/250 .. the maximum flash sync speed for that particular camera. I had to be at 100 ISO because it was bright sunlight. Then I just had to find the appropriate aperture. f11 it was.

    Neil vN

    Reply
  5. 5Corby Chapin says

    September 13, 2010 at 11:16 pm

    Thanks Neil

    Re reading my question I realize that I wrote it a bit stupidly. You did answer my question, though, so it all makes sense. I was too focused on the question “how can you simply blast your flash on full power and randomly set your camera to 1/250 of a sec and hope for the best? That’s madness!!” No, not madness…..aperture. Yep, I was the guy in school who always asked the really stupid question, only to interrupt the answer with “oooooohhhhh” as I realized just how dumb it was.

    Thanks, and sick work as per usual!

    Reply
  6. 6Neil vN says

    September 14, 2010 at 12:39 am

    Thanks!

    Neil vN

    Reply

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