{"id":13604,"date":"2013-03-05T18:25:19","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T22:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=13604"},"modified":"2019-11-01T12:31:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T16:31:30","slug":"composition-posing-light-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/composition-posing-light-lighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Composition, posing, light &#038; lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1076_edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<h1>Composition, posing, light &amp; lighting &#8211; when it all comes together<\/h1>\n<p>I just love this photograph of <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/review-canon-eos-6d-movie-mode\/\">Anastasia Z<\/a>, and want to share some of the through-process in how it came together.<\/p>\n<p>To test the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-6d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 6D camera<\/a>\u00a0(<em>affiliate<\/em>)\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-ef-24-70mm-f4-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 24-70mm f\/4.0L IS<\/a>\u00a0lens (<em>affiliate<\/em>), I met up with\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.modelmayhem.com\/Anastasia10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anastasia Z<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in New York.\u00a0I scouted this area, while we were waiting for Anastasia who was running a touch late. Just as well I did the scouting\u00a0earlier on, because it was freezing outside.<\/p>\n<p>I saw the way this building over the Highline in Manhattan was creating this jagged shape with strong lines. I also knew the staggered vertical lines would work well, silhouetted against the winter sky. When we met up with Anastasia, we discussed an approximate plan of where we&#8217;d shoot .. including somewhere inside eventually. But I wanted to try this one specific idea first &#8211; right here.<\/p>\n<p>So, knowing more or less what I wanted, we walked towards this spot. On our way there, I did try out an idea, but it didn&#8217;t quite hang together, and I dropped it to get to this place where I knew the idea would work.<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s how this photograph came together with just three test images &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1061.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>camera settings: \u00a01\/180 @ f\/11 @ 100 ISO<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I had tried shooting with bare flash at high shutter speed earlier on at a spot along the way, but <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/high-speed-flash-sync\/\">the HSS flash just ate up too much of the flash&#8217;s juice<\/a> for the aperture \/ shutter speed \/ ISO combination we needed. At 1\/4000 @ f\/4 the flash had to be really close to her to have the effect I needed &#8230; so close that the speedlight would&#8217;ve appeared in the frame. So I knew I would have to work at the maximum flash sync speed of the <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-6d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 6D camera<\/a>\u00a0(<em>affiliate<\/em>), which is 1\/180<\/p>\n<p>Now it might sound like a dramatic difference from the 1\/200 max flash sync speed of the <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-5d-mk-iii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 5D mark III<\/a>\u00a0(<em>affiliate<\/em>), but in reality it is <a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/compare-max-flash-sync-speed-250-vs-200\/\">an incremental difference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Back to the photo in this sequence &#8211; when we arrived here,\u00a0I positioned Anastasia to show her on the back of the camera more or less what I had envisioned. It is usually easier if your subject is involved in what you&#8217;re trying to do and have a clear idea of what you&#8217;re aiming for.<\/p>\n<p>So there&#8217;s the composition. With Anastasia placed in that corner of the camera&#8217;s frame, it\u00a0was just a matter of adding flash to light her up. Full power manual flash to match the bright light in the background.<\/p>\n<p>A specific power setting on your flash, at a certain distance, would imply a specific aperture \/ ISO combination. Or, the other way to look at it &#8230; since I had the aperture \/ ISO because of how I wanted the background to appear, I had to have my flash at a certain distance (because I was at a specific power setting already &#8211; full power.)<\/p>\n<p>More about the line of thought here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/getting-the-most-power-from-flash-speedlite\/\">getting the most power out of your flash \/ speedlite \/ speedlight<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1062.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Here is second image: \u00a01\/180 @ f\/11 @ 100 ISO<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The background in this previous photo was a stop too bright for my liking, so I changed to f\/16 and had my assistant bring the flash that much closer &#8230; to get correct flash exposure on her.<\/p>\n<p>It takes longer to describe this, than to actually do it. It becomes an easy and fast thing to do once you have the routine down.<\/p>\n<p>The thought-process is the same as described\u00a0in this article:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/controlling-bright-daylight-with-direct-off-camera-flash\/\">controlling bright daylight w\/ direct off-camera flash<\/a> (model: Molly K)<\/p>\n<p>Then I had to direct Anastasia&#8217;s pose so that the light fell on her in a pleasant way &#8230; and then I changed my own position so that the sun wasn&#8217;t directly behind her anymore, but intentionally flaring. Dramatic!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1063.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So there we have it in 3 shots. Then I had Anastasia take her hat and bag off, drop into the pose &#8230; and get ready for a sequence of images.\u00a0We had to work fast in the cold, so this methodical way of doing it helped in nailing the final image nearly immediately.<\/p>\n<p>And here is the final image, edited with a combination of Photoshop filters &#8211; Nik HDR, Portraiture, Shine-Off. Each of them brought something to the final image.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1076_edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>camera settings: \u00a01\/180 @ f\/16 @ 100 ISO .. full power manual flash.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here is the pull-back shot to show where the flash was positioned &#8211; held up by Peter Salo who was helping me out on this day, enthusiasm undiminished by the cold.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/anastasia\/IMG_1091.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With the photos that I wanted, we needed to get someplace warmer &#8230; so we hung out for a while in a restaurant, and then we went to Times Square to work on another idea I had, which would be a quick video clip that just might just work &#8230; \u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/review-canon-eos-6d-movie-mode\/\">Anastasia Z<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0with a sense of playfulness and allure.<\/p>\n<p>In this way, final images (and also the video clip), are most often an iterative process. Changing a few things along the way to get to something that looks great.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Photo gear\u00a0used during this shoot<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-6d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 6D<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-ef-24-70mm-f4-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 24-70mm f\/4L IS<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-600ex-rt-speedlite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \/ \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-st-e3-speedlite-transmitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canon ST-E3 Speedlite Transmitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Composition, posing, light &amp; lighting &#8211; when it all comes together I just love this photograph of Anastasia Z, and want to share some of the through-process in how it came together. To test the\u00a0Canon 6D camera\u00a0(affiliate)\u00a0and the\u00a0Canon 24-70mm f\/4.0L IS\u00a0lens (affiliate), I met up with\u00a0Anastasia Z\u00a0in New York.\u00a0I scouted this area, while we were&nbsp;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/composition-posing-light-lighting\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read more inside&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[471,15,31,1],"tags":[871,472],"yst_prominent_words":[1403,5626,5605,5597,5620,1785,1783,1778,1776,5623,3908,5618,5601,1784,1779,5615,1855,5610,5625,5612],"class_list":{"0":"post-13604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anastasia","8":"category-flash-photography","9":"category-photo-shoot","10":"category-uncategorized","11":"tag-flash-photography","12":"tag-on-location-photo-shoot","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13604"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48576,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13604\/revisions\/48576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13604"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}