{"id":2335,"date":"2010-03-01T10:04:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T14:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=2335"},"modified":"2022-05-13T13:01:26","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T17:01:26","slug":"off-camera-flash-portrait-show-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-flash-portrait-show-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"off-camera flash portrait of a show dog, Chanel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

off-camera wireless TTL flash setup for a portrait of a show dog<\/h1>\n

A friend of mine, Carol Beuchat, is a photographer who specializes in dog portraits and dog shows. \u00a0She was at the recent\u00a0Westminster Dog Show<\/a>, and needed to photograph this beautiful whippet, Chanel, for a magazine cover. \u00a0Since it was in Manhattan and it was ice cold freezing outside, we had to photograph the dog indoors. \u00a0The hotel lobby where the attendees to the dog show stayed would have to be the setting. \u00a0And would have to make a great<\/strong> setting.<\/p>\n

The one foyer of the hotel had these gleaming metal elevator doors. \u00a0Carol 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. \u00a0(Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS )<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Once we were ready, the Chanel’s handler would bring her down, and position her. \u00a0A few frames … and \u00a0Carol would have the shot.<\/p>\n

We had to be meticulous about the setting-up – and still be very flexible during the actual shoot …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0 The pillow was the stand-in for the dog while figuring out the lighting. \u00a0Doing various test shots of the pillow, we looked at the background and the lighting on the pillow (standing in for the subject). \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

.<\/span>
\n<\/strong>the\u00a0initial lighting setup
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I initially set up three speedlights to light up the subject.
\nCarol had two Canon 580EX II speedlights<\/a> (B&H) there, and I had brought my Nikon SB-900 speedlights<\/a> (B&H). \u00a0She could control the two Canon speedlights with a Canon ST-E2 wireless TTL controller<\/a>\u00a0(B&H). \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I set the SB-900 in manual mode, and used it to light the background. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n

My wife, Sara, who had accompanied me, helped by holding a speedlight and reflector. \u00a0\u00a0The 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. \u00a0 \u00a0We held the reflectors about 6 – 8 feet from the subject \/ pillow. The reflector would create a large soft light source then. \u00a0The speedlighs would be in TTL mode, and triggered with the ST-E2. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

The test shots looked good, but we couldn’t get an angle giving us a clean background. \u00a0So we had to change position.<\/p>\n

.<\/span>
\nthe final\u00a0lighting\u00a0setup<\/h2>\n

Carol found her angle along the one row of elevator doors opening up. \u00a0That 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. \u00a0 So I stood on the left-hand side of the dog, about 6 – 8 feet away \u00a0.. 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. \u00a0Perfect!<\/p>\n

The light in the background was now the other Canon speedlight, also set to TTL mode. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

And there you have it .. the dog handler stepped in with the dog, and Carol very quickly got the shots she needed.<\/p>\n

final notes<\/h2>\n

Chanel not only won Best of Breed in whippets, she won the Hound Group 1 (i.e. First Place in all Hounds). \u00a0For a dog barely 2 years old, this is huge. \u00a0So, 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

related articles<\/h2>\n

more tutorials: off-camera flash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

off-camera wireless TTL flash setup for a portrait of a show dog A friend of mine, Carol Beuchat, is a photographer who specializes in dog portraits and dog shows. \u00a0She was at the recent\u00a0Westminster Dog Show, and needed to photograph this beautiful whippet, Chanel, for a magazine cover. \u00a0Since it was in Manhattan and it Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30880,"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":[15,22,89,1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-lighting","9":"category-pets","10":"category-uncategorized","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335"}],"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=2335"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51151,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions\/51151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}