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Sometimes photo shoots are just work; sometimes photo shoots are fun. \u00a0Really fun. \u00a0And then there are photo shoots that also feel like it’s a privilege just to be a part of it. \u00a0And fun! \u00a0I had the opportunity to work with the Modern Gypsies<\/strong> during the past week. \u00a0They are performance artists based in New York. \u00a0I had met Michael Saab last year sometime while photographing an event, and we kept contact, with the idea of working together on some photo shoots, expanding their portfolio for their website.<\/p>\n Above are two of my favorite photos of the initial part of the photo session. More details about the photos and the lighting here …<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With this part of the photo session, we wanted to photograph Mike, the one performer, waving massive fabric banners around in the air. \u00a0We were on the rooftop of a building in Brooklyn. \u00a0The direction I had to shoot in was decided for us because of the direction that the wind was blowing. \u00a0This meant I had to shoot into the sun.<\/p>\n Shooting into the sun meant I had to set an exposure where I didn’t blow out most of the sky, but retained enough detail in the clouds and sky. \u00a0The fabric banners would be okay in terms of exposure since they would be backlit. \u00a0But I had to get some light onto Mike, the alien-looking performer in green & pink. \u00a0(Super-nice guy though. \u00a0Don’t be fooled by the looks.)<\/p>\n I did get some photos where he is silhouetted against the sky, and the photos do look stunning … but I also needed some images where the performer was well lit so you could see his costume. \u00a0This meant I had to add flash to the scenario. \u00a0I knew that the Q-flash in the softbox would simply not pump out enough light, so I disassembled the softbox we had used earlier. \u00a0I had to get direct flash on him. \u00a0I even took off the diffuser disc over the front of the Q-flash to get the exposure necessary.<\/p>\n details for the photos:<\/p>\n [ click on the photo for a larger image ]<\/span> [ click on the photo for a larger image ]<\/span> For the flash output, I decided to stay in manual. \u00a0Full power. \u00a0I needed everything the flash was capable of, and this wasn’t the time to be fooling around with TTL flash and flash exposure compensation. \u00a0I had my assistant stand behind me on a low wall. \u00a0Since the banners would sweep past us, I didn’t want to hamper the shoot with the light-stick constantly getting entangled. \u00a0So the flash wasn’t directional and off to the side. \u00a0The flash was from the camera’s point of view, but higher. For the pull-back shot there showing Jessica holding the light, I stepped to the side obviously, so that I could include her in the photo.<\/p>\n The lens that I used was the incomparable\u00a0Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S<\/a>.<\/strong> (B&H) Back to the flash being in manual mode. \u00a0With manual flash, the flash exposure is controlled by – aperture, ISO, flash power, distance from light to subject. \u00a0Those 4 variables are locked in relation to each other with manual flash. \u00a0I set the flash to maximum power, because I knew I would have to use a small aperture (at a low ISO) to have the sky well-exposed. \u00a0Then it was just a matter of getting close enough to get correct flash exposure on my subject.\u00a0More on\u00a0overpowering the sun with flash<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is also a distinct reason why I was at maximum flash sync speed<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0It’s the sweet spot when shooting in bright light and needing the most efficiency from your flash.<\/p>\n Could I have done this with just a bare speedlight? \u00a0Absolutely. \u00a0I didn’t need my flash to spread over a wide area. \u00a0I could’ve zoomed in a speedlight to just light the performer. \u00a0So this would’ve been within the capabilities of a speedlight.<\/p>\n More articles on off-camera flash …<\/a><\/p>\n Equipment used during this photo session: Sometimes photo shoots are just work; sometimes photo shoots are fun. \u00a0Really fun. \u00a0And then there are photo shoots that also feel like it’s a privilege just to be a part of it. \u00a0And fun! \u00a0I had the opportunity to work with the Modern Gypsies during the past week. \u00a0They are performance artists based in Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30353,"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":[15,22,429,31],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-lighting","9":"category-modern-gypsies","10":"category-photo-shoot","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904"}],"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=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50339,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions\/50339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(Later on\u00a0we went in to Times Square<\/a>.)<\/p>\nover-powering the sun with flash<\/h1>\n
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\n1\/250 @ f13 @ 100 ISO
\nNikon D3;\u00a0Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S<\/a> (B&H) \u2026 at 15mm<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/modern-gypsies\/NV2_6257.jpg\")
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\n1\/250 @ f14 @ 200 ISO
\nNikon D3;\u00a0Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S<\/a> (B&H) \u2026 at 15mm<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nThis lens set a new standard for how well a wide-angle lens can perform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nNikon D3; \u00a0Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 AF-S<\/a> (B&H);
\nQuantum T5D-R and Quantum FreeWire wireless system
\nLastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox<\/a> (B&H)
\nManfrotto 680B monopod<\/a> (B&H);
\nbrass stud to attach softbox to monopod<\/a> (B&H)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"