Advanced Use o O-Camera Flash PIET VAN DEN EYNDE
Advanced Use o O-Camera Flash PIET VAN DEN EYNDE
Contents i: Introducton .: Going Beyond Sync Speed .2: Working With Multiple Flashes 2.1: Advanced Triggering Systems 2.2: More Modiers 2.3: Thinking Outside the Sotbox 2.4: More Useul Stu 2.5: Outgrowing Your Small Flashes 3: Ten Case Studies 4: Four Interviews 5: Conclusion
Advanced Use o O-Camera Flash PIET VAN DEN EYNDE
Contents i: Introducton .: Going Beyond Sync Speed .2: Working With Multiple Flashes 2.1: Advanced Triggering Systems 2.2: More Modiers 2.3: Thinking Outside the Sotbox 2.4: More Useul Stu 2.5: Outgrowing Your Small Flashes 3: Ten Case Studies 4: Four Interviews 5: Conclusion
1
Introducton In Making Light, Light, the rst part o
In this second eBook, we’ll dive a little deeper
this two-part eBook, we
into the matter: we’ll cover some more advanced
introduced o-camera fash,
techniques and introduce you to some extra
using typical hotshoe fashes,
modiers. We’ll We’ll add more fashes to our setup,
as a way o improving not only
either bundling them or power or setting them
the quantity o light but, more
up in dierent places or added eect. We’ll still
importantly, the quality.
be working mainly with Speedlights, Speedlites, or other brand hotshoe fashes (just more o
O-camera fash may look complicated and
them), but we’ll also touch upon some alterna-
intimidating intimidatin g at rst, but it needn’t be: you just
tive portable fash systems. The ocus will be on
need some basic technique, some gear, and
location lighting and portraiture, because ater
some vision, just like in any other discipline o
all, that’s where these little wonders… shine.
photography (and any art, or that matter). Ten new case studies will show you how In the technique department, we discussed
these new concepts can be added to the ones
the main characteristics o light, and the
we discussed in the rst eBook to take real-
important physics ormulas that all light,
lie shoots to the proverbial next level.
including fash light, is governed by. But it’s the nal part that may very well be the In the gear chapters o the rst eBook, we intro-
most interesting. In the last chapter, we’ll let
duced a couple o ways to trigger an o-camera
you look into the minds, portolios, and camera
fash and introduced you to a couple o modiers.
bags o our Belgian photographers, some o which are known worldwide or their work with
Finally,, in the last part, we discussed nine Finally
o-camera fash. I hope you’ll nd these our
setups that were all taken with a basic o-
interviews as rereshing and stimulating as I did.
camera fash set, consisting o one remote fash, an umbrella, and a small sotbox.
^ A shutter speed o 1/500 was used to reeze this dancer in midair midair.. His let side is exposed by the sun. On his right side, just out o rame, is a Westcott Westco tt 28-inch sotbox with three SB-900s at ull power. Setup shot © Serge Van Cauwenbergh (www. sergevancauwenbergh.com). I love the poetry o the setup shot almost
More Advanced Techniques
.. Gong Beyond Sync Speed ... Hgh-Speed Sync Every camera has a sync speed (sometimes reerred to as X-sync or synchro-X): it’s the astest shutter speed that will allow you to eectively trigger a fash without running the risk that part o your picture is not exposed by that fash. For most modern DSLRs, this sync speed varies between 1/200 and 1/250 o a second.
^ From let to right: ash fred at 1/200, 1/320 and 1/500 o a second. Traditionally, fring a ash at speeds higher than the camera’s sync speed will cause a part o the rame to be blacked out. Normally, this is an unwanted eect, but i you know you won’t be needing that part o your image anyway, ‘overclocking’ your sync speed like this can be a way to achieve aster shutter speeds without having to resort to High Speed Sync. Using aster shutter speeds in combination
1, the shutter speed controls the ambient,
be the same, but the photons rom your fash
don’t want the background to be too distract-
with fash will give you a black eathered
the aperture controls the fash, right?
could now travel through a wider aperture, so
ing. Wide open apertures such as /2.8 or wider
it would eectively become twice as powerul.
will give you that. But these apertures require
stroke across one edge o your exposure, because the fash is hitting the already closing
Let’s assume that you have a scene at 1/250
shutter instead o the sensor. For this reason,
@ /11 and that in order to light your subject
This is one reason why a camera like the
the non-manual modes o your camera will
in this environment, your fash is already at
Nikon D70, with its “mere” six megapixels
normally prevent you rom accidentally going
ull power and you still don’t get enough light
is still hot with o-camera fash shoot-
Now, beore you all rush over to eBay and
beyond your sync speed when using fash.
out o it. Your rst move might be to move
ers: it’s got a sync speed o 1/500.
drive up the prices o used D70s even urther,
ast shutter speeds, or… your scene will already
the fash in closer, using the inamous inverse
be overexposed by the ambient light only.
there’s some good news: many o the new
Yet, there are times when you’d want to
square law to your advantage. Now let’s say that
This example also shows a second reason why
cameras and fashes can work in what’s called
have a aster speed. For one, higher sync
this is not possible. I only your camera were
higher sync speeds can be interesting: the
high-speed sync. Without getting into details:
speeds mean your fash eectively becomes
capable o synchronizing at 1/500 (i.e. one stop
higher your sync speed, the more wide open
at aster shutter speeds, both curtains o
more powerul in relation to the ambient
aster), you’d be able to open up your aperture
your aperture can be or any given scene. I
your shutter travel together over the sensor,
sunlight. Because, as we know rom volume
one more stop. The ambient exposure would
you’re doing a portrait outdoors, you very oten
revealing only a slit o the sensor at a time.
More Advanced Techniques .. Gong Beyond Sync Speed
Case 2 in chapter 3 shows an example o a dancer splashing up water, where a shutter speed o 1/2000 was used to reeze the water drops.
... Hgh-Speed Sync – contnued To build up your ambient exposure, this does not matter, but when you throw fash into the equation, this is what gets you the black banding.
Simply put, high-speed sync does the ollowing: instead o ring one big fash pulse, your fash will pulsate repeatedly, so each slit o sensor that the two moving shutter curtains reveal will not only receive ambient exposure, but also the right dose o fash exposure. This way, fash-lit exposures o up to 1/8000 are possible!
Nikon calls this technique Auto FP High Speed Sync. Canon reers to it as High-Speed Sync. Because that’s less o a mouthul, that’s what we’ll call it rom here on in, too.
When photographing ast action, such as certain sports
The ability to go into high-speed sync could
or the typical ice cube alling into a glass o water,
be a reason or you to avour certain brand
it’s the ast shutter speed that will be your primary
fashes over their manual counterparts.
interest. Again, high-speed sync is the answer. Some manuacturers have high-speed sync turned o Unortunately, there’s no such thing as a ree lunch—
by deault on their cameras, even i the camera itsel
high-speed sync will cost you twice: rst o all, you’ll
allows it. Check your camera manual. I always en-
need a more expensive brand (or brand-compatible)
able it on my cameras. Just know that it eats a lot o
fash and your camera has to support the eature, too.
power and that i your fash doesn’t give you the output you’d expect rom it, there’s a big chance you were—
High-speed sync isn’t only interesting or shallow depth o eld photos, where the ast shutter speed is the by-product o the large aperture you were ater. Ater all, you could also obtain that by putting a neutral density lter (a light stopping lter) or, in a pinch, a polarizer on your lens. These can also allow you to open up your aperture without getting over 1/250th o a second.
Secondly, high-speed sync also costs you in terms o
maybe inadvertently—working beyond sync speed.
total fash output. A fash at ull power in high-speed sync will produce less light than at or below sync
The Nikon and Canon inrared wireless fash system we
speed, so you might need more fashes to get to the
discussed in Making Light allows or high-speed sync.
same exposure. Still, it is a antastic eature to have and allows or truly unleashed fash creativity.
More Advanced Techniques .. Gong Beyond Sync Speed ... Hgh-Speed Sync – Ths One Goes To /8000! Ambient-only exposure against the sun, noon on a sunny day. The subject is backlit and the ace underexposed. Luckily, the umbrella that happened to be standing by or the three ollowing shots acted as a refector, otherwise the ace would have been even darker. But there’s something else missing in this portrait: catchlights.
Lit with an umbrella’d fash at the traditional sync speed. In order to avoid overexposure, a relatively stopped down aperture o /11 was needed on this 85 mm 1.4 1. The umbrella puts a nice catchlight in the eyes, but notice how the small aperture makes the background busy and distracting. Nikon D700 | 85mm /1.4G | 85mm | /11 @ 1/250s 1 SB-900 fred through a white umbrella
Nikon D700 | 85mm /1.4G | 85mm /2.8 @ 1/4000s | ISO 200
Opening up the exposure (as simulated here in Lightroom) by two stops would make the ace look better, but the background now becomes distractingly bright and the green loses a lot o its pleasing colour saturation. Nikon D700 | 85mm /1.4G | 85mm /2.8 @ 1/4000s | ISO 200 2 extra stops added in Lightroom
Virtually the same overall ambient level, only this time, highspeed sync was used. The aperture was opened up to /2.8, driving the shutter speed to a staggering 1/4000. Thanks to the wonders o High Speed Sync the background now is dreamy and blurry, and, along with the backlit hair, provides extra separation o the subject, a very willing and patient Van den Eynde Sr. Nikon D700 | 85mm /1.4G | 85mm | /2.8 @ 1/4000s 1 SB-900 fred through a white umbrella at ull manual power in highspeed sync modefred through a white umbrella
Using an 85 mm 1.4 or 1.8 at /11 is actually a lot like driving a Porsche on a supermarket parking lot. On a 1
More Advanced Techniques .. Gong Beyond Sync Speed
.. Workng wth Multple Flashes
... HyperSync
... Multple Flashes or More Control
The new PocketWizard ControlTL system, consisting o the MiniTT1
In classical studio portrait lighting, you’ll generally learn
Still, even when you’re working outside, you’ll not
transmitter & FlexTT5 transceiver, which we’ll discuss in the gear
to work with three studio strobes: one as a main or key
always have a setting sun handy to serve as a separation
chapter, is also compatible with Canon’s and Nikon’s high-speed
light, a second one as a hair light and a third one as a
light. In those cases, a second fash comes in handy.
sync. Even better, PocketWizard has come up with a technology called
background light. In these cases, sometimes a refector
HyperSync (not to be conused with “normal” high-speed sync).
will be used to refect some light into the shadowed areas
Make sure you’re comortable using one o-camera fash
the key light is causing. This is not written in stone, how-
beore adding a second and a third. I’d also advise you to
ever: you might also decide to use a fash as a ll light.
build up your set one fash at a time, like we explained in
A rst advantage o this proprietary technology is that it allows you to increase the sync speed o many cameras rom 1/250 to 1/500 (or even slightly above) with less power loss than typical high-speed sync induces.
volume 1: start with the ambient and set it to the level Adding fashes enhances your options and lets you put
you want it to be at. Then add the rst fash and adjust
more depth into your images. Say you have a model in
its power until it adds what you want to the scene. Only
Another plus is that this technology can allow manual non-brand
dark clothes in ront o a dark background. In order to
then add the second fash and repeat the procedure.
fashes and bigger studio strobes to be used at higher than nor-
separate her better rom the background, you could use
mal sync speeds, albeit at the cost o reduced fash output.
an extra light source to light the background separately or light her rom behind (so-called rim lighting).
For more inormation on this revolutionary eature, check out the PocketWizard website (hyperlink:)
All the examples in part 1 o this eBook, Making Light, used just one fash, mostly as a main light
http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/hypersync_psync/
or as a ll light, when the sun itsel acted as the main light. Case 9 in volume 1 even showed you how to use the setting sun as a separation light.
^ I you think this was shot into the setting sun, quickly head over to case 5.
More Advanced Techniques .. Workng wth Multple Flashes ... Multple Flashes or More Control – contnued The Anatomy o a Multi-Flash Setup There’s a reason why Nikon and Canon allow or up to three dierent groups in their inrared triggering systems and why the new PocketWizard ControlTL system does so, too: three lights is a typical studio setup. In this example, we’ve replicated this setup using small fashes: one main light, a.k.a. key light ( A), attached to a LumiQuest SB III sotbox, one hair light ( B), tted with a Honl grid, and one background light ( C), equipped with a Rogue Grid rom ExpoImaging. I’ve used a small sotbox because I wanted the lighting to be sot but dramatic. You could o course use a larger modier and crank up the power o the fash or a more open, high-key look. There are countless other variations on this theme.
A typical three-light setup: one main light ( A), one rim light (B), and one background light (C). By assigning these three lights to separate groups in your triggering system, you can change their power remotely rom your camera, or even turn some o the lights o altogether.
More Advanced Techniques .. Workng wth Multple Flashes ... Multple Flashes or More Control – contnued
^
^
^
^
In this image, the ambient exposure did not contribute.
The main light was red through a LumiQuest SB III sotbox placed relatively close. The light was eathered away (i.e. directed not straight towards but turned slightly away rom the model), giving sot but dramatic shadow contrast.
A rim light gives shine to the hair and some denition to the head o the model, making it stand out rom the background.
Finally, adding a background light allows you to lighten up the background to taste. Adding a grid makes or a natural vignette.
ISO 200, /14, 1/250s.
Main light at quarter power.
Rim light at 1/64 power. Background light at hal power.
More Advanced Techniques .. Workng wth Multple Flashes ... Multple Flashes or More Control – contnued As described beore, it’s good to tackle a multi-light
By working with a white background (I’ve used the Lastolite HiLite
Some studio photographers have dedicated (and expensive) spots
setup one by one. You start with any ambient expo-
here, but only as an ordinary white background, i.e. without ring
that allow them to project dierent patterns onto a background in
sure you want to be present in the scene (in this case,
fashes into it as it’s supposed to be used and will be shown in para-
order to make it look more organic. A ocusing system allows or a
at 1/250 o a second, /14, and ISO 100, there was
graph 2.2.3) and by dedicating a separate background fash to it, we
choice between a sot or clearly outlined pattern. With some experi-
no ambient light recorded in the picture. It’s a good
can make the background anywhere rom pure white to pure black
mentation, you can do something similar much cheaper: by placing
thing to be consistent in your groups: I always use
by varying the fash output (and the shutter speed, i necessary).
any object in between your background fash and the background,
group A or the key light, B or the rim light and C
you can achieve similar results. Here I used some bamboo leaves
or the background light. I you’re working with the
It’s also easy to change the atmosphere o the picture
rom my garden. The closer you put your fash to this so-called
PocketWizard ControlTL system, the AC3 ZoneCon-
by adding a colour gel to the background light.
gobo (rom ‘go-between’), the more diuse the shadows will be.
troller is a great (and at $79/€79, relatively aordable) accessory: it allows you to change the power settings o up to three groups o fashes by turning a rotary wheel, as opposed to diving into the menu o a commander fash. It works very ast and eciently.
The ZoneController ts on top o the MiniTT1 transmitter and lets you quickly switch the settings o up to three groups rom o (0) to manual (M) or TTL (A). The three rotary clickwheels then allow you to dial in the manual output or the desired TTL fash exposure compensation.
Putting a colour gel in ront o the background light can totally change the look o your picture. You can choose matching or contrasting colours. From let to right: Steel Green, chosen to match the sweater, Follies Pink and Oklahoma Yellow rom the Rogue Grid lter line.
Firing your background fash through a plant can make or interesting organic shadow patterns on the background.
. 2 . 2 . 1
Nikon D700 | 24-70mm /2.8G | 26mm | /22 @ 1/250s | 3 SB900s at ull power triggered by a PocketWizard Plus II on a Lastolite TriFlash Sync.
More Advanced Techniques .. Workng wth Multple Flashes ... Multple Flashes or More Power Another reason or adding more fashes to
PocketWizards (or any o the standard cheap
When your fash is at ull power and
your light setup might be to combine them
radio triggers that don’t allow or higher
you still need more light, you have
into one more powerul light source. Doing
sync speeds) meant that I was limited to
to double the number o fashes or
so gives you a higher total light output o
a sync speed o 1/250. This meant in turn
every extra stop o light you want.
course, but even when you don’t need it,
that my aperture would have to be really
you get aster recycle times because two
small (/22) to overpower the ambient light,
Adding fashes to your lighting setup
fashes only have to work hal as hard to
which would in turn severely limit the
is one thing, but you also have to nd
give the same output as one fash does!
eect o my fash, even at ull power. F/22
a way o physically managing them. A
is a pretty small aperture or a fash to put
plethora o options exist, holding any
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32... Are you see-
its photons through! So I lined up three
number rom two or three, to our and
ing a pattern here?
fashes on a light stand to camera let.
even eight small fashes. We’ll look at some options in the ‘Gear’ section.
Noon on a sunny day is the most chal-
Going rom one ull-power fash to two
lenging time or o-camera fash, at
ull-power fashes will give you one extra
Another challenge is to get all these fashes
least when you don’t just want to
stop o light, i.e. you’ll be able to expose
triggered simultaneously. You might think
ll in the shadows but really want to
your subject the same, whilst taking the
you need as many triggers as you have fash-
overpower the ambient sunlight.
ambient exposure one stop urther down.
es, but there are workarounds – stay tuned.
In other words: it will allow you to go rom The idea or this shot was to underexpose
/4 to /5.6, or rom /16 to /22. Going
I you stack up multiple fashes to unc-
the ambient light and then bring up the
rom two to three fashes only adds hal
tion as one stronger light source and
dancer with a straight, hard fash. I used
an extra stop. To add another ull stop,
you don’t use a diuser o sorts, watch
a PocketWizard Plus II to trigger my three
you’d need to add two more, not just one,
out or ugly multiple cast shadows. I
remote fashes, set to ull power, as I eared
bringing the total to our. Want to add yet
you have no choice, try to put them
the optical way o triggering might be un-
another stop o light? You’ll need an extra
as closely together as possible or pre-
reliable in bright sunlight. Using the “old”
our, putting the total to eight, and so on...
pare or some Photoshop overtime!
^ Watch out with dual or triple undiused fashes: even the toughest skater would become araid o his own shadow when he suddenly appears to have our arms and our legs!
More Advanced Techniques .. Workng wth Multple Flashes ... Multple Flashes or More Power – contnued Even when you’re not yet working at ull power, adding more fashes to create a more powerul light source can be a good idea: dividing the workload among several fashes will make it easier on each individual fash, saving battery lie, increasing recycle time, and preventing overheating.
Size can become an important characteristic or choosing a fash when you start to work with more than one: there’s a big dierence between packing our SB 900s versus our SB 700s, or example.
Adding up fashes like this does become costly ater a while, especially i you work with brand fashes like Speedlights or Speedlites. I you oten nd yoursel in scenarios like this, it might be the time to invest in a portable strobe set with a battery pack, such as the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra or one o the other systems we mention in 2.5 ‘Outgroing your small fashes’.
^ The Elinchrom Ranger Quadra manages to pack 400 watt seconds (about the equivalent o our SB900s or 580 EX IIs) into a small and lightweight package. For many photographers that start out with small fashes, this kit is the next step up. I you want even more power, almost every manuacturer o studio strobes has a battery pack, but those are beyond the scope o this eBook.
2
Gear
In volume , we saw that a complete o-camera starter fash set can cost as little as $250, including a manual fash, a fash bracket, and an umbrella. The good news is that you can do an awul lot with such a small kit. In this chapter, we’ll cover some more gear, some o which is more expensive. As is oten the case in photography, the extra money may buy you some extra picture quality but mostly, it buys you reliability and fexibility. In some cases, as with the high-speed sync enabled triggers, it also buys you the ability to shoot things like ast action you just could not do beore.
.. Advanced Trggerng Systems When working with the optical inrared trigger-
A big advantage o this system is that it allows
remote fash again and again to change its
creased triggering and reliability radio oers.
ing systems like Nikon’s CLS or Canon’s Wire-
or high-speed sync, which we discussed earlier.
power setting. Also, up until recently, no
One is called RadioPopper and another is the
radio triggers supported high-speed sync.
PocketWizard MiniTT1 & FlexTT5 system.
less Flash System, which we discussed in Volume 1, you always have to make sure that the
Radio triggering, on the other hand, allows
inrared receiver points towards the command-
you to put your fashes behind walls and at
Now, there are a growing number o tech-
eBook, I’ll limit mysel to the PocketWizard
er unit. I necessary, use the tilting and swivel-
distances o over 100 meters, but up until a
nologies that allow you to combine the
system as it’s the one I am using mysel.
ling capabilities o your fash head and your
couple o years ago, worked in manual mode
advantages o remote manual or even TTL
umbrella adapter to position both adequately.
only, requiring you to walk over to every
control and high-speed sync with the in-
Each system has its air share o users. In this
... PocketWzard MnTT, FlexTT & AC ZoneController In 2009, PocketWizard, the industry standard in manual radio fash triggers, introduced their MiniTT1 and FlexTT5, respectively a commander and a commander/receiver unit, which are compatible with TTL and high-speed sync. These units translate the optical signal o a commander or master fash into r adio signals whilst maintaining all the power settings and TTL and high-speed sync inormation.
The PocketWizard MiniTT1 transmitter and FlexTT5 transceiver (which can act as a receiver as well as a transmitter).
2 Gear .. Advanced Trggerng Systems ... PocketWzard MnTT, FlexTT & AC ZoneController – contnued
... Optcally Slavng a Remote Flash
An optional AC3 ZoneController even eliminates
fashes (see also the next paragraph or a great tip, by
In the Flash Buying 101 section o Volume
they see the pre-fash). Also, slaving a
the need to use a commander altogether and enables
the way). Don’t orget they are but a link in the total
1, one o the criteria is whether the fash
fash excludes using High Speed Sync.
you to control the power with a set o intuitive
chain: don’t break the bank on triggers alone, leave
can be slaved. This does not reer to the
old-school (but very high-tech) buttons and dials.
some room or modiers because they’re also impor-
inrared proprietary Nikon and Canon
Finally, it’s evident that this type o
tant infuencers o the nal look o your picture.
triggering systems, but to a much simpler
triggering does not work at all during
way o triggering: simply setting up the
weddings or other events where people
Originally only available or Canon, there’s now radiopopper.com | pocketwizard.com | phottix.com
remote fash as a “slave” that will re rom
are happily snapping away with their
through USB and also programmable to some
the moment it sees another fash. I you
own cameras and little built-in fashes!
extent. They’re priced only slightly higher than
have more fashes than you have triggers,
the original PocketWizards and oer ar more
setting up a compatible fash this way is
fexibility. As lots o photographers are trading in
an alternative to buying more triggers.
also a Nikon version. They are rmware-upgradeable
their “old” PocketWizard Plus IIs or these new units, you may be able to get a second-hand bar-
Note, however, that you’ll have to set
gain on the old ones. The new PocketWizards are
the power on your fash manually and,
sometimes reerred to as the ControlTL system.
unless your optical slave can account or TTL pre-fashes, like the LumoPro
At the time o writing, Hong Kong-based Phottix had just announced a similar, somewhat cheaper alternative or Canon: the Odin fash trigger also oers remote Manual control, TTL and High Speed Sync.
These new triggering systems allow or unprecedented ease o use and creativity through higher than normal shutter speeds but can easily set you back hundreds o dollars, especially i you have multiple
^ An AC3 ZoneController sits on top o the TT1 transmitter, which in turn slides into the hotshoe o the DSLR. The AC3 setup is less bulky than using a fash as a commander on top o a TT1. On the other hand, in those cases where you also want to add some ll fash coming rom your camera position, using an actual fash as a commander instead o the AC3 can be an alternative.
LP160 does, you’ll have to work all manual on the rest o your fashes, too (otherwise, your slaves will re when
The LumoPro LP160 is a relatively cheap, manual-only fash that oers slave unctionality. It can even be set to disregard the prefash that Nikon and Canon use in their proprietary TTL fash systems, so it only res when it should.
... Changng Your Flash’s Standby Tmng Most fashes are programmed to go into standby mode ater some amount o time. Getting them out o standby usually requires pushing one o the buttons, which can be quite a nuisance with remote fashes. Thereore, i your fashes allow or this, I’d advise you to change the standby mode to never: my fashes stay on until I turn them o.
2 Gear .. More Moders In fash photography, it’s generally not
parabolic ones—there are modiers or
tion. Which ones you’ll want will
the fashes that break the bank, it’s the
every taste and budget and we can’t
depend on your style and budget. But
modiers that suck away most o your
even begin to list them all here. So I
when you’re stuck or cash, just read
precious cash. From the aordable $20
will just introduce you to some that
the white-on-blue advice at the right
beginner’s umbrellas to the $5,000
I’ve been using mysel to my satisac-
and then skip straight to chapter 3!
Anything that’s refective or translucent can be a light modier when you re a fash at or through it: that includes shower curtains, bed sheets, lamp shades, a groom’s shirt, a piece o paper, the white back o a poster.
... Sotenng Moders: Sotboxes In volume 1, we discussed an incredibly
A logical next step is to use sotboxes.
We already discussed a highly interest-
enough, this little sotbox really becomes a
useul, light, and cheap light modier: an
They are also sotening modiers, but
ing little sotbox, the LumiQuest SB
sot light source. The next step up is a Las-
umbrella. For the money, it can’t be beat.
they don’t have the spill umbrellas
III, in Volume 1. Here, I’ll introduce
tolite Ezybox (the 54 x 54 cm version) (4).
They exist in all sizes and even the big PLMs
have, so they oer you more control in
you to our more I oten use.
Then we have the 28-inch Westcott Apollo
(parabolic light modiers), which can have
terms o directing their sot light. This
diameters o more than 80 inches (two me-
control can even be enhanced by adding
The graph shows the sotboxes in scale.
Apollo (7). The 30-inch FourSquare (6) is
ters), are still relatively aordable. Because
a so-called grid or egg crate that cre-
The little square on the let (1) is a bare
part o a complete multi-fash bracket system
o their size, PLMs are great or group shots
ates sot yet highly directional light.
fash head. The yellow oval (number 3) is
and will be discussed in paragraph 2.4.2.
(5) and its big brother, the 50-inch Westcott
an average human head. It’s easy to see
or lling in shadows over a broad area.
that no matter how close you put your Yet, or all their qualities, there are some disadvantages to umbrellas, the most important o which are spill and control—light can easily go past the umbrella or bounce around, which not only draws power but also means the exposure o the rest o the environment is less easy to control.
A grid or egg crate. Shown here is the one or the Lastolite Ezybox.
bare fash to a person (e.g. or portraiture), it’ll always be a small, hard light source.
At 8 x 9 inches, the LumiQuest SB III (2) is still a small sotbox in absolute terms, but it’s 20 times bigger than a bare fash and about the size o a human head. When placed close
2
3
4
5
6
7
. 1 . 2 . 2
^
^
^
The Lastolite Ezybox exists in three si zes. Since it can only be used with one fash, it’s best used away rom heavy sunlight. As the fash controls remain accessible, it’s a good system i you use optical triggering or manual radio triggers that require you to change output power on the fash. It sets up and olds down very easily into a ball-shaped package (once you get the hang o it). It’s a very polyvalent modier that you can use or headshots and, in a pinch, waist-up portraits.
The Westcott Apollo sotboxes are dierent in that they old like an umbrella, yet set up like a sotbox. The fash is placed inside, which means you really should use a radio trigger (although, used inside, it might be possible to trigger it even with an optical signal). I you want to avoid having to open the ront diuser each time you want to change the output power, you’ll want a radio trigger that is capable o remotely controlling power, such as the latest PocketWizards or RadioPoppers. The advantage o having the fash inside is that you can put multiple fashes on a multi-fash bracket. Also, as the fashes ace the silver refective surace, you can remove the ront diuser i you want an edgier look or i you simply want to maximize your light output.
I’ve attached two small pieces o “male” Velcro to both sides o my Westcott so I can fip the ront diuser backwards and keep it rom fapping around in the wind. The picture in case 4 was lit this way.
One o my avourite modiers is the 28-inch Westcott Apollo (5). It clos-
toddlers, and children. Because o its size, it produces a big zone o
es like an umbrella and can be attached to almost any umbrella adapter.
relatively consistent and sot light so my subjects can move around a bit (as they tend to do) and still be in the lit zone. Unortunately, it cannot
Lastly, I’ll occasionally use a 50-inch Westcott Apollo. It shares not only
be tilted much on a normal light stand without using a so-called boom
its name with the lunar module but almost its size as well! It produces
arm. O course, you can ask an assistant to tilt it or you i necessary.
extremely sot light. I use this sotbox a lot when photographing babies,
. 1 . 2 . 2
^
^
This was shot with the 50-inch Apollo. Although it looks like a studio shot, it was done at a riend’s house. The Apollo was behind me and slightly above my head (I was kneeling as well, to be at the same height as the child). I triggered the fash behind me with a PocketWizard Plus II. I you don’t move your fash and your subject all that much, you can just leave your fash power as it is, so there’s no need to open the cover o the sotbox a lot.
The setup shot shows that you don’t need a studio and studio lights to get studioquality output.
Two additional fashes were used to make the background white. (The walls were grey.) I could have made the grey wall white with just the power o the two fashes as discussed in “Another Brick in the Wall” in chapter 2.2.3., but I decided to gaer-tape a white sheet to the wall to make lie (and recycling times) easier on my fashes. In non-studio cases such as this, where you have less control, I just try to make sure the area immediately surrounding my subject is white, without that white refecting too much onto the back o my subject. That way I can easily clean up the rest o the background in Photoshop or even Lightroom without having to make complex selections around the hair and clothes. In a pinch, I could have used just one fash on the background, hiding it behind my subject. With a moving subject however, that’s a guaranteed recipe or extra post-processing work—cloning out a light stand that suddenly grows out o the subject’s head. One advantage o shooting on a white background is that you can make composite pictures like these, or ool people into thinking that your riends are blessed with quadruplets!
I’ve only listed the sotboxes I’ve been satisactorily using mysel, but you’ll nd countless others online with new ones added on a weekly basis. No doubt there is one to suit your own budget and size requirements.
jwestcott.com | lumiquest.com | lastolite.com | lightwaredirect.com (FourSquare)
2 Gear .. More Moders ... Restrctng Moders: Grds, Snoots, Flags and More As noted in Volume 1, all that sot light magic does become boring ater a while. Those modiers also eat up a lot o precious fash power, especially when working outside.
Sometimes, using just a straight fash can create very dramatic portraits. Zooming your fash to its maximum zoom setting will create a spotlight eect. As an added bonus, your eective fash power will increase with your zoom setting.
I you want to control the beam o your light even more, you can use grids, snoots, and fags.
Snoots are cone-shaped modiers that allow you to ocus the light even tighter. Grids are another way to concentrate your light.
The raw power o a zoomed fash, triggered in ull-power high-speed sync mode at 1/5000 o a second. Post-processing took less than a minute in Lightroom, using one o my avourite presets rom X-Equals.com and some sweeps with a local adjustment brush.
2 Gear .. More Moders ... Restrctng Moders: Grds, Snoots, Flags and More – contnued Grids are great or rim-lighting people to separate them rom the background. The grids not only concentrate the light but also help to keep it out o the lens, avoiding fare.
Most o this stu is pretty easy to make yoursel (black gaer tape, glue, a pair o scissors, cardboard boxes or tubes and black straws are really all you need), but i you’ve got two let hands like me, you just get them ready-made. David Honl is a well-known supplier o lighting modi-
^ A grid (shown here rom Honl Photo). Use the tilting and swivelling capacities o your fash and adapter to make the orientation o the grid match the orientation o the subject you want to rim-light.
ers or small fashes. ExpoImaging also produces some interesting modiers: the Rogue FlashBender system consists o panels o dierent sizes that are white on one side and black on the other. They have metallic inserts in them, allowing you to bend them into dierent light shaping tools: fags, refectors (more useul or on-camera fash), and snoots.
^ Two grids and one small sotbox held by an assistant were used to create this intimate portrait in what was a very crowded living room. Eliminating the clutter brings the ocus on the child. Two gridded rim lights (ideally, I would use the same grid let and right) separate him rom the background. The small sotbox gives some rontal ll light and
2 Gear .. More Moders ... Restrctng Moders: Grds, Snoots, Flags and More – contnued ExpoImaging also produces the Rogue
A beauty dish or small fash. Shown here are the ones rom Lumodi, available in 11-, 14-, and 18-inch sizes.
Grid, an ingenious three-in-one grid that lets you to turn your fash into a 16-, 25-, or 45-degree spot.
When working with these restricting modiers, correct placement o your fash is paramount. It’s really a game o inches and degrees: tilting your fash ve degrees to the wrong side may result in it missing the subject completely. I you want to see whether the light o a restricting modier will reach your subject, all you have to do is have your subject look at the fash rom their position and ask them i they can see the actual white o the fash head through the grid. I they can see the fash, the fash can see them: it’s a two-way street.
With o-camera fash becoming more popular, ever more modiers
Beauty dishes are another avourite modier o ashion
honlphoto.com (small fash grids, fags, snoots, and gels)
abound, some o which are adaptations o modiers typically ound
and portrait photographers worldwide. They used to
expoimaging.com (Rogue FlashBender line o fash grids,
on bigger studio fash systems. So, now there are miniature Speedlight
exist only or big studio fashes but are now being de-
fags, snoots, gels, Ray Flash ringfash)
versions o refectors, barn doors, and ring fashes, which are—in their
veloped in versions that are adapted to small fashes.
rosco.com (gels)
expensive big fash version—very popular with ashion photographers.
lumodi.com (small fash beauty dishes)
I have no personal experience with them but David Hobby, godather
Inversely, manuacturers o big studio modiers are also
o the whole o-camera small fash movement and ounder o the
starting to oer adapters that allow you to attach your
highly inormative www.strobist.com website, is known or using
small fash to these bigger modiers. Did I mention these
a ring fash as an on-axis (i.e. coming rom the camera) ll light.
are exciting times to be a small-fash photographer?
orbisfash.com (small fash ringfash)
2 Gear .. More Moders ... Portable Hgh-key Background Is it a background? Is it a portable white wall? No, it’s the Lastolite HiLite. This is a modier that’s in a category o its own. It’s a 6-by-7oot squarish structure that’s translucent on one side and pops up like a refector (and olds back the same way2). It’s about one oot wide, which not only allows it to stand on itsel when there’s no wind, but also allows or two fashes to be red into it rom each o its sides
The Lastolite HiLite is a collapsible, selstanding background into which you can re one or preerably two fashes to make a pure white background.
(don’t point the fashes to the ront, but to the white refective surace on the inside back, to avoid hotspots). This turns it into a portable white background, simpliying high-key portraiture work on location (see also the inset “Another Brick in the Wall” on the next page).
But, thinking slightly outside the box reveals some other applications: when you place it to the side o or at a 45-degree angle towards your subject, it becomes a gigantic sotbox, imitating a huge window. Interesting or group shots.
O course, you can also make a DIY version o this by just using a shower curtain on a ramework (or in a doorway) and putting your fashes behind that. You’ll lose some o the evenness o the light, and you might look slightly less proessional, but you’ll save a couple o hundred dollars. See the “100-Dollar Studio” paragraph in the interview with Bert Stephani at the end o this book.
lastolite.com
Setting up is straightorward, but olding back into place takes some practice: ortunately, YouTube’s your riend with a couple o great videos. Just do a search on “Lastolite HiLite olding” and you’ll nd all 2
. 3 . 2 . 2
Another Brck n the Wall…
This job taught me never to assume anything when setting
to avoid direct spill light coming rom your background
out or a location shoot. The assignment was a very typical
fash(es) (using fags, or instance), so that you can light
one: a law rm needed portraits o its senior partners, pho-
the wall and the subject separately and give each the
tographed on a white background, or use on their website.
amount o power that’s needed or the job at hand: overexposing the grey wall into white and correctly exposing
Normally, in cases like this, i you haven’t brought your
the subject. In this case, the subject was lit by a Lastolite
own white background, you just position your subject
Ezybox to camera let and a refector to camera right.
in ront o the brightest wall in the oce and then use a dash o fash to turn that background into pure white.
Using fashes and remembering the undamentals al-
Ater all, every oce has a white wall somewhere, right?
lowed me to pull this one o. 3 But, I now carry a HiLite with me on those assignments where I don’t
Wrong! There wasn’t a white background to be spotted in
know what kind o walls will be closing in on me!
this whole building (a pretty big one at that). All the walls were made out o big, medium-grey concrete blocks.
The HiLite allows me to create white walls whenever I like, with a minimum o power. As the fash heads are
So I put up two fashes to “nuke” the medium-grey back-
put inside it, and the sides can be closed with zip-
ground into white. In doing so, I had to turn my fashes
pers, there’s no risk o unwanted spill, either.
much higher in power than I would have had to with a white wall. Moreover, I needed to dial my fashes higher
A cheaper way is to work with a (portable) white seam-
still to turn the even darker cement between the blocks
less background. The denitive internet resource or that
into white! Power issues aside, the real concern in cases
is Zack Arias’ three-part “White Seamless Tutorial.”
like this is that the higher you have to dial your fashes, the more light will bounce back onto the back o your
zackarias.com (there’s a link to the White Seam-
subject and the rest o the room. This complicates the
less Tutorial rom the Popular Posts section).
rest o your lighting setup, creates the risk o fare, and possibly even makes your subject’s back too bright, leading to washed-out shoulders, hair, and cheekbones.
Remembering the inverse square law, the trick is to put your subject ar enough rom the wall (i possible) and try
3In this case I made sure that the background area immediately surrounding my subject was white. I I had that, I knew that I could turn the outer parts o the rame to white in Photoshop, without having to make complex selections.
2 Gear .. Thnkng Outsde the Sotbox I you’ve looked at the images in Volume
Gaer-tape a cross onto the ace o your
a highly portable mini white background
1, you know I preer umbrellas or port-
sotbox and it mimics the antique win-
or tight portraits, as illustrated below.
ability, aordability, and ease o setup.
dows you nd in old mansions. Or, some-
That’s why I always take one with me,
thing I picked up rom Bert Stephani’s
You can also experiment with the position
even when I’m travelling light. How-
Motivational Light DVD and already
o your light source and use a technique
ever, or pure quality o light and the
mentioned in passing in Volume 1: cut out
called eathering: let the bulk o the light
shape o the catchlights, I, like many
a gure or a number rom a piece o black
pass by your subject and work with the
other photographers, preer a sotbox.
Styrooam that’s the size o your sotbox
“edges” o the light, where the light al-
and use that to create original catchlights.
lo is more pronounced and dramatic.
Its use needn’t be conned to just
Needless to say, you’re better o do-
a main light: cover up the let and
But there’s more: just like you can use the
ing this inside—outside you normally
right third with black cloth and you
HiLite as a gigantic sotbox instead o the
need all the power you can get…
have an instant so called striplight,
background it’s actually designed to be,
great or rim-lighting people.
you can use a medium to large sotbox as
This lighting style, where the light is above your model, is called butterfy lighting, because o the butterfy-shaped shadows it casts under the nose. Who says the biggest modier always has to be the main light? Here I used a 50-inch Westcott Apollo as a background light and the (by comparison) tiny LumiQuest SB III as a main light. Don’t let the wide-angle setup shot ool you: the main light is pointing down, and the model is standing very close to it, but not under it. We’re working in the allo zone o the light here. You can also see I’ve put some gaer tape on the sotbox to minimize hotspots on the orehead and the bridge o the nose.
2 Gear .. More Useul Stu I you’re not bankrupt by now or you have a birthday wish list to write, I’ll quickly point out some other things that might come in handy. ... Colour Gels We already covered the basic use o gels (or lters, as they’re
to them so they are compatible with the Honl Speed Strap
also called) in Volume 1, where we put a CTO lter (colour
(or any fash onto which you’ve put (emale) Velcro).
temperature orange) on a fash to make it match the colour temperature o ambient light such as a household light bulb.
Rosco, typically a supplier o large gels or studio and cinematographic use, have a so-called Strobist Collection.
However, you can also use gels or creative eects, as case 7 in chapter 3 o this book points out. Featured photographer Jürgen
Rogue FlashBenders also have two series o gels, one generic and one
Doom, one o the photographers interviewed in chapter 4, oten
or use with their Rogue Grid. A nice touch is that each gel has a men-
creatively uses gels in his work. He cuts the gels or his Speedlights
tion o how many -stops o power it “eats up,” so those working manu-
out o bigger sheets, and attaches Velcro to the ends. He does so
ally know immediately by how much they have to crank up their fash.
at the ront side and the reverse side. That way, he can stack two quarter CTOs together to make a hal CTO. I you’re not o the
When you use fashes with gels at high-power settings, be careul
DIY variety, there’s a wide choice available commercially, too.
not to melt the gels, as your fash head can become quite hot.
Honl Photo has dierent sets o gels ranging rom purely
honlphoto.com | rosco.com | expoimaging.com (Rogue Gels)
practical to moody. These gels have (male) Velcro attached
Gels can be used to alter the colour temperature o your fash. The lower fash does not have a gel applied to it. Put on a CTO gel as I did in the top fash and you can have it pass as the setting sun!
2 Gear .. More Useul Stu ... Mult-Flash Brackets and Clamps I you want to combine multiple fashes into a single, more powerul light source, you’ll need a bracket that can hold them all. Below are but a ew o a huge oering. Just remember that you’ll also have to
albeit in manual-only mode (and
or the FourSquare, the back o which can
trigger all these fashes in some way. The
also without high-speed sync).
be opened to allow the inrared signal
most versatile (but also most expensive)
to pass) are more suitable than others.
way is to equip each fash with its own
I high-speed sync is important and you
trigger. More economically, you can set
don’t want to ork out the money or as
When using any o these multi-bracket
up just one fash with a trigger and re
many triggers as you have fashes, you
setups bare, watch out or ugly double,
the others as slaves, i they support this
can use Nikon’s or Canon’s own inrared
triple, or quadruple cast shadows!
(see 2.1.2.), although in that case you
triggering system to trigger remote fash-
^
^
lose that ancy high-speed sync option!
es. We talked about this in depth in Vol-
Sometimes, there’s just no place to
The Lovegrove Gemini rom well-known UK o-camera fash photographer and workshop leader Damien Lovegrove is a sturdy bracket that accommodates two fashes (lovegroveconsulting.com).
The Lastolite TriFlash holds three fashes. Shown here is the Sync version (lastolite.com)
ume 1 and also discussed the limitations
put the traditional bracket/light stand
Alternatively, the TriFlash ex-
o this when working in plain sunlight.
combo. In these cases, having a couple o
ists in a more expensive TriFlash
As it’s paramount that your inrared
Manrotto Justin Clamps, Super Clamps,
Sync version that lets you trigger
signal can be picked up by the remote
or Magic Arms can come in really handy.
three fashes with just one trigger,
fash, some modiers (such as umbrellas
The FourSquare holds—you guessed it—our fashes and there’s even an add-on piece that allows you to add our more to a mind- (and wallet-)blowing total o eight. The FourSquare block itsel costs about $100, and can be used with an umbrella. However, the more popular option is a $269.95 kit that includes a proprietary 30inch sotbox as well. The whole setup breaks down nicely into a 1 kg, 18-inch carrying pouch. I you add the cheapest manual third-party fashes (like the Y
ones), you can be all set or about $600, which isn’t bad or so much portable power ( lightwaredirect.com). I you want to use high-speed sync and thus need topo-the-line brand fashes, the cost increases veold, not including any triggers. Sports photographer Dave Black (daveblackphotography.com ) uses this high-end setup a lot when photographing ast-paced action.
A Manrotto clamp that allows you to attach a fash to a door, a branch o a tree, and so on…
2 Gear .. More Useul Stu ... Hoodman Loupe
... (Varable) Neutral Densty Flter
... Portable Prnter
Neutral density lters allow you to
you’re into photographing people, especially in remote places, it’s always nice i you can give an immedi-
block light. They’re handy when you
ate thank you to your impromptu models. To that eect, I carry a Polaroid Pogo printer with me. No more
want to work with wide open aper-
broken promises o emailing or sending pictures. I owe many o my pictures to the ice-breaking qualities
tures in bright sunlight or when you
o this printer. Have a look at case 9 and try to nd the Pogo print playing hide and seek in the image!
Why on earth do I mention a portable printer in the gear section o a book on o-camera fash? Well: i
want to use slower shutter speeds, to picture movement as a fow. With regards to o-camera fash, they I you oten shoot outdoors in bright sun, you know how dicult it is to inspect your LCD. Sure enough, most o the time you can check your histogram even i the sun’s too bright to check the actual picture, but your histogram won’t tell you i your fash hit the right part o your image. That’s where the Hoodman Loupe with its builtin diopter adjustment comes in handy.
can be interesting or keeping your shutter speed below sync speed, e.g. when you’re using a non-high-speedsync compatible fash or triggering system. The advantage o the variable lters is that they can block a range o light, e.g. rom two to eight stops, just by turning the lter ring. In a pinch, a polarizing lter will also work to cut down your shutter speed.
Still, even with a Hoodman Loupe, I’d advise you to evaluate your pictures on a bigger screen as soon as possible.
I use the Fader ND MK II by Light Crat Workshop because it’s relatively aordable, but other options exist.
hoodmanusa.com lightcratworkshop.com
polaroid.com
2 Gear .. More Useul Stu ..6. Packng It All
Westcott Apollo 8 nch (strapped to the sde, not shown)
Manrotto Justn Clamp SB 900 (x )
Honl Speed Grds (x )
SB 700
Since o-camera fash is very much about portability, I want
PocketWzard Plus II (not shown)
my entire outt to be as transportable as possible. In Volume
PocketWzard TT + Zone Controller AC
1, I showed you my minimalist travel setup. Here you can see
Gaer Tape
Westcott Collapsble Reversble Umbrella
the setup I use or commercial assignments. All my portable fash gear ts nicely into this ThinkTank Airport TakeO. My
Manrotto Nano Lght Stand (x )
Umbrella Bracket
photo gear then gets packed in the Speed Racer waist belt. I chose the Airport TakeO because it combines the comort
PocketWzard TT Flex (x )
Lastolte Trfash Sync
o a rolling bag with the ability to use it as an impromptu backpack or those harder-to-reach locations, such as the rootop terrace that was the location o the picture eatured in case 5. Honl Gels
Honl Speed Strap
SB 900 x
thinktankphoto.com
Cover ld - nsde (not shown): Arport TakeO Ran Cover, Pencls & Pens, Speedlght Stands & Rogue Gels, Spare Batteres, Rogue Flashbenders, Mscellaneous Smal l Items Cover ld - outsde (not shown): Lumquest LT SotBox, nch MacBook Pro, Backdrop Cloth
2 Gear .. Outgrowng Your Small Flashes The more you evolve in your use o o-camera fash, the more you’ll demand o yoursel and your small fashes. Soon, you’ll want to use them or things they weren’t really designed or, like overpowering sunlight outdoors. We’ve looked at various tools and brackets that
•
Unless you’re using cheaper manual fashes or
studio strobes, you’ll nd an overwhelming
allow you to combine multiple fashes into a
second-hand ones, the price tag runs up quickly.
choice and you’ll notice that the concept o
more powerul light source, and there are spe-
portability and aordability varies greatly rom I you use these setups to overpower the sun-
cic reasons why that may be more interesting
•
than using a single studio strobe with a battery
light, you’ll likely use them at ull power. Con-
alls beyond the scope o this eBook. On the
pack. The rst is that you can use (any number
tinuous ull power use will not only drain your
next page, I just want to mention a couple o
o) compatible small fashes in high-speed sync,
batteries very quickly, but might also damage
systems that seem interesting rom a price,
which allows or sync speeds up to 1/8000.
your fash or at least trigger its thermal protec-
perormance, and portability standpoint and
tion. It’s not unny watching your fash go into
thereore seem well-suited as a logical next
a 10-minute R&R in the middle o a shoot.
step or someone looking or a little more.
The second is that when you’re done, you can break that multi-Speedlight rig back
There are a number o other practical issues as
down into individual fashes that you can
•
use separately. This is something you obvi-
well: at our batteries per fash, the number o
ously can’t do with one big strobe.
batteries you have to carry and recharge adds up quickly, too. You can o course use dedicated
However, there are some inconveniences, too…
battery packs, but that in turn adds to the overall price tag. Weight also becomes an issue:
•
There’s the multiple shadow problem when
the fashes are used bare. It’s better to use
one small fash has a size and weight advantage over a studio strobe, but three or more don’t.
modiers, but they eat up part o the light you were looking to add when adding more
Once you leave the realm o small hotshoe
than one fash in the rst place. Catch 22!
fashes and start looking or aordable, portable
one manuacturer to another. Going into detail
2 Gear .. Outgrowng Your Small Flashes – contnued The rst is the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra. It consists o a very small and lightweight
Another recent addition to the realm o portable
(smaller and lighter than a hotshoe fash, in act) fash head rated at 400 watt
lightweight fash systems is the TritonFlash Lith-
seconds and a relatively lightweight battery pack. The two together weigh in at
ium Strobe Kit rom Photofex. It packs a 300 Ws
less than our kg. Power levels can be remotely set through the custom Elinchrom
head and a long-lie rechargeable lithium battery
Skyport triggers and there are ways to integrate the Quadra into a small fash setup.
into a lightweight 5 lb package. While it can be triggered remotely without cables, the power has to be set on the fash head. This can be inconvenient when your fash is up high on a light stand and you need to change its power requently. On the other hand, this architecture allows or two fashes to be red at dierent power levels by
The second is the 640 Ws Einstein fash head rom Paul C. Bu with a Vagabond Mini battery pack. The fash head is bigger and heavier than the Ranger Quadra, but the battery itsel is smaller and lighter, making the total weight about the same. One thing I like about this system is the act that—using an optional PocketWizard PowerMC2 receiver—its power can also be remotely set and it can be used together with hotshoe fashes in a PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5, and AC3 triggering environment.
Just remember, there is not one tool that will be right or all jobs. And it needn’t be an either/or proposition. Both these systems oer ways o integrating any small fashes you already own into your setup as additional light sources.
elinchrom.com | paulcbu.com | photofex.com
the same battery.
3
Ten Case Studies
. 1 . 3
When One Lght Just Won’t Do: Sunburst at Noon
3
Ten Case Studies
.. When One Lght Just Won’t Do: Sunburst at Noon Let’s start this chapter with the bonus
I also underexposed the ambient light to get
The picture isn’t completely sharp (there’s a typi-
picture we ended Volume 1 with.
more detail in the sky. The more underexposed,
cal blur rozen by fash around his legs) but I don’t nd
the better the star pattern would show.
this a problem here: it adds to the eeling o speed.
ity Lane. The lower end o Aperture Priority Lane, to be
The LCD on my camera helped me to gure out the ambi-
I I had wanted to reeze him completely, I could
more precise. I love playing with depth o eld and as a
ent settings. Then I manually set the power o my fash. I
have used a aster shutter speed, oset by an in-
consequence, have paid more than a air share o money
actually wanted to light the skater with an umbrella rst,
crease in ISO. (I couldn’t oset it by opening up the
or so-called ast lenses. Yet, occasionally, I’ll move to the
because I thought the sot umbrella light would contrast
lens, as I needed that aperture or the starburst.)
upper end o Aperture Priority Lane, /22 territory.
nicely with the sun and the subject. Unortunately, the
As a photographer, I mostly live on Aperture Prior-
umbrella wasted too much precious fash power and I didn’t have a sotbox with me. I did bring one with me to experiment one week later, leading to the picture o case 4, which also became the cover picture o Volume 1.
Overpowering the sun (remember, we’re not working at the normal ambient exposure the camera suggests, but going darker than that, which requires a higher aperture and/or a aster shutter speed) really stresses your fash. Especially when you’re working in high-speed sync mode, like I did here at 1/320 o a second.
The general idea or this picture is similar to the one in case 9
I even had to add another fash, also at ull power. Even when
o Volume 1. It’s shot into the sun, but here I really wanted the
it’s not necessary (as it was or this photo), adding a second
sun in the picture. In order to achieve the starburst eect, you
fash can come in handy because it cuts your recycle time in
have to use an aperture o /16 or smaller (i.e. higher -stop).
hal, avoids overheating, and saves those precious batteries.
Shooting at /22 on a sunny day stresses your fash a lot. In these cases a second or even third fash comes in handy.
3
Ten Case Studies
.. When One Lght Just Won’t Do: Sunburst at Noon – contnued This kind o photography really departs rom
The heavy liting was done in Lightroom
reality: the wide angle exaggerates perspective,
with a preset. As oten, the preset was too
the fash and the underexposed background add
heavy or my liking so I applied it to a virtual
a surreal aspect, and the concrete, urban environ-
copy instead o to the original. I then sent
ment is just screaming or a gritty post-processing.
the original and the virtual copy over to Photoshop via the Photo > Edit In > Open
And so I allow mysel to post-process these
as Layers in Photoshop command. Chang-
pictures slightly more dramatically than I
ing the opacity o the top layer allowed me
would a typical wedding or portrait.
to blend the two versions to my liking.
I then added a Silver Eex Pro black and white conversion layer on top o the colour layer and changed its blending mode to Sot Light. This gives the slightly desaturated look. I you don’t have Silver Eex Pro, a Photoshop B&W adjustment layer will also work.
As I was in Photoshop anyway, I decided to do my dodging and burning there (a very important part o any post-processing), selectively lightening and darkening areas o the picture. I also added midtone contrast to increase the texture o the concrete. As you can see rom the screenshot, I like to keep everything on separate layers. It’s heavier, but more fexible.
Make your post-processing complement your lighting: graphic pictures can take graphic post-processing.
. 2 . 3
Lord o the Glmmerngs: Freezing Water with High-Speed Sync Nikon D700 | VR 16-35mm /4G | 18mm | /6.3 @ 1/2000s | ISO 400 | PocketWizard MiniTT1 & AC3 ZoneController on camera
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Lord o the Glmmerngs: Freezing Water with High-Speed Sync Once you’re getting good at working with one fash, or multiple fashes acting as one more powerul light source, you can start experimenting with more. Adding a second light
Hats o to behind-the-scenes photographer Serge Van Cauwenbergh or timing his shot to mine so you can actually see the fashes ring. (sergevancauwenbergh.com)
source will unlock a new level o possibilities. In this example, I used two fashes: one was shot through my LumiQuest SB III sotbox. It’s only a small modier but it does soten the light slightly and gives it a richer quality. And given it was a windy day I didn’t want to use a bigger modier, anyway. The last thing you want is your light stands learning to fy and then make an emergency landing on water...
A second, bare fash was added to rim-light the model, a antastic young dancer. The fash head was zoomed to its maximum setting to concentrate the light and avoid spill.
Generally, a rim or separation light like this is used to draw attention to orm (in this case muscle detail) and make a person stand out rom his background.
I used a high shutter speed o 1/2000 to reeze the water drops. This meant I was working in high-speed sync mode, which robs the fashes o a lot o their power. Fortunately, I was working in the shade at the time. Also, this picture isn’t lit entirely by fash. There’s still a lot o ambient in the total exposure as well. The fashes were just used to bring out the body o the dancer even more.
A variation on the same water theme. It’s always important to ask your models or input and ideas, especially i they’re creative people themselves. Here, the idea o going into the water was the dancer’s.
. 3 . 3
Flash and Slow Shutter Speed: The Rickshaw Ride rom Hell In the previous case, we used a very ast shutter speed to reeze action. Sometimes, doing just the opposite will create even more impact.
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Flash and Slow Shutter Speed: The Rickshaw Ride rom Hell Very ew times in my lie have I elt the adrenaline
and also trying not to let the fash slip rom my hand as
rushing like in this rickshaw ride rom the Indian
the rickshaw bumped its way through the potholed road.
city o Tanjore’s magnicent Brihadeeswarar temple back to the hotel. The apocalyptic ride took only ve
I settled or hal power on the fash. The short burst o
minutes, but it seemed to last orever. Imagine a roll-
fash in this long exposure not only lightened up the in-
ercoaster gone berserk and reusing to stop. The driver
terior, but also helped to reeze our renetic rickshaw lady.
was a woman, which is rare enough in itsel, but she drove with the testosterone o a thousand men.
Oh, by the way, i you want to impress your riends with some FTT (fash tech talk): this technique o combining fash with a longer ex-
Use your fash and your camera settings to help convey to your viewer the emotions you elt while you were at the scene.
posure is called “dragging the shutter.”
In post-production, I lightened the rickshaw roo a little more to reveal some more o the pattern detail. I also applied some Lightroom Clarity to the streaks o light surrounding this rocketpropelled death con to give them more pop.
I wanted to capture the renzy o this ride. I chose a slowish shutter speed o 1/3 o a second, which would
You can see me in the let rear-view mirror. I could
make the outside world like a blur, very much like how
have taken it out in Photoshop but I decided to
it elt. Exposing or the outside let the interior o the
let mysel play a small cameo role in this Bolly-
rickshaw ar too dark, and this is where the fash came in.
wood remake o The Fast and the Furious.
I handheld it and red a couple o pops at dierent power settings, chimping at the LCD i adjustments were needed
I you add a tripod to your setup, you can combine even longer shutter speeds with fash, as Crat & Vision author Michael Frye (michaelrye.com) did in this image. He combined two fash pops (one with an amber gelled fash rom below, one with a blue gelled fash rom above) with an ambient exposure o one hour, to record the star trails. And all o that using lm. Hats o!
TIP: Unless you’re working in manual, most cameras have a lower limit (such as 1/60) on the shutter speed when combined with ash. They do so to protect you rom making blurry ash exposures... like this one. Normally, you can override this paternalistic behaviour in the custom settings o your camera menu. I have mine set to its maximum o 30 seconds.
TIP: When using ash, you have a choice between Front and Rear Curtain Sync. This deals with the typical trails o movement that appear when a sharp (ashed) subject is mixed with motion blur rom a longer ambient exposure. Unless you want your subject to appear to be moving backwards, always choose Rear Curtain Sync.
. 4 . 3
Turn Three Flashes nto One: You Cannot Turn One Flash into Three…
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Turn Three Flashes nto One: You Cannot Turn One Flash into Three… When working in bright, ambient light, especially when
In this setup, three fashes were used on a Lastolite
you want to overpower that light to get detail in the sky
TriFlash adapter. Including this bracket and the
and you want to bring up the resulting dark oreground
Westcott Apollo 28-inch sotbox, this would set you
with fash, you’ll quickly start running into the limita-
back about $1800 with brand fashes. With third-
tions o a one-fash setup. In case 1, two bare fashes
party LumoPro fashes, it would be about $750.
were needed at ull power to lighten up the skater. Some might argue that even $750 is a lot to pay I you want to run your fashes through a diuser, such
or relatively low power, and you’d be better o
as a sotbox, you’ll need even more power because the
buying a heavier studio fash with a portable bat-
fashes have to go through that extra layer o diusion.
tery. But then again, you can turn three fashes into one more powerul light source. But you cannot
In these circumstances, the bill can add up quickly
break up one big fash into three! For more on this
when you’re using the brand fashes. However, since
topic, see 2.5. Outgrowing Your Small Flashes.
you’ll probably be working at ull power anyway, you don’t really need the TTL. In situations like this, a ull manual fash like the LumoPro LP160 can come in handy—or the price o one brand fash, you can get about three LP160s. That means triple the power or, in fash parlance: one and a hal stops extra. And that’s a lot to have: it can mean the dierence between being able to use a sotbox or not. Or aster recycle times (and thereore longer battery lie). Yongnuo is another manuacturer o aordable manual fashes.
. 5 . 3
Sunset at Noon
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Sunset at Noon I love working with artistic people, such as musicians or dancers, or personal projects: they’re ocused and always willing to stretch themselves (no pun intended) to get just the picture you’re ater. This shot was taken at noon on a sunny day. What looks like the setting sun to the right is actually a fash on a cloned-out light stand.
The actual sunlight was coming rom behind camera let. The ambient was underexposed and the dancers were lit by a sotbox.
This “cross lighting” setup (main light and rim light on a diagonal line, at an angle towards the camera, with the subject in between main and rim light) is an ecient way o adding depth to your subjects.
. 6 . 3
Usng Flags
3
Ten Case Studies
.6. Usng Flags This picture o a sherman was shot late in the
I fagged the fash using a Honl fag because too
aternoon on beautiul lake Egirdir, in Turkey. As
much light was hitting the camera let oar, mak-
you may have noticed by now, I love using wide-
ing it distractingly bright. I could o course have
angle lenses or environmental portraits, because
darkened it in Photoshop aterwards, but getting
they really draw the viewer into the scene.
it right in camera was much less o an eort.
I wanted to show the nice nuances in the sky, so
We even had time to do a behind-the-scenes shot and
I made sure my exposure was set or that. This
have Ruth and the sherman swap jobs or a second.
underexposed my subject but I could bring him up using fash. Normally, in pictures like these
Because o the hard light and the angle at which I
the oreground that’s out o reach o the fash
handheld the fash, the sherman’s eyes are invis-
tends to go very dark and muddy, but since we
ible below the brim o his hat, but that doesn’t
were on a boat the water nicely refects the sky
disturb me. Had the eyes been visible, the viewer’s
and there are ar less dark patches in the rame.
eyes would be much more attracted to the sherman. With the eyes invisible, the picture is more
Since I knew we had about an hour beore
about the man and his natural surroundings.
us, I worked in manual and built the picture up slowly, deciding on ambient rst
P.S. Expressly tilting your horizon like this is
and then adding fash to my liking.
called Dutch Angling. Note to sel: go easier on the Dutch Angling in the uture!
When you’ve got time to spare, working all manual will give you more consistent, predictable, and repeatable results.
^ Ruth is clearly less at ease in her new role as a skipper, whereas the sherman in no time became a great photographer’s assistant.
. 7 . 3
Gellng or Eect: Yogyakarta Blues
3
Ten Case Studies
.7. Gellng or Eect: Yogyakarta Blues In case 7 o Volume 1, we talked
I set my camera’s white balance to In-
shot through an umbrella attached
about putting a gel on your fash to
candescent. Doing this told my camera
to my Gitzo Traveler tripod which
make the colour o the fash blend
that it had to correct or that yellowish
served as a makeshit light stand.
in with the ambient light, so all
light. And how does a camera correct
the colours match up nicely.
or a certain colour cast? It adds the
When shooting at dusk like this, you
opposite colour. Blue, in this case.
have to move ast and check your ambi-
Sometimes, though, you may want to
ent exposure regularly, because it really
do just the opposite or eect. Take
This led the already blue sky to be-
sinks like a stone and the longer you
this image. It was shot at dusk.
come a really mystical blue, which
work, the longer you’ll have to leave
not only added drama to the scene,
your shutter open to suck in enough
The sky was turning blue but it wasn’t blue
but also contrasted nicely with the
ambient light to prevent the back-
enough to my taste. Sure, I could have
rich yellow and red colours.
ground rom going completely black.
spiced up the blues a little in post-production, using Adobe Lightroom’s or Camera
I also underexposed the
Raw’s HSL panel (one o my avourite
ambient light by two stops.
panels, by the way). But why post-process
Underexposing a sky will
when you can get it right in camera?
make the colours appear more
Want a dramatically blue twilight sky? Add a CTO to your fash and shoot incandescent white balance.
saturated. The combination o I put a CTO (colour temperature orange)
the gelled fash and the un-
gel on the fash. That changed the
derexposed background made
daylight-balanced light rom my fash to
or a much more dramatic blue sky than
incandescent (think o a typical yellow-
there actually was. Just don’t tell anyone!
ish electrical bulb, hence the symbol on your camera’s white balance selector).
Other than that, the lighting setup was pretty simple: the gelled fash was
^ Time and timing is o the essence when shooting around sunset. The image to the right was shot with the same ambient settings, only 18 minutes earlier.There was still too much light around or this eect to work.
. 8 .
Hgh Key Baby: The Horizontal Clamshell
3
Ten Case Studies Even dolls have catchlights!
.8. Hgh Key Baby: The Horizontal Clamshell Clamshell lighting is a popular technique
Normally, the fash in the highest umbrella
An old thick glass rerigerator door was put on
to bathe people in sot light. It’s great or
will be put slightly more powerul than the
two small chairs (choose thick, hardened saety
upbeat photographs. The technique consists
lower one (which acts more as a ll light).
glass or, better yet, thick unbreakable Plexiglas
o putting two umbrellas on one light stand:
when you do this yoursel and have an assistant
Once the power o the fashes was right, I
one like you would do normally, pointing
You photograph your subject by stick-
stand by so the baby does not roll o). On top
brought in the model and red away. The
down, and another one just below it, with
ing your lens through the 10 cm gap.
o that came a diuser (the type that comes with
ambient light was completely eliminated at
only a 10 cm gap between the two, pointing
a 5-in-1 refector). This would serve as the back-
the settings chosen. The whole scene is lit
slightly up. Normally, the lower umbrella gets
The result is as i you’re shooting through
ground. Under this background, I put a fash,
with Speedlights. In retrospect, it probably
attached to the light stand with a clamp.
a giant sotbox: your subject is fooded by
zoomed all the way out to give broad coverage.
would have been better to turn the baby
this big sot light source. The
clockwise 45 degrees so the catchlights would
dual catchlights make a nice
To the let and right o this setup I put two
be in the top and bottom o the eye instead
side eect. I you add a white
fashes in umbrellas. Contrary to the normal
o let and right. It would look more natural,
background to this setup,
clamshell setup, here I put both fashes at the
as ar as dual umbrella catchlights ever do.
the results are very fattering,
same power, as they would not light the top and
upbeat, and high-key images.
bottom, but the let and right o my subject.
The only downside when you
When setting this up and trying this out, you
a (mental) note o what works and what
want to use the clamshell tech-
don’t want to ruin whatever attention span the
doesn’t. Pretty soon you’ll have a whole library
nique is that your model… has to
baby will allot to you. So I practiced on a doll.
o lighting techniques to pull ideas rom.
Which is another tip by itsel: always reevaluate your images ater a shoot and make
be able to sit or stand up straight.
^
^
Which is not the case with the
A typical clamshell lighting setup. Just stick your lens through the opening in between the two umbrellas and sot portrait light
Detail o how the lower fash and umbrella can be attached to the same light stand using a so-called Manrotto Justin Clamp.
average six-month-old baby.
So, I translated the concept to work with babies as well.
Two fashes through an umbrella let and right. One fash underneath a (sae) glass door, diused by a diusion panel. Camera red through the two umbrellas.
. 9 . 3
Last One Turns O the Lghts : Mixing Flash and HDR On location, don’t dwell on what you didn’t bring but make do with what you have. Scarcity is the mother o invention.
3
ISO 200 /11 @ 1/125s
Ten Case Studies
.9. Last One Turns O the Lghts: Mixing Flash and HDR I’m not a huge an o HDR. At least, not
stands and sotboxes don’t t very well in
o the HDR variety that blatantly shouts
bicycle panniers. I’d normally use my tripod
in your ace “Look at me, I’m an HDR
as a light stand but I already needed that or
picture”... I do appreciate the options
technique number two (the HDR), so I put
HDR technology brings and I use its
the fash on its small plastic oot on a rock,
possibilities in what I’d call a less graphi-
just outside o the rame on camera let.
cal and more photographical way.
+ +
ISO 200 /11 @ 1/30s
ISO 200 | /11 @ 1/8s SB-900 camera let, set at hal power
=
While I wanted dark and moody, I also
Without fash (top picture) all the attention goes to the sky. The temple guardian and the stairs, two o the key elements in this picture are hardly noticeable. The stairs could not be lit, but were easy to bring out in postproduction. I did light the guardian with a dash o fash (just out o sight to camera let) to make him stand out more.
Another thing I’m not ond o with HDR
wanted lots o detail and post-processing
is what it does to colour. As a result, I end
options, so I shot a bracketed series o
up converting many o my HDRs to black
three pictures that I knew I could turn
and white as shown in more detail in my
into HDR. I only red my fash during the
Crat & Vision title The Power o Black &
last exposure. This made sure the HDR
White in Adobe Lightroom & Beyond.
sotware would not create “ghosts” around the guardian in case he had not sat com-
For this beautiul water temple on the
pletely still during the three exposures.
south cost o Bali, Indonesia, I had a moody, dark image in mind.
I then converted the resulting HDR picture to black and white in Nik Sotware’s Silver
To get there, I used a combination o two
Eex Pro and boosted the midtone sharp-
techniques. The rst was to use o-camera
ness o the stairs to make them look more
fash to light the temple guardian. The
textured. I also lightened them to better
fash was just out o sight to camera let.
lead the viewer’s eyes rom the guardian
Normally, in cases like this, I’d use a light
(where the eye enters the rame) right down
stand or possibly even a sotbox on a boom
the stairs. It’s all about leading the eye!
stand over my head. Unortunately, boom
+ black & white conversion =
. 0 1 . 3
The Best O-Camera Flash Set: It Is the One You Have with You
One o my avourite photos o a two-week trip. Taken during a short hike on which I almost hadn’t brought my camera.
3
Ten Case Studies
.0. The Best O-Camera Flash Set: It Is the One You Have with You At the end o these case studies, it’s
twice beore doing so. The others kindly
to my ThinkTank Speed Racer, ready to be
a good idea to go back to the basics.
oered to take my gear back to the guest-
put in the hands o a villager passing by.
Strangely, the more gear we accumulate
house while I returned looking or my hat.
as photographers, the less we seem to
I was tempted… ater all, I’d already done
I love the sot light because it correctly
want to carry it around. Sometimes, it
the trip once with the camera, right? But
portrays these wonderul people and
even becomes a drag (literally) and it
then I decided I’d take it with me anyway.
it puts a nice catchlight in their eyes, which helps to make the picture.
becomes all too tempting not to take it with us when we go or a stroll…
Back at the temple, I ound the hat...
And o course, it’s then when the
at the bottom o my camera bag. It’d
Small note: i you look closely, you’ll
magic photo opportunities happen!
been with me all the time! I was quite
see the baby holding a sheet o paper.
displeased with what I thought o as
That’s actually a small print rom my
I’m writing this one down as much
an unnecessary hike up again and
equally indispensable Polaroid Pogo
or mysel as I am doing it or you.
started my descent to the guesthouse.
printer (see 2.4.5. or more ino on that).
Because I too need constant remind-
And then I stumbled upon this amily.
ing to take my gear with me. Without a camera, no photographs.
This photo was shot during a Lumen
Always carry (some o) your gear with you.
Dei workshop in the mountain village o Lamayuru. We had already walked up a couple o hundred extra eet to the village
The lighting itsel is really simple, as it o-
monastery and had almost returned to the
ten is. When magical moments like these
guesthouse, when I suddenly couldn’t nd
spontaneously happen, there’s no time (or
my hat anymore. I thought I had orgotten
need) to get into a three-light setup! I just
it at the monastery, which meant climbing
used one fash and my Westcott collapsible
back up again. At 10,000 eet, you think
reversible umbrella that’s always strapped
^ The only thing that I regret in this picture is that the sky has little detail. It isn’t pure white, so technically, it isn’t burned out. It just lacks some detail. There just wasn’t any that evening. That’s why I’ve also got a version with a border around it. The border does a good job o keeping your eye “in the rame.”
! s u n o B
Bonus Case: This One Goes to Eleven
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Bonus Case: This One Goes to Eleven. As mentioned beore, the ability to use high-
This image o impromptu model
speed sync is one o the main reasons why
Myrthe illustrates this well, taken at
some photographers preer to use (lots o)
noon on an overcast but sunny day.
small Speedlights rather than bigger, more powerul studio strobes. In some cases, the
Correctly exposing or Myrthe makes the sky
need or a ast shutter speed, and thereore
blow out completely. Exposing or detail in
high-speed sync, is merely the by-product o
the sky on the other hand, makes Myrthe
wanting to use a wide aperture. In a pinch,
much too dark. And rom the looks on
you could also achieve this with a fash or
her ace, she doesn’t like that one bit! The
triggers that are not capable o high-speed
exposure is 1/8000 o a second (the limit
sync—just use a neutral density lter that
o my camera) at ISO 100 and /1.4. So I
makes the shutter speed drop below your
need to add fash to correctly light her and
sync speed. I sometimes use a variable neutral
maintain detail in the sky. 1/ 8000 at /1.4 is
density lter to that eect (see 2.4.4).
4
But
what i you want to reeze motion, or both? In these cases high-speed sync really shines.
equivalent to 1/250 at /8 (see table below).
^ Exposing to get detail in the sky and not using a fash leaves Myrthe’s ace underexposed. The disapproving look on her ace told me it was time to shine some fashlight on her!
/8000 at /.4 = /4000 at /2.0 = /2000 at /2.8 = /000 at 4 = /500 at /5.6 = /250 at /8 ^ All these combinations will result in the same amount o light hitting your sensor. So, your histogram will look the same, but your picture won’t—the aesthetics will vary greatly. Choosing -stop and shutter speed combinations is one o the key choices you make as a photographer.
Focusing through a neutral density lter can sometimes be dicult. I you have a variable lter, it might help to ocus with the lter at its minimal setting, switch to manual ocus, turn the lter to its desired strength and then 4
3
Ten Case Studies
.. Bonus Case: This One Goes to Eleven – contnued I I don’t have high-speed sync, and I don’t
sembled or transport and a piece o highly
Square sotbox as remotes with the built-in
By the way: i you’re a Canon user:
have an ND lter, then I’d have to work
engineered aluminum that accommodates
fash o my D700, but in bright ambient con-
using a Canon sync cable, you
at /8 and 1/250. But what i I don’t want
up to our fashes, so our times the power
ditions the reliability o this setup isn’t 100%.
could do the same thing!
to work at /8? What i I want to use my
(or in -stops: two -stops more) than one
ancy /1.4 lens wide open? A ve-stop
fash will give you (see 2.4.2. or more ino).
3) A slightly better way would be to use a th SB-900 as a commander on my cam-
ND lter would give me /1.4 at 1/250 o a second, still allowing me to trigger my fash
The sotbox was handheld at about one
era, as I can direct that control signal a lot
“conventionally.” But what i I also want to
meter rom Myrthe by her ather,
better by swivelling the fash’s head. But
reeze the motion o the fying hair? Then
ellow photographer Jürgen.
I “only” have our o them, and they’re already in the FourSquare sotbox.
1/250 won’t cut it. Enter high-speed sync. The most dicult part was the triggerAt 1/8000 o a second, ISO 100, this is an
ing. Since we were working in high-speed
4) The solution came in the orm o a good
extreme example o high-speed sync re-
sync, ordinary radio triggers would not
old SC-28 sync cord: I hooked it up to my
ally stretching the system. High-speed sync
work. So I thought through the options:
camera and hooked up the other end to one o the our SB-900s that I set up as a
reduces the eective output o your fash, so in extreme situations like this, where we’re
1) The PocketWizard ControlTL system
commander. The other three were set up as
overpowering the sunlight by a couple o
was an option, but an expensive one: I’d
remotes. I programmed the commander to
stops, one fash won’t be enough, especially i
have needed one receiver or every fash
re in ull manual (high-speed sync) power,
you’re using a diuser like a sotbox, which is
plus a trigger on my camera. That’s a
as I knew the problem would not be having Apparently, RadioPopper triggers, combined with optional Fiber Optic Bundles by Michael Bass Designs, can allow you to re up to our remote fashes (i they’re close enough) with one trigger. 5
also known to eat fash power or breakast.
total o $1,100 in triggers only. Ouch!
5
too much power, but rather too little, even with the our fashes. The commander being
This image was lit with the FourSquare—it’s
2) I could have used Nikon’s optical triggering
so close to the remotes, they had no trouble
a combination o a sotbox that can be disas-
system, triggering the our fashes in the Four-
receiving the commander trigger signal.
For more ino on this, check out Dave Black’s website daveblackphotography.com, and check the November 2010 entry in the
4
Four Intervews
We’ve saved what’s probably the best part o this eBook or last. In the ollowing pages, you’ll nd the results o our interviews I had with ellow Belgian photographers that make requent use o o-camera fash. We discuss inspiration, business, creativity and technique. I hope you’ll nd these interviews as interesting and rereshing as I did.
. 1 . 4
Andy Van den Eynde: All Is Fair in Love and War
4
Four Interviews
.. Andy Van den Eynde: All6 Is Fair in Love and War How does a thirty-something photographer end up with a colour image o a World War II battle scene that seems shot as i he was right there and yet has a very contemporary eel to it? The answer is that this picture wasn’t made 70 years ago, more like 70 weeks ago. Belgian Photographer Andy Van den Eynde (only related to the author o this eBook by his love or photography) shot this as part o a personal project documenting re-enactments o historical battles. The scene o the action isn’t Omaha Beach, but an exercise lot or people that learn to operate bulldozers and digging machines. The trench was “dug to order” and let or a couple o months to become overgrown. Time o capture was October, where there’s more chance o having the dramatic kind o cloudy sky this type o picture yearns or. Oh yes, when people are this serious about their hobby, as a photographer you should be equally serious when portraying them. My eyes were immediately drawn to this picture when Andy was fipping through his iPad portolio. It’s ull o drama and has a highly cinematographic eel to it: I wasn’t surprised to learn later on that Andy has a background in the broadcasting industry.
As you can see rom the setup shot, the drama was achieved by a combination o actors: the low and close vantage point, the wide angle lens, and o course the use o o-camera fash.
Lie in the trenches, AD 2009. I guess they wouldn’t use the fuorescent jackets in a real war.
4
Four Interviews
.. Andy Van den Eynde: All Is Fair in Love and War Andy needed all the power o his budget 600 watt seconds Jinbei fash shot into a
Andy could have red our or ve small
He likes the act the FlexTT5 (and also the MiniTT1,
refective umbrella to tame the ambient light to three stops below normal exposure.
fashes into an umbrella to achieve a similar
by the way) has an extra hotshoe connection
This gave the drama to the clouds. The soldiers were completely lit by light coming
eect, but he doesn’t like the hassle with bat-
where he can put an extra 580EX II with a small
rom a 90 degree angle. Since they’re acing the light source but not the camera,
teries and recycle times this brings, let alone
LumiQuest Mini Sotbox. The FlexTT5 will re the
this setup reveals a lot o depth and a nice interplay o light and shadow on their
the act he’d have to nd a way to attach
remote fashes, triggered by PocketWizard Plus IIs
aces. As you can see rom the original raw le, much was captured in-camera.
these ve fashes onto one light stand. 7
at a manual, preset power setting, but will also allow him to re the fash on top o his camera in
This doesn’t mean he will not use small fashes, on
TTL mode. He uses this setup or those moments
the contrary. He uses and combines the light sourc-
when he wants to add a dash o ll light coming
es and the modiers he needs on a scene-by-scene
rom the camera while at the same time ring
basis, much like in the lm industry. In addition
remote fashes. Still, Andy’s looking to gradually
to the obvious available light, his lighting toolbox
replace his “old” Plus IIs with new FlexTT5 models.
now consists o a Prooto Acute B2 600 Ws portable monobloc fash unit with some modiers that has come to replace his Jinbei. He also uses Caliornia Sunbounce refectors, Canon 430EX and 580EX II Speedlites and
Personal work is the key to growing both your crat and your business.
some Nikon SB-28 Speedlights. He triggers his small fashes in manual mode using PocketWizard Plus IIs (which means the brand o the fash is not an issue) and recently got himsel a new PocketWizard FlexTT5 to act as a commander.
^ The original unedited raw le. The fash-to-ambient contrast was nailed in the camera. Post-processing was mainly ocused on giving the colours more earthy, war-like tones and adding clarity to bring out even more depth.
Note: i you’re determined to work only with small fashes, check out paragraph 7
4
Four Interviews
.. Andy Van den Eynde: All Is Fair in Love and War – contnued When orced to pick a minimal light-
Andy’s personal projects are not only vital
is dreaded by many a wedding photographer:
Placing the fashes at the back o the room
ing and lens kit, Andy would go with
or experimenting and unleashing creativ-
the opening dance. He’ll place three fashes
with a relatively wide setting on the zoom
his Sigma 50mm 1.4, a Sunbounce
ity, they also land Andy new jobs.
in a triangular way across the room. Flash
head (24 mm) also lightens up the room
volumes are preset and they are all triggered
and gives some depth to the audience, who
This is a common reaction I
simultaneously. This setup is not only handy
would otherwise be lost in the shadows.
heard rom the other interview-
or capturing the obligatory speeches, but also
ees as well: regular personal
especially useul later in the evening. Andy
Although more and more digital photog-
work is the key to growing both
has the wedding couple ask the DJ to go easy
raphers are resorting to their LCD as a
your crat and your business.
on the lights and colour eects during the
post-actum light meter, Andy swears by
opening dance and so he manages to get great
a real fash light meter—another thing he
Speaking o business, Andy
shots without annoying colour casts or sudden
takes rom his background working with
shoots commercial jobs as well
over- or underexposure. Regardless o where
analog lm. Much like working with slide
as portraits and weddings.
the couple is on the dance foor and o where
lm, there wasn’t much margin or error and
For the latter, he doesn’t shy
he is in relation to them, there’s always some
chimping was a term used only in zoos.
away rom using a fash or two
amount o rontal ll and rim light coming
(or three, or our) either.
rom the fash triangle, giving him well-lit
Mini refector and a Speedlight.
and three-dimensional shots. All he has to do He has a great technique to share
to get the rim light is make sure the couple is
or getting better shots o what
between him and one o the three fashes. With the new PocketWizard system you could even change power settings remotely and assign the fashes to three dierent groups, which would allow you to re them individually, in groups o two, or all together. 8
^ Andy will oten set up three fashes during a wedding banquet. This gives him both rontal ll light and rim light rom whatever direction he decides to shoot the couple when they set o or the opening dance.
A Dutch painter rom the seventeenth century, ater whom the “Rembrandt light” in portrait 9
4
Four Interviews
.. Andy Van den Eynde: All Is Fair in Love and War – contnued Andy still recalls assignments rom his
Finally, Andy also shares a couple o tips on
When asked i there’s any new personal
studies where students had to photo-
the business side o things: or commercial
projects he’s contemplating, Andy talks about
graphically rebuild a scene rom say, a
shoots, he’ll oten split up his invoice into
a DVD by Joey Lawrence he’s just watched
Rembrandt painting, using a light meter.
sections or “labour” and “gear,” assign-
(Faces o a Vanishing World) and says:
Measuring your light is knowing it.
ing some amount o the total bill
“Maybe something in that style. Obviously
to the use (and depreciation) o
not the same, but I like the idea o one day
his gear. This helps to show his
visiting oreign cultures, getting great shots
clients that not every penny he
o them, and doing something in return.”
invoices is pure prot and that a
Oddly enough, as Andy talked to me about
Even now, studying other photographers’
part o what he makes goes into keeping
this, I had the same DVD sitting in my
work and trying to reverse engineer it
up with technology (and client’s demands).
laptop. I was halway through it and had
is an important part o improving as
Again, something infuenced by the
had similar ideas. Apparently, in addition to
a photographer. Not to slavishly copy,
practices o the broadcasting industry.
sharing the same amily name, we also share
but to eclectically use elements you like and mix them into your own style.
some o the same idols, ideas, and ideals. Also, Andy does not believe in paying or
Andy Van den Eynde
advertising. Your portolio should be your While Andy reads the occasional book
own advertising campaign and i you treat
Andy’s website:
and photo mag and ollows the odd
your clients, their riends, and their amilies
andyvandeneynde.be
workshop, either live or online, he eels
well during a job, they’ll become your own
Twitter: @andyvde
that ultimately the best way to progress
account executives. This will be easier to
as a photographer is to practice, learn
achieve i you have a personal style you’re
rom your mistakes, and build your own
comortable with. People won’t discuss mon-
little lighting library in your mind.
ey i they’ve chosen you or your style. They will i they’ve chosen you based on price.
Sites that Andy visits: creatvelve.com hoerphotography.com mkelarson.com joeyl.com
. 2 . 4
Tom Museeuw: Wanted: The Perect Fill Flash
4
Four Interviews
.. Tom Museeuw: Wanted: The Perect Fill Flash When Tom sent me a couple o images to prepare or our interview, the rst one to catch my eye was this picture o his son Lennert. Although it’s obviously a personal picture, it oozes the same proessional quality o Tom’s commercial work. Tom took up photography in 2005 as a hobby and was very much into the urban exploring scene, photographing abandoned places. By almost accidentally photographing a
be photographed. And while they’re very
is a gigantic 86-inch parabolic umbrella
as shallow as his lens allowed him to, giving
young model in one o those grungy set-
knowledgeable about ashion, they’re less so
with bre rods instead o the more ragile
the almost surreal out-o-ocus quality to the
tings in 2007, he started experimenting with
about light in general and photographically
metal ones and a ull-time assistant to pre-
clouds. This necessitated a shutter speed that
model photography. In 2008, Tom decided to
pleasing light in particular. So Tom oten nds
vent the thing rom taking o mid-shoot.
was aster than the maximum shutter speed
explore a commercial career in photography
himsel aced with “bad” ambient light. In
on top o his daytime job as a youth counsel-
these conditions, he’ll oten use Caliornia
His Speedlights are triggered with either
density lter rom Light Crat Workshop (see
lor. The skills he draws rom this job come
Sunbounce refectors, which he sees as a way
Nikon’s CLS system or the new PocketWizard
2.4.4) to bring the shutter speed “down” to
in handy when photographing teen models,
o literally bouncing less-than-ideal ambi-
ControlTL system. When he needs more
1/2000 o a second. Tom knew he could re his
which to Tom is “70% about the subject,
ent light into better quality light. To him, a
power than one Speedlight can deliver, he
fash even at this speed using high-speed sync,
30% about the camera.” In three years’ time,
refector is like a snooker cue and light is the
attaches two o them to a Lovegrove Gemini
but to make up or the power loss high-speed
his signature lighting and post-processing
snooker ball: the cue is just a tool to get the
fash bracket. This was also the lighting setup
sync causes, he had to add an extra fash.
style has landed him more clients than
ball where you want it, using the basic physi-
that was used in the opening picture. The
many ulltime photographers can dream o.
cal laws o bouncing to your advantage.
two fash heads were zoomed all the way
This was o course a dedicated personal
out and had the wide angle adapters on
shoot, but even during the (rare) slow mo-
to give a very wide spread o light.
ments o a commercial shoot, Tom will oten
Consistency and workfow eciency in his commercial work, ed by experimentation in
I that still doesn’t give him the look he’s
his personal work, is the key to his success.
ater, Tom will add fash light. His lighting
o his camera. Tom used a variable neutral
experiment with new setups or ideas. On top
bag consists o our SB-900s and an Elinchrom
Tom used the wide end and the largest aper-
o that, he’ll have the occasional last-minute
A big part o Tom’s commercial work is
Ranger Quadra kit. As modiers he uses the
ture o his 24-70mm /2.8 zoom. He wanted
“‘Guerrilla reestyle shoot,” where he rustles
photographing children’s and teen’s ash-
same collapsible reversible Westcott umbrella
to underexpose the background to make the
up a model and an assistant on Facebook
ion. His clients almost always choose the
we discussed in Volume 1. He also uses the
clouds darker and more looming. Yet, at the
or Twitter to try out new creative ideas.
location in which the collections have to
Westcott 28-inch sotbox. On his wish list
same time he wanted the depth o eld to be
4
Four Interviews
In Search o the Perect Fll Flash
.. Tom Museeuw: Wanted: The Perect Fill Flash While his personal work is clearly more obviously fash-lit than his commercial work, successul experiments tend to trickle down rom the ormer to the latter.
100% ambient
‘perect fll ash’
100% ash
Tom looks at light as a continuum rom ambient to fash. In his commercial work, he searches or the perect balance between fash and natural light. This not only brings out the detail in the clothes as realistically and pleasingly as possible, it also makes the subsequent colour correction easier. The inset “In Search o the Perect Fill Flash” shows this.
The light quality was all but fattering in this available light shot. Lowering the shutter speed wasn’t advisable, nor did Tom want to increase ISO. And even had he done so, it would only have brightened the entire image, washing out the windows. ISO 200 | 50 mm | /2.8 @ 1/60s | Ambient only
In order to change both the quality and the quantity o light, Tom set up a Speedlight with an umbrella outside. This remote Speedlight was triggered by another Speedlight on the camera, set to commander. The image is now obviously fash-lit, and even too much so. ISO 200 | 50mm | /2.8 @ 1/60s TTL o-camera ash at +2 EV
In his personal work, reed rom these constraints, he can use more dramatic fash-to-ambient ratios.
When photographing children and teens, make sure you know what drives them and what their world o interest is.
Tom likes to work in manual or aperture priority or his ambient light settings. For his fash settings, he is a big believer in working with iTTL and using fash exposure compensation. Here, he took his original fash exposure compensation o +2 EV down to -1 EV. The result is the harmonious, perectly balanced resh-looking image he’s come to be known or. ISO 200 | 50mm | /2.8 @ 1/60s TTL o-camera ash at -1 EV
4
Four Interviews
.. Tom Museeuw: Wanted: The Perect Fill Flash – contnued The dierence in Tom’s approach to personal
For personal work, such
versus commercial work can also be seen in
as the interview’s opening
his post-processing, especially when shooting
picture, he allows himsel
clothing: or commercial work, getting the col-
more leeway: a vignette
ours o the clothes right is o the utmost impor-
was added, colours were
tance. Tom uses a ColorChecker Passport rom
selectively tweaked us-
X-Rite at the start o the shoot and then uses X-
ing Lightroom’s HSL
Rite’s Lightroom plug-in to make a custom pro-
panel and a healthy
le. The advantage o the ColorChecker prole
dose o the Clarity slider
compared to the Adobe or camera-specic pro-
was added to the gritty
les is that the ColorChecker is all about main-
industrial environment
taining relative colour accuracy among colours.
in the oreground.
Tom’s post-processing workfow is highly
Tom has a well-read
streamlined: he uses a series o custom Light-
blog and also gives light-
room presets that are lighting-specic. There’s
ing workshops in Belgium
wedding photography incorporates techniques
one preset or when he uses fash, another or
and abroad. For his own technical inspira-
such as tilt-shit lenses and light painting.
when he’s used a silver Caliornia Sunbounce,
tion, he turns to sites such as Fstoppers and
yet another or when he’s used a golden one.
creativeLIVE. Recently, he also came across the
Speaking o creativity, Tom already has a
Photoshop is mainly used or sharpening.
photography o Je Newsom, whose creative
plan or a new personal project that—unlike
Tom Museeuw ISO400 | 50mm | /2.8 @ 1/125s | 1 Speedlight through Westcott umbrella
Tom’s website: otoolo.be Twitter: @otoolio
Tom’s workshops & English blog: createthatlght.com
his guerrilla style last-minute fings—will require more planning. He only reveals that
When you shoot in a consistent way, your post-processing can also be done in a quick and consistent way.
it “will have something to do with dancers.” Coming soon to a blog post near you.
Websites Tom visits: stoppers.com creatvelve.com jenewsom.com
. 3 . 4
Jürgen Doom: Traveling Light
4
Four Interviews
.. : Jürgen Doom: Traveling Light When I met Jürgen or this interview, he showed up the same way he shows up or many o his commercial shoots: cycling on a oldable bike that he can take on board a train as carry-on luggage. All o his photo gear and his laptop were tucked into one photo backpack. He laughs when I call him the “eco-photog-
did incredible things with the abundant South
dust on his shelves and has made way or a
creeping in was in act mainly lit by fash:
rapher.” In act, working like that isn’t only
Arican sunlight, combining techniques such
Nikon D3s and a D3x, depending on what
“There was sun alright, that day,” Jürgen re-
ecological, it’s also economical and ecient.
as light painting with refectors and scrims.
the job calls or. Jürgen preers to use prime
calls. “The only problem was it was on the oth-
lenses and triggers his Speedlights with the
er side o the building.” Since waiting or the
PocketWizard MiniTT1 & FlexTT5 system.
real sun to shine through the window o this
Ecient because he avoids trac jams and economical because it allows him to work on
During an internship at a newspaper, Jürgen,
the way to and rom a shoot. Most o the time,
who was still shooting lm, also discovered the
by the time Jürgen arrives home rom a shoot
wonders o bounced fash and o-camera fash
Ater a period o being a generalist, which
an assistant outside hold an SB-900 with a CTO
by train, his pictures are already imported
triggered by a TTL cord. He’s still thankul or
he nds necessary to nd your true voca-
gel high up on a light stand and re it through
into Lightroom, reviewed, and rated. He
the act that the newspaper let him “waste”
tion as a photographer, Jürgen nds himsel
the window. Another SB-900 in the room
might even have done some editing already.
a couple o lm rolls. The use o a TTL cord
gravitating more and more towards corporate
opened up the shadows to camera let a little.
rst-foor room was not an option, Jürgen had
meant he could trigger his fash remotely and
photography: shooting portraiture, report-
Around the turn o the millennium, Jürgen,
TTL proved to be a real blessing in the ast-
age, and architecture or business clients.
who graduated as an engineer, ollowed his
paced newspaper assignment world, especially
wie to South Arica on her postgraduate schol-
without the luxury o an LCD screen to chimp
For Jürgen, his small fash kit is “as essential
arship. Ater a trip to the breathtaking Kalahari
at. This experience with fash would serve him
as his lens and camera body.” It allows him to
desert, he decided to make the switch rom am-
well upon his return to Belgium in 2004, where
completely control the light, mood, and con-
ateur to “pro.” He studied photography in Cape
sunlight isn’t as quintessential as it is in Arica.
trast o a scene. The interior shot on the next page o a typical teen’s holiday camp dormitory
Town and did a couple o internships with local photographers, one o whom was Alain Proust,
In 2003, Jürgen bought his rst DSLR, a Nikon
is a nice example. What appears to be a room
a photographer originally rom France. Alain
D100. That digital dinosaur is now collecting
lit with warm, late aternoon ambient sunlight
4
Four Interviews
.. : Jürgen Doom: Traveling Light – contnued Working with colour gels has become a signature treat in Jürgen’s work and it is proo o his client-oriented thinking. On a recent interior shoot assignment, Jürgen used dierent colour gels on the background fashes. “It’s a small eort to do, and it provides the layouter with a whole extra range o opportunities. Dierent colours convey dierent moods.”
Another nice example o how his “guerrilla backpack fash kit” allows him to completely control his light is the picture o the young gymnast on the balance beam. Jürgen completely eliminated the ugly greenish light and the typical sports arena clutter by setting his exposure in such a way that he completely eliminated the ambient light, and then rebuilt the light to his liking with fash. Two bare Speedlights were set up to the let and right o the girl, accentuating her gure. A fash in a Lastolite Ezybox provided some rontal ll, making her ace legible.
Once you’ve nailed the overall setting and exposure, simply putting dierent gels on your background lights can give layout people some more fexibility.
The setting sun in this picture was in act a Speedlight with a CTO gel. One SB-900 on a light stand, held up high by an assistant, mimics the setting sun. Another gelled SB900, up in a bunk bed behind the camera provides some ll light in the room and evens out the exposure. Nikon D3S | 24mm /2.8D | /9 @ 1/250s ISO 200 | 2 Speedlights triggered by PocketWizard Plus IIs
When conronted with this cluttered environment and all-but-pleasing light, Jürgen simply decided to eliminate it, basically turning the gym into a studio. The shutter speed, ISO, and aperture were chosen to eliminate any ambient light, and then the image was lit by three fashes. Nikon D3S | 85mm /1.4D | /5.6 @ 1/250s | ISO 200 | Let and right ashes: SB-900s at quarter power. Frontal fll ash: SB-900 in a sotbox at quarter power. Triggered with Nikon CLS by a ourth SB-900 acting as commander.
4
Four Interviews
.. : Jürgen Doom: Traveling Light – contnued A similar setup was used in the athlete’s picture to the right, only the lights were at a 45-degree angle behind and no rontal ll was used. Just because you have a multi-light setup in place does not mean you have to use all your lights all o the time. In act, you can sometimes achieve more interesting and certainly more dramatic results when switching o the main light.
Now that he has the instant eedback o the camera LCD, Jürgen works mostly in manual mode, or setting both the fash as well as the ambient exposure.
3 2 1
^ Lighting diagram or the opening image o this interview.
to give the clouds more detail and saturation.
speeds, you should still decide creatively i you
Two Speedlights were added, crosslighting the
want to reeze the motion completely or not.
runner’s leg. The crosslight nicely denes the muscles. The hardest thing was to precisely
Jürgen recognizes the importance o dedi-
time the shot and the leg placement. Working
cated personal work, but time constraints
in manual ensured consistency in exposure
oten get in the way. That’s why he’ll oten
throughout the dierent tries. The shutter
experiment with new lighting ideas towards
JÜrgen’s website:
speed was 1/250, the limit o the PocketWizards
the end o a commercial shoot. I there’s time
jurgendoom.be
Plus IIs he was using back then. While the short
let, and the shots Jürgen was hired to do are
burst o the fash roze the runner’s leg, there’s
already in the bag, he’ll propose to his clients
still a slight blur around the edges o the leg,
and models to try some dierent or new
caused by the—in action terms—slowish shutter
techniques or ideas. Oten these are the ones
speed limit o 1/250. This is not really a prob-
that wind up being used in the campaign.
The same manual method was used or the
lem, on the contrary—everything needn’t be
opening picture to this interview: the ambient
tack sharp i you want to convey motion. Even
exposure was underexposed by about one stop
when your gear allows you to use aster shutter
Jürgen Doom
Twitter: @jur gendoom
Websites JÜrgen visits: alanproust.com nelvn.com/tangents (A hghly nterestng ste by weddng and portrat photographer Nel Van Nekerk)
. 4 . 4
Bert Stephan: Motivational Light
4
Four Interviews
.. Bert Stephan: Motivational Light When the whole idea o o-camera fash (or “strobism,” as it is called, named ater David Hobby’s blog strobst.com ) reached Europe, Bert was one o the rst to recognize this was more than just a passing ad. O-camera fash is here and it looks like it’s here to stay. With his “Conessions o a Photographer” blog and behindthe-scenes videos on YouTube, Bert not only illustrated the potential o using small fashes on location but also the importance o social media as a marketing medium or his photography, workshops, and his training DVD Motivational Light. Although he’s been into photography or only seven
He was one o the rst Belgian photographers to
years, only ve working proessionally, Bert has
acknowledge the power o social media. When I
built an international reputation as a photographer
ask him how he pulls everything o time wise,
and a teacher, and a huge social media ollowing
he tells me he mostly manages his social media
that many longer-term photographers can only
during otherwise unproductive moments: when
wish or: over 3,000 Twitter ollowers and over a
waiting or a shoot because he arrived early,
quarter million YouTube views o his “Conessions
when stuck in a trac jam, waiting at the den-
o a Photographer” behind-the-scenes videos.
tist, or standing in line at the supermarket.
Bedazzled by the gear section in chapter 2? Then this image is or you: it’s made with what Bert calls his “€70 ($100) studio”. A shower curtain diuses the light o two continuous light sources: two 350 watt halogen torches (the kind you get rom Home Depot). And while you’re there, shop around or a carpet that’s normally used by movers—it makes or a great background, as it did here. When working with powerul continuous light sources like these, always beware o saety, though—these things get hot and any diuser that’s placed too close could easily melt or… catch re!
4
Four Interviews
.. Bert Stephan: Motivational Light – contnued Although Bert has a number o Canon Speed-
Bert acknowledges the importance o ex-
and eel o a commercial shoot, but ironi-
lites, studio lights, and a portable Elinchrom
perimentation, but unlike doing “anything
cally, i this had been a commercial shoot,
Ranger Quadra, he guesses that he could
goes” or individual personal work, he preers
charged at commercial rates, the budget
probably do 95% o his shoots to his client’s
to team up with other creative people and
would easily have exceeded $20,000, so the
content with only one Speedlite, a set o
work on a project that has all the charac-
pictures would never have been made. Now,
triggers, and a shoot-through umbrella. More
teristics o a commercial shoot (including
thanks to the joint eorts o dierent creative
(expensive) gear doesn’t necessarily translate
a brieng), only without the budget.
people, the shoot is a act. The jewel designer
into better picture quality. It’s one o his
has advertising grade pictures, the assistants
mantras during his workshops and “Cones-
That is the story behind the opening picture
walked away with their heads ull o resh
sions o a Photographer” YouTube videos, in
to this interview. Being an accomplished
knowledge, and Bert now has a set o port-
which you can oten nd him ring a Speed-
diver, Bert had been wanting to do some-
olio images, the raw material or the rst in
lite through a translucent $10 shower curtain
thing with underwater photography or a
an upcoming set o training videos, and the
gaer-taped to a door opening, turning it
long time. He wanted to portray the sense
knowhow to do this type o shoot again with
into an instant 20 square oot sotbox. Or,
o reedom, the sensation you get when you
bigger commercial clients that do have the
he’ll use the headlights o a car as rim lights,
dive into a sea or a lake in a magical-realistic
budget. It’s a situation where everyone wins.
as he shows in his Motivational Light DVD.
way. A local jewel designer with a need but no budget or killer shots arranged or the
I you want to read more about this kind o
Unortunately, sometimes, as a photogra-
jewels, the models, and other logistics such
creative interaction and what it can do or
pher, you have to “dress to impress,” which
as the catering and the swimming pool. A
your photography business, check out Corwin
means hauling more gear to a set than you
couple o Facebook riends chimed in or
Hiebert’s Your Creative Mix on Crat & Vision.
need, just to look more proessional.
logistic support. The results have the look
^ Setup shot o the opening image. Bert is underwater o course, the man in the picture is shooting the BTS video! Gear and technique used in the opening picture: Olympus E-PL1 in an Olympus PT-EP01 underwater housing | 14-42mm kit l ens @ 14 mm | ISO 200 | /9 @ 1/160s | Above the surace, an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra with a standard reector at about hal power gives the eect o the sunrays. Under water, a INON Z-240 ash lights the model’s let side. With the settings used, there was no ambient light: everything you see is ash-lit.
4
Four Interviews
.. Bert Stephan: Motivational Light – contnued Technically, there were quite a ew
In the last ew years, Bert has seen
hurdles to cross: the ar wall o the
the industry change dramatically
pool was covered with black cloth.
and as a photographer, you have
Bert shot this with an Olympus Pen,
a choice between adapting to that
as the underwater housings or this
changed environment or being
camera are relatively aordable.
overtaken by it. He gives the exam-
The light on the right is a fash in
ple o a proessional photographer
an underwater housing, set to slave
who makes all the pictures or the
mode. The sunburst in the water on
name badges o the employees o a
the let is actually a Ranger Quadra.
local company. No doubt, sooner
The small aperture o /20 on the
or later, the company will just buy
Pen causes the starburst. To trigger
a camera and have the HR depart-
the Quadra, Bert came up with a
ment take the pictures. The pro then
antastic idea: as his underwater
has two choices: either whine about
housing could not accommodate a
this sad evolution where “everyone
PocketWizard, he attached a bre-
and his dog have become a photog-
glass cable to the housing in ront
rapher” or be proactive and oer
o the built-in fash o the Pen. The
his services to train the HR depart-
other end o the cable was tted to
ment in making those pictures look
a driting and waterproo OtterBox
their best and maybe even start to
and aimed at a slave cell, which was
oer his training services to other
in turn connected to a PocketWiz-
companies with similar needs.
ard that triggered the Quadra.
^ Shot during a workshop in Dubai. This picture oozes a cinematographic atmosphere that clearly reveals Bert’s background in this business. The idea was to contrast the glamorous models with an environment you don’t get to see in the average Dubai promotional lm—these streets are where the immigrant workers live. In between shots, Bert had assistants rufe up the dust on the street: it’s an old cinema trick to spread light—light hitting the dust gets refected. Gear & technique: Canon 5D Mk II | 70-200mm 2.8L IS @ 200mm | ISO 50 | /4 @ 1/160s | Two 580 EX II ashes at hal power act as rim l ight. One 580 EX II at hal power provides rontal fll light. Triggered by PocketWizard Plus II
4
Four Interviews
.. Bert Stephan: Motivational Light – contnued Bert is a rm believer in working manu-
images o completely dierent subjects
surer’s pictures—water seems to be a theme
ally, with both his ambient and his fash
in completely dierent surroundings.
in Bert’s work, and it will be or some time to
settings. This allows him to x one
come. For an upcoming “real” personal pro-
image in Lightroom and then sync
The second is Sara Lee, a young American
ject, he wants to do “something with people
the others with the same settings.
emale photographer. In her unconventional
that have a special bond with... water.”
pictures o surers, Bert nds the same reeWhen asked which other photographers’
dom he likes to put in his own pictures.
To be continued!
Bert Stephan
work he admires, Bert points at two: Jeanloup Sie, who used one fash and who
From using shower curtains to photographing
Bert’s website:
managed to give a visual continuity to
jewels in a swimming pool to appreciating
bertstephan.com Twitter: @bertstephani
When your business environment moves outside the box, your strategic thinking has to ollow.
Bert’s “Conessions o a Photographer” BTS videos on YouTube: youtube.com/bertstephan
Bert’s DVD ‘Motivational Light’: motvatonallght.com
Sites that Bert visits: jeanloupse.com vvantve.com (Sara Lee)
0 . 5
Concluson
5
Concluson
I hope this eBook will inspire you not only on a technical but also on a creative level. I sure know writing it and interviewing my colleagues inspired me. It inspired me to do more personal work. To try out new techniques and experiment. But most o all, it taught me all over again that, fash or no fash, the magic doesn’t happen i you don’t press the shutter. In the French-speaking part o Belgium, there is a tradition o re-enacting the marches rom Napoleonic times. Hundreds o villagers rom the villages “entre Sambre et Meuse” gather in these scenes. I had never thought o going there to photograph, let alone bringing a fash, until I was inspired by the interview I did with Andy. Ater a long and tiring day, I had just packed all my gear, ready to return home when I noticed this scene. I quickly set up shop again, and shot some o the best images o the day.
All pictures (except or some manuacturer-supplied shots) in chapters 1 to 3 copyright Piet Van den Eynde, unless noted otherwise. Some behind-the-scenes shots © Serge Van Cauwenbergh.
Images in the chapter 4 interviews copyright by the respective interviewees: Andy Van den Eynde, Tom Museeuw, Jürgen Doom and Bert Stephani.
Many thanks to all the models or their time and energy, to my ellow photographers or their insights, to the great team at Crat & Vision or streamlining my meandering writing
