24/06/2008 by jim.

Don’t you just love High School theatrical productions. I certainly do, especially from a photographic point of view. Loads of youngsters dressed in character and willing to strike a pose. It just makes my life so easy that I want to produce something a little bit special for them using Strobist off camera lighting techniques.
For the lighting of this shot I used a Canon 580ex speedlite through an umberella, above and to camera right, set on half power with a half CTO filter.
The background was lit with a 430ex zoomed in to tighten the beam and on 1/16th power.
The camera was on manual; 1/80th at f8 ISO 400 and sync’d with Elinchrom Skyports.

I have only recently changed over from Bowens Pulsars to Elinchrom Skyports to sync the lights and I must say that I am very pleased with them. Very light and compact and so far, very reliable. A big plus is that when I use my big Ranger RX Speed lighting gear, I also get remote control of the power output from the camera.

Posted in Strobist, Lighting 102, General photography | No Comments »

15/06/2008 by jim.

In full Sun it is difficult to avoid burnt out highlights and deep shadows so I always use fill-in flash. This can end up with a flat looking image if the flash is left on top of the camera or if you use the built in flash most cameras have.
Getting the flash off the camera and balancing it with the daylight evens out the dynamic range of the photograph and also lets you keep the shape and modeling in the subjects face.
In this shot the Sun was strong and coming from camera right. The sky was interesting so I adjusted the camera exposure to keep detail in the fluffy clouds. The easiest way to do this was to observe the exposure while the camera was set to aperture mode, then change to manual mode and decrease the exposure by 1.5 stops.
I then set up a flash (Canon 430EX) on a stand to camera left set to slave mode.
I used a second flash (Canon 530EX) set to master mode on a manfrotto bracket on the camera that enabled me to lift the flash about 12 inches above the camera. This was sync’d with a Canon shoe cord.
Using the flash ratio controls on the master flash, I set the flash to the left to be 2 stops brighter (4:1) than the flash on top of the camera.
As a result the main light for the shot is the the flash to camera left. Next is the Sun at -1.5 stops and then the camera (fill-in) flash at -2 stops. Effectively, I am using 3 lights including the Sun.
You can see that the image maintains detail in the sky and the subject has got a face with contours and shape.

In another version of the shot I used the trees in the background, underexposed by 1.5 stops again, to give me a dark back drop.
The main light was to camera left and the fill was on top of camera at -2 stops. The Sun in this shot was directly behind the subject.

I hope this gives some insight into using flash in bright Sunlight.
Have fun.

Posted in Strobist, Lighting 102, General photography | No Comments »

03/06/2008 by jim.

As most of my photography is done on location these days, the vagaries of the English weather play a large role in my life. Weather forecasts these days are very limited and you can get most of the information by looking out of your window.
I do however like to analyse weather trends and try to do my own forecasts. I decided to modernise my own weather station and put the collected data onto my web site for anyone interested in Spalding weather to view.
You can find my weather station output here;
www.weather.photoimagery.co.uk
I make no promises that it will improve the weather but at least you can tell what is going on outside my window.

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