Creative Light has just debuted a full line of moderately priced lighting modifiers. Never heard of Creative Light? That's because they just launched the company, too.
They are a subsidiary of Profoto um, based in Sweden, so you have a pretty good idea the gear is probably not gonna suck.
But that's not what makes this launch cool. What I am excited about is this:
They are wrapping the company around solid lighting education -- which is exactly what every photo gear company should be doing right now.
If a company is willing to devote the time and money to producing good, educational content about their gear, the cost of distributing those ones and zeroes is pretty close to zero. Yet it adds a ton of value -- especially for beginning photogs.
Two videos -- and more info -- after the jump. __________
The first video is an aurora borealis-themed fashion shoot featuring Baldomero Fernandez, from whence came the shot at the top of the post. I love the idea of using the reflector to catch the spilled overhead key to double it as an on-axis fill, too. That had never occurred to me.
And even though this site's readership is depressingly, overwhelmingly, ninety-four-percentingly male, I do try to keep an eye out for the rare lighting demo that is a little more suited for the laydees:
The takeaway for this one (for me, at least) was an affirmation of the idea of setting your light and then allowing for things to happen at the edges. Those areas around the margins are where the unexpected lives -- always a good thing.
There is a full range of boxes, octas, umbrellas, etc. And these guys are embracing the speedlight ethic, too, with hot shoe-based speed rings for their 'boxes in the immediate pipeline. Gotta like that. __________
Every Company Should Be This Smart
Props to Creative Light for having good how-to material right out of the blocks. You can find more videos here. (The main website is here.)
If you are a photo gear company, how can you not be doing this in 2009? Heck, every company should be doing as much as practical to use the free, worldwide information channels that exist to create a mini knowledge university centered around your products.
It's not just good karma -- it is good business. Even more so with text-based info, as Google will happily bring people in search of that info right to your door. For free. Every day.
Way to go, Creative Light -- and keep up the good work.More>>
Is this the best photo of a Ferrari you have ever seen?
No, it's not.
But bear in mind that it was lit off-the-cuff at a presser with some quick thinking, two SB-600s and one very expensive light stand. __________
Taking a cue from Kenny Brown's awesome gullwing shot a ways back, Strobist reader Mark Shannon (gently) put a Nikon SB-600 in each of the back seats of this brand new Ferrari California at a premiere event and fired them into the white ceiling. This created the nice, soft-edged light source that lit, and was reflected by, the car.
He triggered the flashes via CLS, with an on-camera SB-900 which did not contribute to the exposure. He placed the flashes so the light sensors were just visible on the seats, and they were strong enough to get him f/8 at ISO 200 even off of the ceiling. At a 250th of a sec, that allowed him to drop the background off nicely.
If you don't have a compact, 5-section light stand hanging around, it's always nice when you can support your precious speedlights with a $200,000.00 light stand that cradles them in soft, butt-hugging leather.
Not a high-end studio shot by any means. But quick thinking to elevate a not-so-great photo at a live event into something that at least begins to do this car justice.
UPDATE: After a small outage earlier today, Dave Hill's website is back on track... __________
Nashville-to-L.A. alt-shooter Dave Hill has done a major refresh on his website, with lotsa new pics and a half dozen behind-the-scenes videos -- some of which are nice and long.
Hit the jump for two BTS's and links to the photographer whose post-processing volume control knob goes up to "eleven". __________
(RSS/email readers may have to click on the post title to get the movies, depending on your reader.)
Kudos to Dave for giving the BTS camera loose rein. He just lets them roll, catching a lot of useful info for people who like to watch over his shoulder.
In fact, just about the only thing he doesn't show you are final shots. But if you are interested, you can find those with a little quick dig through his portfolio, linked below.
The first vid (above) from a shoot of Martha MacIsaac for AP magazine, is a good 4-minute lesson on how to control and shape sunlight in the foreground without losing consistency with the background.
He silks it to smooth out the harshness and put the subject in shade, then builds it back up by firing a huge octa through the silk. The light mimics the natural light in direction, but the quality is much better. He also can now totally control the relative light levels between the subject and the background, as her ambient is below that of the buildings in back.
Add a right-back rim and his ever-present ring/fill (which Dave recently had surgically attached to his left hand) and you are good to go.
The "Adventure Girl" BTS is a magnum opus, clocking in at 11:24 mins. It's worth a watch, however, as you get several shoots and a lot of non-lighting stuff (like, when shoveling dirt on your subjects, be sure to tell them to close their eyes and their mouths...)
He uses a lot of VAL'd lights in this one, with the idea being that you do whatever you need to do to get the light wherever it needs to be.
These vids both serve in HD, so click over to that format if you are running them full screen.
Big ups to Dave for all of the rich content on the new site. Be sure to check out his new portfolio to look for finals from the above. And you can watch several more videos, here.More>>
UPDATE(S): Added picture link to the haggis. Think twice before clicking. Also, for those of you who follow Strobist on Twitter, I will be dropping in more food photography resources there. __________
The second Boot Camp II assignment will be easier than the headshot assignment, logistically. But calorically speaking, it will be far more dangerous.
And since you will not have to wrangle a model for this shoot (not a living one, at least) we are going to up the difficulty level by tightening up the deadline a bit.
Hit the jump for the details -- and some internal and external resources to help you out. __________
A Little Belt Tightening
It's probably safe to say that many of us are eating out less often than we were at this time last year. But that is not the kind of belt tightening of which I am speaking.
For me, it is not so much the belt itself that is getting smaller, but rather that the job the belt has to do has gotten larger. Me and food, we were made for each other. And we have had an especially close relationship over the last six months or so, when I have been on the road more than off. So this summer I am practicing a little girth control.
Which is why I am already questioning the wisdom of the second BCII assignment -- to photograph a gastronomic subject so well that it will cause me to go off the wagon.
The vast majority of you are using small lights, and they are especially well-suited for this kind of an assignment. In fact, as we showed last week, you can create very elegant light for food with one bare speedlight and some household paper products.
But don't settle on a thrown-together quickie of some tomatoes -- those were just done as a convenient example to work with the light. For this assignment, you should be looking to create a mood -- to make a photo that would look at home on the cover of a high-end food magazine.
Complicate Things at Your Own Peril
The trick, of course, if to balance the mood-setting stuff with what is probably the most important axiom in food photography: Keep it Simple, Stupid.
Before you even choose what you are going to shoot, spend some time looking at a lot of examples of food photography and see what you like. It's not like there isn't a lot of inspiration out there, so your first stop will probably be Google.
Don't try to shoot a whole turkey, or a crown roast or anything like that unless you are insane. You'll do yourself a big favor by aiming for something you can pull off with style and simplicity.
Lighting-wise, whether you use an umbrella, a soft box or a DIY "lunch box," you will want to at least consider lighting your food from the top/back. It creates depth and texture, and gets you a long way toward a nice photo with little risk. Not that that style is required, of course, but many people who have not shot food before will make the mistake of assuming you would light it from the same angle you'd light a portrait.
Also, be sure to be in control of your shadow detail. Not that it has to be flat -- and there is no rule that there has to be any shadow detail, to be honest. But you want to be in control of it. The easiest way will be through the use of small reflectors.
Again, the scale of the subject works for you here. They can be folded sheets of paper, aluminum foil, whatever. If you are from the UK, maybe the mere act of standing near your subject will suffice. (I can say that, because I wear shorts all summer and am still pasty on Labor Day...)
Food for Thought
I did promise an opportunity to do good with each assignment, and this one is no different. The following is not a requirement for the assignment, but rather a chance for your effort not to go to waste -- even if it does end up going to waist.
The fact that you are probably eating out less frequently probably means that some local restauranteurs in your area are feeling the pinch, too. So, you may wish to double up on this assignment by shooting your favorite dish at a small, independent restaurant.
The owner probably does not have the excess cash flow to be funding food shoots these days, and you might be able to be of help. Sometimes all a restaurant website needs is one, killer food shot. That could be you.
What's in it for you, other than an excuse to go out to eat? Well, I am thinking that food is gonna styled pretty well when it leaves the kitchen. Probably better that you would have done it. And no stylist's bill to deal with, either.
A little advice -- call first and let them know what you are up to. Try to sked it in the middle of the afternoon, when you won't interfere with meal rush time and will have your pick of tables to shoot at. We used to shoot all of our restaurant reviews at The Sun in the 2:30-3:30pm neighborhood.
If you explain what you are doing (and why) and offer to share your photos with them, you will probably find yourself in a very collaborative situation -- with a nice environment in which to shoot. Especially of you are a regular there who genuinely wants to make an image of some value for the restaurant.
I am starting to feel like we are putting Roberto's kids through college, as often as we eat at our favorite Italian place. And that is exactly where I would head if I were doing this assignment.
Again, the restaurant tack is not required. But it could solve some problems for you very symbiotically. From experience, I would suggest that the chef keep things very simple, as their first instinct is to throw in every visual thing but the kitchen sink. Bring some examples of food photography that you really like (it will probably be simple and sparse) and show it to them as an example.
Home-Grown is Okay, Too
You are more then welcome -- especially you foodies -- to do it all in-house, so to speak. No brownie points or demerits either way.
And for clarity's sake, let's make this one pretty broad. If it is food, or drink, it's eligible. Some of you international types might even take this as a point of pride, featuring something that is a special delicacy in your country.
But whatever you do, keep it simple. Consider the photographic shelf life of your food. Grilled and roasted items are especially hard -- typically significantly undercooked and sculpted with char-marks by using a blow torch. Don't make it harder than it has to be.
Non-frozen desserts are pretty stable, for example. Don't make things harder on yourself than they have to be. Simple comfort foods can be great subjects.
Resources Abound
A quick Google of "food photography" brings up lots of useful stuff:
Those were right off of the front page of Google results, so there is no shortage of information if you are willing to look.
Of course, photographers are visual people. So sometimes it actually helps to watch a seasoned professional at work:
(Lest you take yourself too seriously.)
How to Enter
As with the first assignment, you enter the photo through Flickr, by placing it in the Strobist Flickr Group pool, and by tagging it thusly:
SBC2ASSIGN2
If you need technical help on the Flickr stuff, try this thread. Please read the thread before asking any questions, lest someone reply that "your father smelled of elderberry" (or words to that effect.)
(UPDATE: They have already started in with the general craziness, so you can skip to the more relevant stuff by jumping to this point if you like.)
If you are successful, your photos should appear in this search within a few minutes. Please, only submit one entry. As we are hoping to create an inclusive slideshow, please do not tag photos which are not appropriate to this assignment with the SBC2ASSIGN2 tag.
For the same reason, please do not turn in any photos which are NSFW.
In fact, the more I look at this Cheeto shot, the more inappropriate it is starting to look. But maybe that's just me. As we noted yesterday, breaking these rules will get (at least) your photo removed from the Strobist pool, and thus, this assignment. Thanks much.
Please note that your photo must be tagged correctly and in the Strobist group pool to show up in the search.
And please, this is a lighting blog. So even tho you obviously can do a lot of amazing food photography with natural light, use flash for this one. You are free to combine it with ambient, tho. And, as always, put your lighting info in the caption of the photo.
If you want to ask questions, or otherwise discuss this assignment, you can do so in this thread.
And you can check out some of the other bloggers following along, here.
And the Winner Is ...
One winner will be chosen from qualified entries. That person will receive the following, shipped anywhere:
• One Strobist Lighting Seminar 8-DVD boxed set (more info)
• One set of Strobist Trade Secret Cards (more info)
and, I am very excited to say that our external prize this week is:
Not coincidentally, the latter is something I have found to be pretty darn useful for small object photography, including food shoots. (Think awesome, shadowless fill to smooth out your edgy, sculpted light from other sources...)
Don't Overcook It
Since this shot is the simplest of the four (deceptively so, some might say) the deadline for completion will be end of day, your local time, on Saturday, July 11th.
You procrastinators will want to make sure you get started by about dinnertime on that date...
And, Just to Keep Things Honest
While it is very possible that you may have some beautiful, pre-existing food shots in your portfolio, we are not interested in those. So just to make sure we get the one you shot after this assignment was released, the winner will have to produce a shot very similar to the winning entry -- with two coins somewhere in the foreground of the shot.
So, don't forget to make that additional 2-coins verification shot -- just in case you win... __________
Full, "On-Assignment" posts for the food shots featured above can be found at:
Do you dabble in stock photography? Maybe, say, a little microstock photography?
If you do, this is the guy you are up against.
To say Yuri Arcurs has the game figured out would be a bit of an understatement. He sells nearly 2,000 images a day, 24/7/365.
Hit the jump for a video tour of his insane, made-for-micro studio, and a look at his lighting techniques. __________
Made for Micro
I have to admit that when I first started watching this I thought it was one of those parody videos. But then I realized that Yuri (a nom de photo used by Jacob Wackerhausen) has basically beaten the microstock equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru by creating an entire facility based around the needs of microstock.
Insanity? Genius? Maybe a little bit of both:
(If you are reading this via email or RSS, you may have to click on the post title to see the vids.)
This being a lighting blog we are not gonna let you out the door without at least a little lighting tute. Yuri has everything down to a science, and his lighting reflects a quest for repeatable, predictable quality -- designed to make those warm, happy photos that make a microstock purchaser dig deep down into the couch cushions and cough up 40 cents to seal the deal. Over and over again.
(The lighting info starts at the 2:56 mark.)
You can see more about Yuri at his website, and you can also follow him on Twitter. __________
[UPDATE, via Anders C., in the comments:]
For those who wonder about his studio: Back in January a Danish photography magazine arranged an interview with Yuri in his daylight studio (as opposed to his business office).
After driving around for a while the journalist had to call Yuri and tell him that he simply couldn't find the studio in the area where it was supposed to be - all he could find was a lot of very large, industrial greenhouses outside the city. After a few seconds with Yuri on the phone, one of these large greenhouses started flashing!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you create a bloody large daylight studio: An industrial greenhouse combined with loads and loads of white, semi-translucent material.
I have now been through the 700+ photos that were submitted for SCBII's first assignment enough times to be thoroughly sick of every single photo in the pile.
Kidding.
They are great. But I did go through them a lot.
A few standouts, some notes and a lucky winner -- inside. __________
First of all, it was neat to see so many people go to the effort to talk someone into letting you photograph them. I know this was not easy for many of you, and I hope it ended up being a growth experience. It was also great to see so many of your faces, and I will admit to that being an ulterior motive of the second portion of the assignment.
Second, I was impressed with the sheer number of photos that would have looked right at home in A-list magazines -- including more than a few potential covers. Bearing in mind that most of the readers of this site are amateurs, that rocks.
Now the hard part -- picking a winner. It is, of course, subjective. And any of at least a hundred photos in the stack could just as easily been featured here today. I had time to leave some notes on a few pictures -- although not much, as we are both finishing up moving and closing on the old house this week. (Kinda crazy around here.)
That said, I pulled up some entries to talk about and use as examples. I hope you will indulge how personal (and, thus, seemingly arbitrary) picture editing can be. The important thing is that so many of you jumped right into the deep end.
And, hopefully, benefitted from the experience.
Some of the photos below are dual-pic composites, others have the photographer's headshot in a nearby frame in their Flickr stream.
As always, click on the pic to see it bigger and see who shot it. And please take a moment to leave a note under your fave.
Enough yapping. On with the photos, and the reasons they stood out to me. __________
Because looked like it jumped off of the pages of WIRED Magazine.
Because of the DIY biz-card gobo on the key.
Because of the in-focus background that could have been a weird distraction, but instead carried the shadows from the low-fill in a cool way.
Because the photog shot his recently unemployed dad, which probably injected a fun, purposeful shooting session / family activity into a stressful period.
Because of the impish expression on the subject's (top) face.
Because of the use of graphic lines and color.
Because of the inclusion of background context while still keeping a headshot framing. The photo has layers of of interest.
Because of the confidence exuded by the subject -- he looks like he is ready to take on the world.
Because of the inclusion of vocation-specific background, but not in a way that hammers you over the head.
Because the lighting is simple, elegant and does not call attention to itself.
Because the subject exudes professionalism and warmth -- her expression makes her look like someone you would want to work with.
Because the composition -- including contextual background -- is still tight enough to work as a Facebook and/or LinkedIn avatar and still be readable. The photo can be used in a variety of ways.
Because of the strong graphic quality.
Because of the quirky expression.
Because of the creative use of a light modifier as a quickie background.
Because of how the high-key, airy exposure brings the whole picture together.
Because he placed the subject on a background that many people miss as they are walking around on their background looking for a background.
Because of the way the expression, hair, grass and everything work together.
Because of the composition that makes the flower in the ground look as if it is in her hair.
Because the shooting angle allowed the photog to use an umbrella as key and the cloudy, overhead fill as a huge, on-axis softbox.
Because of the intensity.
Because of the tight crop, which adds to the above.
Because of the keyboard reflection being pulled off very well in the curved glasses. Not novel, but done very well.
Because of how the B&W conversion added to the simplicity of the photo.
Because the subject (left) oozes cool.
Because of how well the specular highlights were handled with the glasses.
Because of the color palette and tonal range. The internal separation is great -- the face works perfectly against the background.
Because how many sons can pull off a photo of their dad that "oozes cool" on Father's Day?
Because of the expression and connection in the subject (left).
Because of the lighting.
Because the background, which at first seemed too busy, is actually composed of the DIY crafts the subject makes.
Because of the diagonal crop to the headshot.
Because of the well-executed profile lighting. (Lighting from a little behind the subject, as here, is a better bet than straight-on profile light.)
Because of the expression and moment.
Because of the photographer seeing the design on the background and using it to add a dynamic element in what could have been a static photo.
Because of the composition of the subject (left) and how well it works with the lighting.
Because of the distillation of the photo that happens with the conversion to B&W.
Because of the connection between the subject and the viewer -- and how well the two brothers' photos go together. Probably not a bad thing to pull together a few days before Father's Day.
Because most brothers I knew at this age could not stop beating each other up long enough to pull of two photos like this. __________
So, there are a few sweet examples in a huge field of entries, many of which could have just as easily been on this page.
To see a slideshow of all of the entries, settle into a very comfortable chair, grab some caffeine and click here.
Boot Camp II Assignment #1 yielded over over seven hundred entries, which I have thus far winnowed down to a baker's dozen. It is getting very difficult to edit them any further.
At this point, I have to look hard to find reasons to knock photos out. I just dropped two photos for no other reason than they are not really headshots. But they were both so beautiful I wanted to stick them up on the site and show them off -- and help me procrastinate a little longer in picking a winner.
One of them would look right at home in the NYT Sunday Mag, the other is an art photo mag cover waiting to happen.
Too loose to win, too good to throw away -- after the jump. __________
Beautiful Look in Horrible Light
Jerome Love's photo of "Thulani," a youth program director in Soweto, South Africa is a wonderful example of how bad midday light can be finessed with small flashes. (Click the pic for bigger.)
If you look at the area in the right of the frame, you can see what ambient Jerome was dealing with. So he worked the shadow side of a building to build his light in the shade. He cheated the building a little to use the sun as a rim. This added a nice layer of texture to the portrait.
He used two bare SB-28s. The lack of a mod helps in the light output department. The key was high camera right, at 1/4 power, zoomed to 85mm throw. The fill was on the ground in front (on the vertical lens axis) and was set to 1/8.
Note that the key was upper camera right -- same side as the rim. This little departure from convention always adds a different feel to a lit portrait.
Bad ambient light: Free. Two SB-28s: About $200.00. Owning midday with two small flashes: Priceless.
I Can't Stop Looking at This One
Toni.R's timeless portrait of her 14-year-old daughter works even before the addition of the seagull, which is posed so perfectly it looks like a suspended movie prop.
The lighting is simple -- a bare SB-26, dialed way down, from camera left. It is working against the sun, which comes from camera right. (Check out the gull for ambient-only light.) Toni's light modifier -- a Tupperware bowl -- was rendered inoperative when it was accidently mistaken for the coleslaw dish.
I'll bet that never happens to Annie. __________
These both had beautiful light, interesting composition and an atypical look. But beyond that there was a strong connection between the subject and the viewer in each portrait.
While both of these photos were technically not headshots, they get the highest compliment I can give a photo -- that I really wish I had taken them.More>>
Shooting vittles can be as complex as you want to make it. But it is pretty easy to get elegant, well-lit food photographs with almost no money out of pocket.
Hit the jump for a gastronomic update on a Strobist cheapskate classic. __________
Of the 1,000+ posts on Strobist at this writing, one of the most popular is the $10 Macro Studio -- a cardboard box hack that makes it almost impossible to take a bad shot of a small object.
With a little alteration, that same concept can be used to create classic food photography lighting with a light source as simple as a desk lamp. Of course, a speedlight will work great, too...
Thinking Outside of the Box
The classic direction for lighting food is from the top/back. In typical presentation, food has more width and depth than it does height. So the top/back is a logical position from which light can rake across the food to reveal texture and form.
For this walk-through I raided the fridge for some fresh tomatoes. Not complex, but nice and 3-d for illustrative purposes. Here they are with a bare light hitting them from the classic, top/back position.
This hard light almost makes the 'maters look as if they are made of wood and painted glossy red. You can do a lot to manipulate the visual perception of surface quality with different lighting techniques.
Here is the same shot with a wider lens. The light source is a bare SB-800, but it could just as easily be a desk lamp.
You could easily soften that light with an umbrella if you have one. But if your food or setting is specular, those ribs (Mmm-hmm-hmm-hmm... ribs...) are gonna give you problems.
This is one of those instances where a soft box is much better than a shoot-through. But there is no need to shell out for one if you are not shooting this kind of stuff all of the time.
Instead, you can hack a large cardboard box (quite literally) and essentially turn the soft box inside out.
So, here is the basic box -- use a big one -- cut up and placed back together to give you a sense of where the cuts are. The more of an angle you put on that diagonal cut, the more your light will come from the back. I did this one kinda middle-of-the-road, but you might want to crank it up a notch or two.
And if you use a razor knife like I did, please be careful. Or at least bookmark this page before you start. Just sayin'.
(LIGHTING GEEK NOTE: I had fun doing a quickie shot of the cut-up cardboard box. Click it to see bigger, with notes on the locations of the four flashes involved ...)
That big open square on the top is gonna get some diffusion material, so the window will do its job and improve your harsh light source. Tracing paper is ideal, but tissue paper (big, like from a gift) works great. Stretch it smooth. Wax paper will do in a pinch, too.
I scrounged a little Rosco Tuff Frost, which is tough (duh) and uniform, not to mention color-neutral. That last part is important, if you are using some type of mystery diffusor.
Also, if you are using this with a desk lamp, use an incandescent bulb (no CFLs) and set your camera's white balance to tungsten. Everything will work fine.
Here is the part you keep, and by now it should be getting pretty self explanatory as to how to use it to soften that bare flash or desk lamp. If you are more of a food blogger than a photographer, you can do this all with continuous light and a tripod -- just crank that aperture wayyy down for lots of depth of field.
(Not that this is a foodie blog, but you regulars would be surprised at who passes through here while learning to shoot stuff for their site.)
Okay, so lets stick our box in between the light and the subject and see what happens. Right away, the tomatoes look way better. I am using a sheet of black plexi as a background, to get a clean reflection of the new, slicker light source. (The umbrella would suck for this background, because of the ribs' reflection.)
Here is a pullback, which actually is a pretty cool composition. But looking at this (and the photo just above) our next problem is that the bottoms of the tomatoes are too dark. This is because all of the light is coming from the back/top.
That's an easy fix, and we do not need another light, either. We can get double-duty out of our nice main light by adding a reflector:
Since this is a no-wallet Monday, let's fix this with a folded sheet of printer paper (or, if you are over 50, typing paper...) Just fold it and stand it in front of the tomatoes -- maybe to one side, as shown. (You could stick it right in front, too for a different look.)
As you can now see, that one sheet of paper makes a huge difference.
By default, it will not overpower the main light source, either. It's a reflector, and cannot give out more light than it is receiving.
So, let's try another reflector on the other side. It may be that the second reflected light source ends up being too much. But at two cents a pop, go for it and see what happens.
Here it is close-up, which is the same photo at the top of the post. Maybe you like the extra detail, or maybe the second highlight turns you off. That's up to you -- add salt to taste.
Here is a pullback with two reflectors for clarity's sake. Depending on the topography of what you are shooting, these reflectors do not need to be big, or symmetrical -- or even white. You can illuminate those shadows exactly the way you want by placing as many reflectors -- large and/or small -- wherever you want.
Need more light? Try aluminum foil reflectors. That's what I used for this cake. Crinkle it up, then straighten it back out for a nice, smooth, pebbled reflector surface. You can choose the shiny or matte surface, too, for different looks.
Here it is, from the side angle.
Again, that SB-800 flash could easily be a desk or floor lamp. And the grey backdrop was just to hide the white wall reflection in the initial shot. Once you get the diffusor panel up, that problem solves itself. __________
Fast Food
So, there you go -- an easy entré into food photography. If this kind of thing floats your boat, you might want to consider a medium-sized soft box, which will of course make this kind of light very easy. And it travels well, too.
If you're a food blogger and you decide to play with it, link in and spread the luv -- and post a comment so we can see what a hotshot food photographer you are now...More>>
I am working on several projects this summer, the most enjoyable of which being a series of portraits for the Howard County Arts Council.
I photographed Kassi, a dancer, for this series and got a chance to play with one of the two-light techniques we talked about earlier. This was also the first chance I got to use a new boom setup that is a little heavier duty than the one featured earlier this week.
More, inside. __________
Riaz Redux
I normally like to play around with new lighting styles before trying them out on an assignment. In this case, I used the small-flash lighting class in Dubai earlier this year as the guinea pig for this shoot. You might recognize the top photo as being lit similarly to that of Riaz, the first example in the two-light portrait series.
There are a couple of differences, but the grid key / umbrella fill was a common denominator for both. In shooting Riaz, I had the umbrella squished right up under the lens. With Kassi, I put the umbrella on the floor with a flash mounted to it but with no stand.
I used an umbrella swivel adapter to attach an SB-800, and stuck the assembly on the ground. The umbrella rests at about the correct angle for uplighting a low-to-the-ground subject by itself.
Ratios were done without a meter and without regard to any absolute settings, as usual. I positioned the fill light first and altered my flash power and/or aperture until I saw a nice baseline exposure for the frame.
Generally, I like to get it to a full exposure, and then drop my power level on the flash or close down the aperture until I get a nice looking floor to the fill light. The idea is to use the fill as a sort of safety net, to lift the shadows that will be formed by the key light, lest they get too dark and contrasty. If you are coming from off axis with the fill, you'll also introduce a second angle to the overall light.
I really liked the look of the low-in fill, as it gave its own shape to the subject -- much more so that would an on-axis fill. But as much as I liked the shape of the fill, I was going back and forth on the shadow that it threw over Kassi's head and shoulders.
In the end, I wanted the direction of the light, but not the shadow. So I toned the latter way down in post. There is definitely a procedural learning curve for me, even two full years after leaving the tightly controlled Photoshop environment of The Sun.
I have to remember to loosen up, as my default is typically to "do it the newspaper way." But then I remember if I were personally doing everything the newspaper way today, I would be drowning in debt and arbitrarily lopping off perfectly good body parts in a misguided attempt to get a "good return on investment."
Oh well. Back to the light.
The key, as you can see, is a gridded SB-800. We have already locked in the fill level and shooting aperture, so the key level is set by altering the flash's power level. (We can also move the flash closer or further away, but that would change the look of the light.)
Unlike the grid on Riaz, I wanted to catch Kassi's face and body with the key but mostly miss the wall on the leading edge. This way I could control the tone in the white wall, even though she was leaning against it. To do that, I didn't aim the grid at her face, but rather out in front of her face a little bit. So her face is nearer to the edge of the beam than in the center of it.
A grid on a speedlight is a very small light source and thus produces very hard shadows at this distance. But I know they won't fall too far off of the table because I built my fill light first. The combination is soft vs. hard, high vs. low and tight light vs. everywhere light brings a lot of different contrast layers into play. If I wanted, I could have used a 1/2 CTB on the fill and a 1/2 CTO on the key to add a neat color contrast in there, too.
A Bigger Boom
For another look, we wanted to do Kassi dancing. She is very athletic, and incorporates that into her routines. So we set up to light a photo of her leaping.
I knew she would be looking back over her shoulder at me, and wanted to light her face from a flattering angle. To do that, you have to find the position of her face and then get the light wherever it need to be to hit that angle.
In Kassi's case, to three-quarter light her, we'd have to be above, behind and camera-right of her face when she looked over her shoulder. So we were going to need to get the key up pretty high -- especially considering we'd be going through an umbrella, too.
For that I used a bigger, heavier-duty boom than the Interfit model we talked about earlier this week. I used a Paul Buff counter-weighted boom arm attachment on a 13-foot light stand. I got this to be able to get my bigger flash heads up high. And while it is not super heavy duty, it is sufficient for that kind of work.
You buy it in two pieces -- the stand and the boom arm. The stand is a heavy-duty, 13-foot stand, which is also a great thing to have kicking around when you need it. The boom assembly includes a two-section extension pole, a multi-angle clamp and comes with an 11-pound, slide-able counterweight. They total up to $160.
Needless to say, this is rock solid for a speedlight, and I also have been happy with it in a supporting role for both my SB's and my WL's.
So, here's the setup. The key light is above/behind/camera right, through an umbrella. There is a back/separation light (an SB-800) hiding way back at camera right on a compact, 5-section stand.
The key light location was trial and error, done as Kassi worked through a few practice leaps. In the end, it was a perfectly logical location, given the position of her face. Kassi's leap put her about two feet in front of, and to camera left, of the umbrella.
The fill was a bigger problem, as we could not just open the shutter to let if build up the ambient. By balancing that way, we would have lost the shutter needed to freeze the leap. So it would all have to come from flash.
It had to be soft, come from close to on-axis and reach back to light the back wall, too. So I needed a physically big light source, coming from the camera's direction and pretty far back. Fortunately, our room was a neutral, light color, so the wall 15 feet or so behind me became my modifier.
I fired a WL 600 into that wall, building a nice, soft, directionless fill that would be far enough back to reach back to the background wall without losing too much oomph. My shooting position was about three feet in front of the light.
If you are in a neutral room, always consider your walls as possible huge bounce surfaces that you can employ as everything from a soft key to a humongous soft ring-like fill. But you'll need some power if you are going to use it over a large area.
This is one of many examples of a way in which you can use a monobloc with smaller flashes. Ironically, the SB is my key and the WL 600 is the fill. This doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you consider how much more efficient a close-in, umbrella'd light is than another light bounced way back off of a wall and having to carry another 30-40 feet after that.
Having a big light in your back allows you wallpaper fill light over a large area while accenting with SB's.
In case you were wondering, that is Kassi's headshot as an example in the first boot camp assignment, too. Hopefully, your version is going well as we chug inexorably toward the due date . . .
And, Speaking of Photoshop
This is apropos of almost nothing, other than it is the audible equivalent of Photoshopping one person's head onto another person's body. But as I write this post, I am listening to an absolutely fantastic CD -- Ray Sings, Basie Swings, featuring Ray Charles and the (post-Basie) Count Basie Orchestra.
What is amazing about it, technically, is that the two never actually performed together. But they were digitally combined to produce the concert that never was. Ray Charles' contribution was from 1973 -- prime time for him -- and the Basie Orchestra's was from 2006.
It is absolutely kickass. Musically, technically, recording quality -- everything. I am listening to it, cranked way up, in the family room of our new house.
We just moved in yesterday, and I don't have internet here yet as I write this. But the kids are already meeting new friends on the street, and there is enough furniture in place to where it is already starting to feel like home. __________
I'm in the process of setting up a studio in a new space. We were trying to pick paint colors, and the rest of the building has a black ceiling.
The photo studio, I think, should obviously have white walls instead of some crazy color. But then we were questioning the ceiling color -- should it be white, or black? (It is a very small room.)
Which would you do? If it sounds arbitrary, give it a little thought before making the jump. __________
Meredith, if you think about it, you probably answered your own question when you brought up the room size. The classic color for a studio ceiling is black, since that controls unwanted reflections better than any other color.
You can always put a light up there if you want top light. But you certainly won't want it all of the time, and that is what you'll get to a large degree when working in a "very small room."
Small rooms are the most difficult for controlling stray light bounce, so the smaller your studio is, the darker you will probably want to paint the surfaces. If you can't escape light walls, you want to create some "negative fill" reflectors out of a flat black surface of some kinds.
Bonus points: Paint your reflectors white on one side and black on the other, and you'll have it both ways. But the main point is that you want to be able to control the bounced light.
And dark surfaces -- including the ceiling -- will help you do that.More>>
For Over-the-Top Lighting Without an Over-the-Top Budget
Pictured above is Joe McNally's assistant Drew Gurian acting as a voice-activated boom during a recent desert shoot (detailed here).
While this boom is perfectly serviceable, one cannot always find a Drew hanging around in the desert when top light is needed. For the Drewless, an excellent and inexpensive speedlight boom solution, inside. __________
The third cool thing I came across in Paso Robles (here is one and two) was a very slick little boom/stand photographer Sean Rolsen brought along.
It is designed as a flex-reflector holder (it even comes with the clamps) but it does double duty as a sweet little speedlight boom.
It is the Interfit Combi-Boom Stand, and the little joint where the stand turns into a boom is where the magic happens. The boom arm actually collapses into the main tubes of the stand itself -- you can even continue the boom arm straight up for extra height if you want.
But if you pull it all the way out, it rotates. Then you slide it back into its little swivel clamp and you have a speedlight boom. It does not come with a counterweight, so this thing collapses nice and thin. But the opposite end of the boom has a hole where you can hook an improvised weight up to do the trick. A camera bag or something should fit the bill nicely.
The combination pic below shows a detail of the boom joint, and how it operates. Looking at Sean's, it seemed just about perfect for lightweight speedlight use. But I would not consider it heavy duty by a long shot -- and I wouldn't put a lot of unnecessary torque on the clamp, either.
(If you have it set up right, with your scrounged counterweight end extended enough to balance your flash reasonably well, there would be no reason to over torque it anyway.)
There is no way you are gonna hang an AlienBee on this thing. A speedlight is about as far as it is gonna go. And it is gangly enough to not want to stick an umbrella up there in any wind at all. But for top light using speedlights in a nice, small package, it is hard to beat -- and an umbrella would be fine indoors.
The elbow mechanism is pure genius, and the folks at Interfit are to be congratulated for that. (Those are the same guys who just debuted the "Strobies".) Also of interest is the price -- under $100.00. For lightweight, occasional boom use (and a stand when you do not need the boom) it appears to be a great solution. __________
A number of people have pointed me to Dustin Diaz's 365 Project. And while this is certainly not the first of its kind to come down the pike, Dustin has inserted a couple of twists that make his project right up our alley.
Get your One-A-Day shot, inside.
__________
Light and Steady
First of all, Dustin is using much of his photo marathon to explore what he can do with flash. And while that sounds all laudable and romantic and stuff, I can tell you from experience that there is nothing like a long-term project to expose your "camera expertise" as nothing more than a bag of tricks -- and a shallow bag of tricks at that.
At least that's been my experience when doing long-term projects. Which is exactly why you do them, of course -- to grow, practice, discover your limits and then expand them out of sheer necessity.
But Dustin has added another Strobist-friendly aspect to his daily grind: Lighting diagrams for many of his photos. That's right, not only is he shooting a lit photo a day, but he is also spelling out his techniques for anyone following along.
If Only I Had that Kind of Time...
So, what kind of loser has enough free time on his hands to light, shoot, diagram and publish to the web non-stop? (aside from the obvious, of course.)
Well, if you are a Gmail user, you have Dustin to partially thank for it. Dustin was an engineer on that team at Google. As for myself, I am not sure how that Gmail tech stuff works. But you can get a basic idea with this video.
Dustin worked at Yahoo before that, and recently moved over to Twitter. In fact, he announced his resignation from Google with a tweet. The guy's got flair, I'll give him that much.
But suffice to say, he is a plenty busy guy to be tackling a significant project like this. And if you are interested in trying a 365 yourself, I got a chance to shoot some Q's at him about his year-long journey thus far. So I'll just shut up and let him do the talking.
(As always, click on any of the pix to get to the Flickr page, which in turn will point you to his lighting diagrams.) __________
Dustin Diaz on the 365
Q: Talk a little about the framework for the project. Has this been harder than you expected, or has your lighting grown easier and more intuitive because of the repetitive nature of it?
Doing a "365 project" is of course, not uncommon among photographers. To give some brief history, I had already been taking pictures several months prior to even beginning the project. In regards to daily shooting, I have been a photographer for four years.
You know the old saying -- "you need a camera to take pictures". So I carried mine everywhere. However, moving into the 365, the point was not to see if I can push the shutter every 24 hours (that's easy) but rather to invoke the challenge of being a creative editor. Choosing just one image from a bunch is hard -- really hard. And then starting that process all over again the next day, well, that's just exhausting.
I have, however, found it easier over time in deciding what photo I want to take each day by simply focusing on single-themed photos. This is as opposed to going out and taking a variety of photos and then having to decide between having "too many" photos at the end of the night.
In regards to being "harder than I expected," it has been. But that's only because expectations continually change, and the level of expected quality grows and having an audience that gives constant feedback is terrifying! But once you have an audience, you can't stop. Or at least, I can't.
As far as "lighting" goes (since this is the Strobist blog, after all) it's a double-edged sword. It's easy to fall into the trap of taking the same photo using the same light settings, but in different locations. But part of the goal of the 365 is to try new things, make mistakes, and do things out of the ordinary.
For example I never thought I'd be running in the middle of traffic, leaving a tripoded camera in a windy suicide lane, clamping lights to people's garages, or paying homeless teenagers to trigger the shutter. But to quote a friend, it's like "taking crack, responsibly." Being a daily strobist is hard, yet addicting, but one must be responsible enough to put the gear down for a day, and then let your next idea wait another day.
Q: Speaking of that, has the project revealed the limitations of your bag of lighting tricks? Are hitting a wall, or are you growing as a result of those exposed boundaries?
Yes, there are limitations, but first, a quote from Michael Freeman from his book The Photographer's Eye:
"The important decisions in photography are those concerned with the image itself: the reasons for taking it, and the way it looks. The Technology, of course, is vital, but the best it can do is to help realize ideas and perception"
Thus, in one sense, to say one is only as good as their equipment is a bad outlook. I am, however, at a point in my photography career where I've set myself up to mostly "not worry" about gear. Between my wife Erin and I, we have six speedlights and six PocketWizards. Needless to say, I don't feel hard done by when it comes to lack of light. The only real limitation is my imagination (for lack of a cheesier expression). And no amount of gear is going to solve the problem of making a good photograph with meaning. So yes, this is difficult.
From an Engineers perspective, one would think there's only so many combinations of lighting setups before you're doing the same tricks over. And nobody wants to be a one-trick pony — at least I don't.
But to this point, there are only three things that have gotten easier:
1) leaving the house 2) setting up 3) tearing down
Therefore, the biggest stumbling block each day is the "what" and "where"-- and the occasional "how much time do I have before midnight," which has happened on several accounts.
Q: You famously swapped horses from Google to Twitter. At Google, there is a decent-sized community of photographers, and even a pretty tight group of guys into small-flash lighting. Is there a similar cadré at Twitter? If not, have you seen any interest from others due to your project?
Google is an Engineering company. They have a photography mailing list. Most of the subjects that popped into the list were related to pixel density, f/stops and lenses with an infrequent link to someone's personal photos requesting a critique.
None of these are bad things, as they represent the culture quite well. And as far as I remember, very few were into strobist photography. I had helped organically grow one small group within the Gmail team, and it became quite fun for a lot of us.
On the flipside of the coin, I am more interested in the art of photography. For example, learning the inverse square law was fun for a few days. But in the end, it's only a mean to an end. Taking photographs that actually evoke emotion is what I am after, and light plays a major factor into creating that feeling.
Nevertheless and to the point, Twitter is a much smaller company (in regards to employees). And there is no photography community. If anything, there is a strong coffee cadré, which I will happily embrace. The goal was to lead the Frontend Engineering team, not seek camera friends.
Q: What advice would you have to anyone considering a 365 project? I.e., in retrospect, would you deliberately choose a broad or narrow visual framework, and why?
For anyone crazy enough to do anything out of the ordinary for 365 days, you WILL get tired. But specifically for photographers, find inspiration in other places besides photo websites.
Watch an episode of LOST or Heroes, then perhaps go buy a comic book. (Hey, I'm not even into comics, but there is some good strobist inspiration in those things). Or better yet, just leave the house knowing you can't come back without taking at least ONE good photo that you're happy with.
And lastly, reflect often. Notice your own improvement and try to out-do yourself — not others. It does not take a 365 to do this. I mainly chose my custom 365 framework to bring forth challenges that were appropriate to what I wanted to get out of it. Therefore broad or narrow, whichever framework someone chooses, I believe self-challenges are always a great way to better oneself. __________
Oh, and Speaking of Twitter
Back at Strobist International HQ, we know we have been extremely neglectful of late in the Twitter department. It started off on it last summer, with more enthusiasm than long-term strategy. Then the upstream conversation quickly got to take up far too much time in the workday. It was kinda like trying to take a sip out of a fire hose.
Right now, it is still dormant. But I am finally off of my travel merry-go-round and trying to work out a system that will be sustainable. If you want to be onboard for whatever ends up happening, you can click to follow here.
The only thing I can promise is that, for a little while at least, it'll basically be the sound of crickets chirping (tweeting?) in the distance. But when I decide how to light it up again, you'll be the first to know. __________
I will be the first to admit that the iPhone is a great little device for photographers to carry around -- web, phone, portfolio, camera, etc. But they can bring with them a completely new set of dangers. You can be tempted to be shooting pictures when you probably should be concentrating on other things.
Regular readers of Chase Jarvis' blog already know this, but he was recently involved in a minor traffic incident while filming a promo for this Friday's talk at the Art Director's Club of Denver. It was even caught on tape:
As if that is not warning enough to be aware of your surroundings, now McNally is having attention-deficit-related problems, too: __________
A word to the wise is sufficient: Let's be careful out there, people.
I you are in Denver, head over to the ADCD this Friday. And if you are anywhere else, check out Joe's completely redesigned new website.
Just make sure you look both ways before crossing the street. __________
Creative Light has just debuted a full line of moderately priced lighting modifiers. Never heard of Creative Light? That's because they just launched the company, too.
