Heatwave in the country ~ pictures and techniques.
June 2nd, 2009
After the persistent rain of last Wednesday it was a different story at the same locations for this weeks big flash in the country workshop. I once again took the Phase One camera for a spin and here are the pictures.
Not a cloud in the sky gave us a new set of problems. We were shooting at the limits of the medium format system. ISO 100, f/22 and 1/125th second. Steve, my assistant for the day is seen here rigging my Broncolor strip lite softbox.
Framing for editorial to leave space at the top and on the right. The softbox lighting gives this picture some polish. A small swing of Stinas shoulders would have avoided the sunlight glancing down her front. I still like this shot though.
I love the blue, yellow, green combination of this shot. I set out the colour schemes of all the days shots at the morning meeting. There is nothing quite like planning ahead if you want success.
Stina was up for a challenge. Steve was very willing to give her a bunk up. Lit with a single Wafer 140 soft box and a Broncolor Mobil kit.
Green - lots of it was the plan here. Sunlight used as a kick light and a soft key supplied by the Broncolor kit was what I wanted here. I think it is important to keep the lighting simple on shots like this.
Ringflash at power 8 was the order of the day for this shot.
Red, blue and a hint of green have all the primary bases covered.
The lighting rig for the shot above is simple enough.
One of the key elements of a shooting workshop like this is for me to teach the delegates how to compose a picture. Constructing a shot from scratch using basic building blocks and a lighting kit is harder than it looks. We all had a great day and I had put the Phase One 654AF camera through it’s paces too. At €30,000 it was quite a valuable bit of kit.
Please feel free to ask questions and give me feedback on these shots. There are no more Big Flash in the Country workshops scheduled at the moment but the last 2 workshops were filmed so who knows they may feature on a new DVD production.
7 Comments Add your own
1. Darren | June 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 am
No sign of the leaf shutter lenses for the PhaseOne/Mamiya system yet then? I guess that would really help in conditions like these (flash sync at any speed).
D
2. David Lowerson | June 3rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
Morning Damien,
I hope your well.
Thanks once again for letting us photographers see the techniques you employ and for giving us fresh ideas for our own projects.
Would it be possible for you to show the pictures in the normal way and possibly have a link showing the position of the lights (as above) with some form of description? I sometimes struggle to see on your images what equipment was used and the positioning of the light.
Thanks as always.
Dave
3. damien | June 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
Hi Darren,
Leaf shutter lenses for the 645AF are on their way. Expect an announcement shortly. I’ll be writing up my full review and posting it online soon.
4. damien | June 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 am
Hi David, I have some good news, I have had the shoot sessions recorded on video and a downloadable movie is in the process of being made. Video is far better at showing not just where the lights ended up but also the strategies and design stages of the shots too. We are entering our filming stage of the season with about 10 days of recording happening over the next couple of months.
Regards, Damien.
5. Darren | June 3rd, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I’ll look forward to hearing about the leaf shutter lenses. I currently use a Mamiya 645 AFDII for shooting film and would really like to be able to sync at higher speeds.
6. Craig Fenemor | June 9th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Hi Damien,
Greetings from wintery Australia. I’ve been looking at a Broncolor kit over here and I’m wondering how much use you put it to when you were doing lots of weddings? I tend to like shooting into the sun with flash on brollys etc to give some magazine style shots (and to make my work different from others in town) and through using your techniques I can JUST get by with the 580’s on bright days, I’m thinking that the Broncolor would just open up more possibilities. Your thoughts?
7. damien | June 27th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Hi Craig,
I take my Broncolor Mobil to every wedding. I use it for groups if it is overcast. I like to add my own sun
I also like to use it for interior groups.
I’ve found 580s way too weak to be using them with brollies in sunlight except for tight head shots. The Bron is about 20x the power of the 580 EX2 and brollies are usable in bright light. The difference is 4 stops or 4 times the working distance. So if you can get away with a Speedlight at 2m from the subject you could use the Bron at 8m from the subject.
I hope this helps.
Damien.
Leave a Comment
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed