It is time to flex the muscles of the Nikon Creative Lighting system and go beyond the basics. With this in mind Tuesdays delegate was up for the challenge and between us we really started to rock the boat. A few familiar locations plus my new shoot zone.
A quick shift of Kelvin and a full Honl CTO gel in my Easybox Hotshoe was just the trick to make the most of this location.
One of our first locations was outside a bank. You can see where the money went at this branch. A slash of flash brought the black horse to life.
We then opted to shoot the location from the Speedlight Mastery DVD where I did a shot of Ben. This time though we went for a more abstract approach. (All shot in camera)
Developers in Bristol have been hard at work putting in new bridges to link the empty office blocks. A single SB900 did the trick here.
Then it was on to my secret location for a set of striking portraits of Becca our model.
Becca was brilliant all day. She put up with the decor and our quest for excellence. I lit this with an SB900 in an Ezybox and another SB900 on a stand with a blue gel.
A bit of flare - perhaps a bit too much but I like the picture.
I put a bit of the ambient light in the background of this frame to add depth.
And here's a close up. I can't resist rivets. Becca is great too.
Here is the first of many shots to be taken here by me over the next few months. Just one Speedlight triggered with a Pocket Wizard Plus 2 system through 900mm of brickwork.
Marko has done a great job today of knocking these pictures into shape while I’ve been shooting on location in another area of Bristol. He is available to work on your shots too. Here are some details of our digital picture editing service.
If you want to join me on a 1:1 shooting day or would like to shoot in these locations get in touch with Blaise.
Please feel free to comment on these pictures or ask questions about the techniques used to capture them.
Thanks for sharing all of your photographs and information! It really is inspiring stuff! That first photo is beyond amazing! I’d like to come on one of your courses one day.
Tobiah,
Thank you for your kind words. I’ll keep posting, sharing and writing if it is appreciated by people like you. It was great to see you at the CTD workshop in Manchester too.
Cheers, Damien.
Yes I have a set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers that came as a bundle with my Ranger kit. They work well, the range is all I need it to be. The principal benefit of them compared with a PW is that you can adjust the power of a compatible Elinchrom flash from the camera position – something I find very useful when my RX monoblocs are often lofted high on a boom in the studio.
On the other hand they are not as robust as a PW and nor do they lock to the hotshoe – the latter being a very strange design decision imo.
Martin
Thanks Martin
Hi Bob,
Yes I’ve tried the Elinchrom Skyport triggers. They worked well for the brief time that I used them. I believe Martin Plant uses them with his Ranger kit although he does have Pocket Wizard Plus 2s too.
I will use the CLS in conjunction with my Pocket Wizard Plus 2s or the Seculine Twinlink where radio is needed. I have a set of the Twinlinks on test. Cheaper than Elinchrom Skyport and look well made at first glance.
I do indeed use Ezybox, Honl, Orbis, PWs, and umbrellas etc on the Speedlight Mastery workshops.
Kind regards,
Damien.
Hi Dave, I was using the 60cm or 24″ version of the Ezybox Hotshoe and tilt head bracket as detailed here.
Good to see you at Focus – the stand looked great.
Have you tried the Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers? at £120 a set they are cheaper than PW’s and although manual work well. Will your Nikon Speedlight Mastery sessions now concentrate on the CLS in the absence of any Mini TT1 triggers for Nikon.
Glad to see you are increasingly using the Ezybox and Honl systems – are you also using this equipment on the Mastery workshops?
Images are top notch as ever – keep up the great work.
great set of images
Damien,
Very nice set of images.
What size Eazybox hotshoe were you using?
Thanks
Dave