JRN 420: Location Lighting with Remote Strobes

Subject one: Nick Cash


This is the lighting set up for Nick Cash's portrait shoot. This photograph was taken on the recreational basketball court at Northwest Apartments, Central Michigan University, Mt.Pleasant, MI.  Lighting Nick's right side is a gold reflector umbrella and a Nikon SB-900 taped to a light stand because there were no stands with flash mounts adapters.  Lighting Nick's left is an Nikon SB-800 with a hand made snoot. I love the way this is lit and the expression on his face. The one thing that is disappointing is that he dropped below the snoot's light and does not have a successful rim light for better separation from the background. Because I had no mounts for the flashes and they were taped to the stands tilting them downwards wasn't happening successfully.

camera: Pentax K10D

Focal length: 55 mm

ISO: 400

aperture: f8

shutter speed: 1/180

Nick Cash loves basketball. While attending Fenton High School, in Fenton, Michigan, Nick played point guard. During his junior year he set the school record for most points scored in a season, then beat that record his senior year. His record still stands.  Although offered scholarships to play at three other colleges, Nick wanted to attend Central Michigan. He hopes to have the opportunity to play for CMU in the future. An interesting side note: In the more than two hours I had Nick shooting, he never missed a shot AND he had such good control of the ball that neither he or the ball ever hit the lighting equipment.

Below is the lighting for Nick's photograph.

Subject two: Harry Dent

The lighting for Harry's shot was a real challenge. The beautiful clean trucks reflect the mirror image of the lighting equipment. The wind was not good and even with weights and wood blocks from the back of the rescue truck the umbrella stand didn't last very long. Fortunately, a class mate let me borrow one of their stands so I could get the lights a little higher. Unfortunately there was no one around to help hold the lights up really high.

When one of the transmitters stopped working I attempted to use the slave. It didn't want to work if it couldn't see the flash. When I finally remembered that the flash heads would turn all the way around so that the slave could still see the flash with the transceiver I was able to do a little more with the flashes. The lighting for this is a flash slightly behind him to his left side, angled up at the wall creating a huge soft box out of the wall. The second flash is bouncing its light off the hug garage doors to his front and slightly to his right.

Camera: Pentax K10D
focal length: 50 mm
ISO 800
aperture: f5.6
shutter speed: 1/180


Harry Dent is a volunteer fireman and first responder for the Barryton/ Fork Township Fire Department. He also plays the role of Sparky in parades and for educational fire safety programs. Before he retired from General Motors, Harry was a volunteer fireman in Lansing, Michigan. He has been a volunteer fireman since he was old enough to be accepted, following in the footsteps of three of his uncles. Both of Harry's sons are also volunteer firemen in the Lansing, Michigan area as is his twenty year old granddaughter.

Below is the lighting for Harry's photograph.

 

The following images are some of my other favorites from the shoot, the out-takes.

This picture was done with a single flash with a snoot. The other flash was taking a break to cool down.

This pictures was lit with a single flash with a snoot this time held and pointed by a helper. Again the other flash was cooling down.

This picture was lit with a flash with a snoot  to his front right side and  the flash with the umbrella to his right side side.

This picture was lit to his back left with a snoot over a flash and to his front right with a flash with a silver umbrella reflector.

This picture and the one below it were lit the same way as the one I selected for this assignment. One flash is off to his left bouncing light off the wall turning it into a huge soft box.  The other flash is to his front slightly  to his left and bouncing the light off the huge garage door.

This picture was taken with a flash aimed at a white diffuser/reflector umbrella to his right. The other flash was suppose to be bouncing off the ceiling but did not trigger.

For this picture the light is being reflected off the wall to his front left and bounced off the ceiling to his front right. 

This picture was lit by my holding a white board to reflect the light of the flash and act as a gobo between the flash and my camera. There is also a flash with a snoot pointing down on him from above to his left.

This picture was lit with a white umbrella diffuser/reflector to his left and a flash aimed at a white board propped up on a chair to his front left.

JRN 420: location lighting practice

Monday, September 20, 2010


Our JRN 420 class was sent out onto campus to practice on location lighting by photographing people.  Kay, Kaitlin and I headed for the area north of Warriner Hall with two flashes, two light stands, an umbrella, a reflector, three self made snoots, three barn doors, tree pocket wizards and our cameras.

Our first volunteer was Emily, a senior at CMU who is studying public health education. We lacked a sync cord so were only able to use one flash at a time while shooting Emily. The first picture is done with an umbrella reflector off to her left.

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 75 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f 5.6

shutter speed: 1/180
































The following photograph was done with the same light set up as above but different camera settings.

camera: Pentax K10D 

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 200

aperture: f4

shutter speed: 1/180

This next picture was done using a snoot over the flash behind her and to her right. It was used to create a side and rim light effect.

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 110 mm

IS0: 400

aperture: f4.5

shutter: 1/180

Next we drafted David, a junior at CMU majoring in German and French. For David's pictures we were able to borrow an sync from a different group and use a combination of a snoot on one flash aimed at a gold reflector with the light bounced back onto him on his right and a flash with the umbrella reflector to his left. Sometimes the snoot over powered the umbrella reversing our main light. Kent arrived to help us figure out the power levels for the flash units we had.

Camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f4

shutter speed: 1/180

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 200

aperture: f4

shutter speed: 1/180

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 400

aperture: f8

shutter speed: 1/180

Our final subjects were cadets from CMU's ROTC program. For these pictures there is a snoot on a flash off to there right and a flash directed at a gold reflector in front of them, which is also the direction that light from the late afternoon sun light is coming from. I am shooting from between and behind the two lights. For the last image I moved the snoot over more front right to them. This made both lights to my right. If that sounds confusing you should have seen me trying to get the right shot around the lights. It looked confusing too. Each of the following was corrected to try to match the lighting at the time the image was taken, except the last one.

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f8

shutter speed: 1/180

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f5.6

shutter speed: 1/180

This next photo was very under exposed and the exposure was adjusted in the RAW adjustment window to make it more true to the lighting. 

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 75 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f5.6

shutter speed: 1/180

camera: Pentax K10D

focal length: 70 mm

ISO 100

aperture: f5.6

shutter speed: 1/180

The gold tone of the picture is from the reflector. The next picture is the uncorrected but cropped version of the last picture. The previous picture was corrected to look like the lighting at the time. I actually like this picture better because it has a more developed mood. It reminds me of campfire light. The reflector was tilted to light under their hat brims so their eyes wouldn't be in deep shadow.

I know the layout for this is totally a mess. I will have to start over later because I have been working on it for 8 hours straight and I am sick of it right now. A new thing I have learned don't cut and paste in the html editor, it screws up everything.

Learning to capture the essence of a person and make a statement with a studio portrait.

Learning to capture the essence of a person and make a statement with a studio portrait is even harder than it sounds. First you have to figure out the essence of the person. Can that really be pinned down in one photograph? I have always felt the eyes are the window to the soul, which means the eyes are very important to me in an "essence" photograph. As an art student I have learned "it isn't art if it doesn't have a concept". Could one then say "it isn't photo journalism if it doesn't make a statement"? No pressure there (sarcasm intended). But will it make the right statement? I suppose a photograph will be open for interpretation in journalism just like it is in art. Should I tell you what statement I am trying to make? Where is the fun in that?

Camera: Pentax K10D
Focal length 55mm
ISO 100
Aperture f11
Shutter speed 1/180 

Camera: Pentax K10D

Focal length 55mm

ISO 100

Aperture f11

Shutter speed 1/180 

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" "What are you going to school for?" These are typical questions the student has to answer, especially for themselves.  But being a student is more about finding the answers than knowing them.

Camera: Pentax K10D

Focal length 50mm

ISO 100

Aperture f16

Camera: Pentax K10D

Focal length 50mm

ISO 100

Aperture f16

About the lighting: A picture is worth a thousand words right?

From the camera's perspective: Front right is a soft box attached to a 500 strobe at full power, rear right is a 150 strobe with a silver umbrella reflector, behind that is a 150 strobe with barn doors and a red gel, front left is a 500 strobe at half power with a gold umbrella reflector, back left is a 500 strobe at half power with snoot used as a rim light.  For the pictures in the white hoody I switch places of the strobes with the soft box and the gold reflector. 

Some lighting experimentation was involved. She "likes" pink in a big way which is why I added the color gel. Part of the whole identity thing. I also wanted to try to use a gel since I never had before. I can see it is a skill I need to work on.  I used the silver umbrella reflector hoping to keep the "pink", pink. I used the gold umbrella reflector trying to keep her skin tone warm. 


This was really fun for me. I would love to practice this on people all day and see how creative we can get.  I took 185 photos in a little over an hour. She was very ready to be done.  This is one of my favorite people to photograph and I have been doing it her whole life, but these are probably the best professional looking photographs I have ever taken of her. I asked her to bring outfits for her four distinct personas: dressing up to go out, the casual student, executive assistant's assistant, and health nut. She picked these two of the four.


I cropped the second image as my class suggested.

Camera: Pentax K10D

Focal length 55mm

ISO 100

Aperture f11

Shutter speed 1/180

JRN 420 class studio portrait shoot

These are may images from the class studio portrait shoot.  The first two and the last were taken with Jeremy's camera and emailed to me. Thank you Jeremy! The third image was taken with my camera when I was figuring out the sync process for it at the end of class.

Taken with Jeremy's camera. I believe the settings were ISO 200, f11, 1/250 

Same settings as above. 

Taken with my Pentax. Settings ISO 100, f16, 1/180, focal length 70 mm.

Taken with Jeremy's camera.  I believe the settings were ISO 200, f11, 1/250.

Things I learned about and get to practice: main light, fill light, back light, rim light, the power of the light settings and positioning lights.  I also learned how to operate my camera with a sync. Something happened to the images coming through email were they were a little washed out. I played with lots of methods of adjustment and found a tiny adjustment to exposure and gamma cleaned up the image a little. That was the first time I had used them because usually curves will do the job alone.

JRN 420 first class studio portrait shoot: Just for Fun

While I am waiting for my images on from Jeremy's camera to arrive (Thank you Jeremy for letting me use your camera!), I decided to upload some just for fun shots from the shoot.

Lighting the studio. (fl 18mm, f4, exposure time 1.5 seconds handheld, ISO 100)

Instructor Kent Miller  (fl 70 mm, f4, 1/30 handheld, ISO 400)

Setting up lighting (fl 70 mm, f4, 1/60, ISO 400)

(fl 70 mm, f4, 1/4 sec, ISO 400)

Yes, I know it is blurry. I think it adds to the mood. 

Remember, this is just for fun while I am waiting for my pictures.

(fl 260 mm, f 5.6, 0.5 sec, ISO 100)

I shoot with a Pentax K10D. I learned that you can't shoot on the manual setting if you are syncing to strobes. My camera actually has a red x that is for sync. Justin was kind enough to let me use his camera to shoot my portraits. When class was basically over, I remembered that my old Pentax K1000 had a red x next to 60 for shutter speed that had to be used when I was attaching a flash. I decided to see if my camera would sync with the red x setting and this is what I got. The next two images are not my subject. I was doing a quick camera check and had to give back the sync cable.

fl 70 mm, f11, 1/180, ISO 100 (note: 1/180 is the fastest shutter speed my camera will allow with a sync)

Same settings as above I just moved further from the subject.

These are my subject. I held up the class to quickly take these with my camera. I never did get the settings right or the framing. These were taken while I still trying to figure out the settings. My other ones will be better when I get them. This was more about me learning to use my camera sync. 

(fl 70 mm, f16, 1/180, ISO 100)

We went over a lot of information about studio lighting. I am excited to try more. I have been  depending on slaves to use strobes since I switched to digital. It will be nice to sync. I also want to try some end of curtain shooting that we talked about in class. I don't think my camera will let me do it synced though.  

Here are some of the other pictures shot with Jeremy's camera.