Last Saturday I had a fun time working with frequent collaborator Catavaria in High Park, doing an Asian-themed shoot. for this image I had the flash off camera on a light stand, with a Lightsphere defuser and amber dome. Quite happy with the results!
Nikon D7100, 50mm Nikkor f1.8 D lens
My favourite part of today’s image is the reflection of the lighting in the sunglasses worn by my subject. The lighting used was a small strip light/soft box, to make the lighting very directional. In addition, a strobe was used behind her head, facing the camera as a rim light in order to create highlights in her hair.
Nikon D7100 DSLR, 18-200mm Nikkor lens, ISO 100. Post work done in Nik Efex and Lightroom
Neewer 300DS Studio strobe with strip/softbox light, Yongnuo YN 560 III flash used as rim light
Having more fun with light tonight: this image of an Indonesian wood carving was made by placing the flash (a Yongnuo YN-560 III, triggered by an RF-603 wireless trigger) to the left of the carving, at 1/16 power
Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikon lens, ISO 100
Today’s image is all about playing with light. I placed my newly acquired YungNuo YN-560 III flash (quite a bargain by the way) behind the glass ball. It was triggered by a built in optical slave when the main flash (my Nikon SB-600 with a Lightsphere) fired. Finally, a cross star filter provided the star effect, when things were lined up precisely.
Nikon D7100, 18-200mm lens
Post work done with Nik Efex and Lightroom
Here is another image from the workshop yesterday. I found this workshop great, as I learned that this kind of lighting is not as hard as I thought: one one side, a beauty dish with honeycomb grid, on the other side, a strip light, also with a grid to control the path of the light. I will be exploring this technique more in the future!
I should also mention the model Kaitlin’s skill as a dancer: her poise and grace came through in every image. 🙂
In the spirit of refusing to allow depression to be a stigma, this is going to be a fairly open post (and long).
This image is from a shoot with a new model named Sarah, this past weekend. It was an indoor shoot, so I set up my usual lighting set-up, including my cactus remote flash triggers; a few shots in, they decided to stop working :-(. Plan B meant switching from strobe (flash) lighting to continuous lighting. I used a late 1950’s vintage quartz halogen movie light (which gave off a lot of heat!), bounced into an umbrella. When combined with the soft light from an overcast light coming through the skylights, I think it really worked. It’s time to try more of this kind of lighting!
This image is from one of the more complicated lighting set-ups (at least complicated by my standards) I’ve done so far. Two strobes were used, one from the left with a “snoot” in place to restrict the light spread, and a strobe off to the right, shooting through this lovely piece of wood. The holes in it allowed it to function as a “gobo“, allowing a dappling of the light, and placing light patterns on the wall. The concept we were going for was a jazz performer in a club, and the lighting really helped get the mood I was going for.
Taken with Mamiya M645J, 80mm f2.8 lens, 2 250ws strobes @ f8. Shot on Fomapan 100, developed in Xtol 1:1 for 9 minutes, post processed using Nik plugins.
Black and White photography by definition is a reductive exercise, just by stripping away colour, to focus on light, shadow, tonality and texture. In this portrait, we go even further; only the eyes and hands are unobscured, but even so the model packs a lot of expression into her eyes and hands. On of my favourite portraits of 2011!
Picture taken with Mamiya M645, 80mm f2.8 lens with 25A red filter, Ilford SFX Infrared film. One shoot through umbrella to model’s right.
I recently acquired some basic studio lighting gear (a very cheap studio strobe, some “umbrellas”, remote flash triggers and some soft boxes) and have started a journey of learning more about studio lighting. I have always been an available-light photography, and this area has always been a gap for me. The image below was shot earlier this week: I had the strobe placed above and to the model’s right side, shooting through the umbrella to soften the light a bit. I had nothing on the model’s left side, as I wanted some fairly pronounced shadow areas.
For film, I was shooting Fomapan 100, developed in Rodinal, for a fairly contrasty, retro look.
My Third Eye 