Getting the Best Light At Wedding Receptions With Multiple Strobes

Wedding photographer David Ziser show us, at his blog DigitalProTalk, a very nice example of one of his wedding techniques where he demonstrates a different approach to photograph weddings with multiple strobes.

I confess that I'm not into weddings, yet, but the multiple strobe part caught my eye.

He explains the technique so well, with some examples and diagrams it's a must.

Take a look...

David explains:

"In this video tutorial, I'll walk you through my tried and true techniques for getting the best light on the wedding candids.

For candids to look better than good, you need to light your subject with a highlight next to a shadow. It is only then do we get the detail, depth, dimension, and color saturation in our images that separates the men and women from the boys and girls.

It's light that makes them pop out of the background finally giving your images that 3-dimensional polish they deserve."



Feel free to add your comments to the video.

Thank you David Ziser for the wonderful video and keep them coming.

Lighting Setup Diagrams with and without Photoshop are possible!

Today it's a good day to talk about making your own Lighting Setups.

A lot of people have been asking me for something like this I know that this is not a new issue over the internet or even among photographers communities but since you asked for it then it is an article about this.

I know David Hobby talked about it last year on his Strobist page but is never too much to mention it again.

The guy who created this really useful tool as multi-layer .psd file for all pPhotoshop (Mac and Win) is Kevin Kertz, unfortunately after one year since I downloaded v1.1 he still haven't updated it with new lighting gear... maybe we should mail him to get an update version ;)

At least it still have some good tools for your photo setup projects.

There is also another version similar to this one that you can use almost anywhere and without Photoshop since this is an online version of almost the same product created in Flash named Lighting Studio.

This one is not a so visual complete version as the .psd one but it's also very useful for some on site or quick setup remembrance build when Photoshop is not in hand.

I think it's pretty good for a Flash web one, oh well at least you got a good looking model to play with :)

Here are the links for each one:

LightSetup .psd zip file
SDGPhoto Lighting Studio

Photographer Maurice Mc Duff have some great examples of what you can do with this.

Enjoy them and have a great weekend.

DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 1)

Welcome back to another DIY.

I know that you already missing some DIY here so here goes a great one.

I grabbed David Hobby last year's idea for building a cereal card box snoot at his Strobist blog and decided to take it a step forward towards coloring them.

This will be a two part set with me covering on the first part how to build your snoots, with no effort , from any cereal card box, as if you do not know this already, but this time I'll take you to coloring the lights with them using the Lee filters small pack gels.

They will continue to be the good old carry on, even if you loose one you can get home and make another one, but these one's will be colored.

For those of you who do not know what I'll be talking about take a moment...

STOP!!

... and read some of these example articles that David Hobby wrote before you continue, this way you'll get an idea what is a snoot and what you can accomplish if you build one.

- On Assignment: Spring Arts Guide

- Developing an Idea, Part One

- Developing an Idea, Part 2: Compact Fluorescent Bulb

- DIY Macro Strip Lights

- On Assignment: Blind Snoot Portrait

- On Assignment: Pool Portrait

- On Assignment: Flavored Vodkas

- On Assignment: Simple Wall/Snoot Portrait

AMAZING isn't it ?!!!

Well at least that's what I thought when I read it for the first time... so stop being lazy and gather your stuff to build one here's how:

First I will start with the setup light I used to take all these shots.


On camera left, a white umbrella with a Nikon SB26 through it at 1/6 to get a nice bright light.
Camera settings for this was Tv200, Av8.0 and ISO100.

What you will be needing:
- 3 Cereal card boxes ( I got 2 from the same size and another a little bigger).
- Scissors
- Glue
- Ruler
- Pen
- The Flash you will be using for measures and try out later
- Lee filters or any other sample package you have and try out later
- Some patience...



First things first. Draw the measures on the card.

For the 580Ex (L to R) 1cm, 7,3cm, 4,3cm, 7,3cm, 4,3cm
For Nikon SB26 will be 1cm, 7,3cm, 4,5cm, 7,3cm, 4,5cm

And since this will be the small of the three I have chosen the 16cm of height.

Why 16cm and not 13,5cm or 11,656cm? - You may ask

First because it will be easier to carry, second you have to count with at least 2cm for the flash head to enter and be steady (so it will be 14cm) and last but not less important the size of the box since the one I had available was from that size... :)

Well you can make them at any size based on what your needs are. I will come to this on part 2 of this DIY.



See, on the above picture, that my index fingers are pointing at the card well this is the already made bending part of the box.

When I made the measures I took the available space on the cereal card box to make it fit into the drawings of the snoot, pay attention to this when you build yours or at least choose a box that fits on your drawing measures since this will save at least bending 2 more parts ;)



This is the picture of the drawing for the snoot 22cm with sizes as above only the height is 22cm.



And here for the third and last one of the series the MEGA snoot 28cm with sizes as above only the height is 28cm. I always wanted to make and try one of these...



Now get the scissors and start cutting them out of the cereal card box, nice and easy.



With the help of the ruler start folding them inside so it will help shaping the box.



A little glue, on the 1cm part, to hold the box together.



And "voilá" we got the first cereal snoot assembled, cool, fast and simple. ;)



On top the 16cm and on bottom the 22cm... now let's work on the BIGGER one and I will post next a side by side of the three so you can get a visual idea.



Quickly I finished it and here it is a picture of the "CORNFLA" colored cereal box ;)



Enjoy the three of them align together. See when I meant BIG?

Until here nothing was new (for the people who were building this cereal card box Snoot for some time now).

Next comes the interesting part...

I've been scratching my head for quite a while now and wondering a way to make the cereal card box Snoot hold a gel filter.

- Tried to put some Velcro at the end of the Snoot like I did on the flashes, this way I could attach the same gels I was using on them. Attempted FAIL!!
Simply because this would led me to Velcro all the gel filter colors I would need to use... but then again what if I needed a Ultimate Violet ref.707 color on one snoot and a Velvet Green ref.735 and all this while on location with no way to attach or get some Velcro?

Damn S"#$&, why this had to happen now that I have carried all the stuff I was going to need for the assignment, how could I missed this...!!!

- Tried to make a hole at the end part of the flash like I did on DIY: Lee Filters Flash Adapter, this could make a point, but then again FAILED!!.
This was a good idea except that when you make the hole, on the end part of the Snoot, for the gel to get in it will not stay aligned with the inside flash because the flash diameter would make the Snoot wider than the 4cm gel and the white light will spread mixing it with the colored gel.

- I also tried to make a box wider on one side, where the flash will get in, and on the other side cut it the size of the gel. FAILED!!
The box would not be very stable since it was not holding the light for a steady position and will cause the box not to be completely square, it was having a strange shape and the glue, after some use, would start to come out.

After trashing a couple of boxes trying to figure it out a way of making this to work and spending almost a week testing out...

YUUUPPPIII, I DID IT!!!!!!

Let me show you how simple it is:



On one side of the box you measure 2cm (this for the 580Ex or you can feel the flash end with the tips of your fingers and measure there) from the end side of the box you will want to use the gel (see image above) then you mark that with a pen.



Pay attention to the above picture because you will want to make the cut on the clean part of the box, do not make it on the 1cm glued part since this will be more complicated to slide the filter gel afterwards.



Next, remove the flash from the snoot and make a clean cut from top to bottom.
DO NOT cut any inside parts of the box except the one mentioned!!



See how it will look like after you inserted my old Lee filter gel that I generally use for testing purposes.



View from another side.
Here you can actually see how the hole of the gel filter tip will keeps out after inserting the all filter gel. This option is very good in case you need to change it quickly with another one or none.

And you may ask at this point... Will it work? - YES IT WILL WORK!!!

Pay attention to the next image.



Here you can see it working and with this technique you can even adjust the filter to cover the all flash head since the filter gel will be very near the flash and you can push it inside for better adjustment.



Here is a quick simple example with a blue Lee filter gel put in giving you a complete blue color.

After we've finished cutting and gluing everything is time to give a cover to our boxes.
We do not want our fellow photographers to think we are not professionals or people on the street looking at us with a weirdo look ;)



So 30cm (more or less) of Gaffer tape will be enough for a complete turn around the snoot so it will look very professional.
Start on the part of the Snoot that does not have the hole and leave that for last... this will be explained why a couple of steps further.



Do it like this smoothly so it would not turn in with any wrinkles...
The wrinkles you see on the image are the joined pieces of tape.



This should be the last part to add tape since you CANNOT cover the hole with tape.

I repeat you CANNOT cover the hole with tape!!

Because if you do you will damage the filters since the Gaffer tape's glue will be passed onto the filter as soon as you put in through the hole... so once again DO NOT cover the hole with tape!!

Cut a little piece of tape and cover around the hole like you see on the image.



Here are the final trio with some tape on them. Doesn't they look like a professional tool, or whatever that means.

Now that you make it this far also take a look at my best "selling" DIY: Black Straws Snoot Grid (Part 1) and DIY: Black Straws Snoot Grid (Part 2).

You can also apply this color example filter insertion to the Black Straws Snoot Grid. The only thing you need to add to it's construction is the small hole on the side so that the gels could get in and color the straws.

On the Black Straws Snoot Grid you can make them with different color straws but, from my point of view, the only issue is that you will have to stick with that color and again carry a lot of this things on your bag when you decided that Loving Amber ref.176 was the right color... get it?!!!

Hope this could help you guys out as much as it is helping me on the field.

Stay tuned for the DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 2) in a couple of days where you can see an example on how you could use this to make your photos shine as well as the effect of each one of them.

Greetings to all,

Rui

Snoots with Colors (Part2)

Light Painting on Vacations

Well it seems that the good days were over.

Back into Luxembourg and after almost 40 degrees in Croatia and a lower one's in Munich here the weather is not so good.
It looks like winter times have come in August, the weather is no longer the same as in the old days where they were almost fixed and now one day is summer the other is winter... what are we doing to the world :(

Anyway, I decided to pickup where I left, on the last post, and bring you some more cool stuff you can do with only your small strobe and also on vacation ;)

As we all know vacations are vacations and you're wife will tell you, almost of the time what to do, and keeps pushing you out "why did you bring the damn camera, aren't we on vacations?". Well if that happened to you you know what I mean, if not be prepared.

On vacation I usually travel light with my Powershot G6 but this time decided that I wanna to make some good photos and some good HDR (later on Flickr) and since I never been to that place why not carry a little more gear and take also the tripod, and again my wife complained (TRIPOD!!!).

Well enough of this bla, bla, bla thing and back to what I want you to see.

In the island of KRK photographic matter are everywhere from the beach to public places the people are nice and the weather helps also the light there is amazing the colors are so rich and the tones very nice.

One of those nights I went into the pear to make some night scenes and decided to use the flash on something different.

So I set the camera on the tripod, ISO 100, AV 9.0 and TV 15s and shoot the great sky at the marina.

Well... the shot did not came so good since it looked like so many others I've seen on some postcards they have there.

With Strobist in mind and after making my first try on Light Science and Magic book i decided to give it a live shot.

Grabbed the 580Ex popped up a couple of times to test how much light will be needed to fill what I wanted and this is what came out.



Well I set the flash to 1/64 after several manual tries. I was popped manually for better control of what I wanted to illuminate. Also got some details on the other side on the docks.

The tourist were admiring the chimp (Me) from the other side of the pear while I was running from one side to the other with my 580ex on the hand painting the boats ;) cool.

Thank god my wife was at the rented apartment or else she would have laugh to.



Setup shot is this one. You can still see me on the left side chimping ;)
This was a difficult to get focus on the boats since there were a lot of movement on the pear water and the boats would not stop for a moment, but I think I did I good and different capture.

The next shot I tried to put some people in it and balanced the WB to tungsten in order to get a stronger orange on the background and balance the tourists on the bench while they were admiring the BIG boat.



Here is the setup shot:



Since I was my assistant I had to run back and forward to and from the camera in order to get a clean shot and had to be careful so people would not leave their positions.

The settings were Av 5.6, Tv 1/3s and ISO 100. The flash was set to 1/128 and I was really very close to the people so the light won't spread too much into their fronts.

Hope that you make some great experiments with this technique that sometimes can save you in some difficult situations with parts of the photo with no light, also you get a different vacation photo.

Something com into my attention today while surfing around.
The subject is PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY and I was thinking I had a pretty good one until I saw this 2 videos from Stephen Wiltshire himself.




Take a look at them and take a minute to think how much information can your brain storage...

So go make yourself a favor and use it.

Until next time keep clicking,

Rui

Apparent Light Size (étude)

It looks like I was getting a little behind on the Lighting 102: Unit 2.1 - Apparent Light Size.

But I manage to get a little bit of time, this afternoon, to post some of my images along with the setup shots and good info to help you out on your quest.

I did a lot of thinking after seeing a lot of good pictures about this exercise on the Flickr dedicated page so I decided to be a little bit more specific on what this is all about.

My starting point was ISO 100, Tv 200 and Av 9.0 this was then made through all the images in order for them to be consistent. The position of the light was to camera right and a couple of meters from the subject (Apple, not the computer) also not very far since the room was small but the distance enough to mount the umbrella.

The apple was standing still in a small kitchen chair, did I mentioned that since we moved to Luxembourg furniture is not abundant around the house, and I try to choose a good position so you can see the background effect as well as shadows around the subject.

So with this in mind my only concern was to get the flash with enough intensity to get a good exposure... I know I could have done it with exposure but at least this way you can see some easy to see results just by looking at the pictures, so blame me on this ;)

Since this étude has nothing to do with getting the best possible light for the apple or even trying to get too many lights to get it right. This time I only used one strobe (Canon 580EX) triggered by the Gadget Infinity and some reflective and translucent stuff to get an idea how BIG can a small light become.

Enough of talking and let's get to business...



I set the 580Ex to 105mm and 1/16 for the power.
You can notice the harsh shadow cast on the left side of the apple produce by the small strobe pointing right at it. Also you can see part of the apple illuminated by the lighter part of the chair and also some light on the background the spill from the strobe onto the white wall behind the apple.



Here the setup was the same 580Ex was set to 105mm and 1/16 but I used a StoFen on the flash head to create more of a candle light pointing right at the apple.
As you can see now we have a more "soft" light on all of the scene and a not so pronounced background and shadow.



Now I changed the 580Ex light size and set it to 24mm and 1/8 power and used it through the umbrella to get bigger soft light.
You can now notice that the shadow is almost gone and all the scene as a more pleasing look.



Here the 580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/2 but use it into the umbrella for reflective purposes.
It looks like the light is coming from everywhere. Look how soft everything is turn to. The shadows and the highlights.



Next I decided to try with the same settings but with a silver umbrella, the 580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/4. Not much different from last one but if you look closer you can still see some at the background and also had to use less power.



580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/1 but used up against the white ceiling and background wall to create a large reflective area.
This image shows how good can a large reflective area become when you use your small strobe against it. Very soft shadows and all around the apple you can see this soft light.



580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/1 but used up against the white ceiling and background wall to create a large reflective area, now added the StoFen to the flash.
Have you noticed that even thou it was the same settings just by adding the StoFen it created a shadow cast on the apple and it's pole?
The background didn't look so pronounced either and the front light on the apple is now a little more visible.



580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/8 but used through the umbrella and used a reflector to the left side to catch some light that could spill from the umbrella.
Here I posted 2 pictures of the same thing but the second one I changed the reflector to gold so you can notice were that little light is getting at the left side of the umbrella... can you see it?



580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/8 but used through the umbrella and used a silver reflector to the left side catch some more light from the umbrella.
The changing was only on the reflector's color but that made some difference



580Ex was set to 24mm and 1/4 used through a big white reflector.
I was trying to create a big softbox with the reflector or simulate a window on the right side.
It looks like I accomplish that since the light was coming through a BIG white reflector it also came out soft and diffused enough.



To finish up I got to sheets of paper (so you don't start saying that you cannot make this étude because you do not have a big reflector or an umbrella and don't come up with any other excuse) and put one near, almost glued, the apple and the other one behind it so I could, almost, recreate
the last setup with 2 sheets of white paper.

The 580Ex was set to 105mm and 1/1, for full power since the paper is a little more thicker than the reflector, used through a white sheet of paper and also put a white sheet of paper on the left to catch some light on the other side of the apple.

Some of the light that went around the paper also gave a little ambiance to the background and illuminated the back part of the apple and the paper on the right gave it a little more fill in. NICE!!!

Hope you have enjoyed this nice étude and prepare yourself for the next one.

Please visit Lighting 102: Unit 2.1 - Apparent Light Size, make yourself a favor and make this one.

Enjoy.