Dragging the shutter to control the background

In a previous post I mentioned using the shutter speed to control the exposure level of the background when shooting a sunset.  A recent wedding couple I photographed was kind enough to help me illustrate this idea.

The following series of images of Tamra and John were taken with a Canon 7D with a 24-105 f4 L IS lens.  I used a set of Pocket Wizards to trigger an off-camera Nikon SB-26 hotshoe flash set at 1/2 power.  The SB-26 was mounted on a lightstand to camera right about 10 feet away from the couple, and modified with a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe Softbox. A 1/4 CTO gel was added to the flash to warm the light up a little.

Everything on the camera was set manually – the iso was set to 400, and the aperture remained at f4.  The only thing that changed between shots was the shutter speed.  I started at a shutter speed of 1/30th and gradually increased the shutter speed until the sky darkened to my liking.  The total time it to make all these images was less than a minute.

Notice how the exposure level of the couple does not change throughout.  This is because the aperture, iso, distance of the light to the subject, and the power level of the flash do not change.  Only the shutter speed changes, which changes the exposure level of the sky.

1/30

1/60

1/100

1/125

1/160

1/250

The only limit to how dark I can make the sky is the flash sync speed of the camera.  In this case, the 7D has an upper limit of 1/250, which is pretty good (my 5D only goes to 1/160).  If I go higher than the sync speed, part of the image will be dark, because the shutter is moving too fast for the flash to expose every part of the subject/foreground. If I were to use a Canon flash, like the 580EX, I could go much higher using the high-speed sync mode.

Some people have asked why I use Nikon SB-26 strobes when I’m shooting with Canon gear.  Although I do have a couple of 580EX flashes that I use, I like using the Nikon flashes for a lot of manual flash work because:

a) They have PC sync ports which allow me to trigger them with Pocket Wizards.  Only Canon’s newer flash has a PC sync port – the 580EXII.

b) The SB-26s have built in optical slaves so if I run out of Pocket Wizards, I can still trigger them with the pop of another flash.

c) They’re durable and cheap enough that I don’t have a cow if one breaks.  I’ve been able to find them in secondhand stores in Japan for around $100 each.  The Canon 580 EXIIs are about 4-5x the cost.

6 steps to shooting at sunset

Canon 5D mkII 24-105 f4L IS Lens iso 200  1/6@f5.6

Shooting a subject with flash against a sunset background using all manual settings on the camera is something that I struggled with learning for the longest time.  At first it kinda went like this:

When I first started shooting sunset portraits, I would usually put the camera in Program mode and set the on camera flash to ETTL mode.  Most of the time it would do a pretty good job, but there would always be the odd frame where the exposure went wacky and was either too dark or too bright. Usually it would be THAT frame where everything else was right – the model’s pose, hair, expression, whatever.  It would have been the Perfect Shot…. if only the exposure didn’t suck.

The main problem with shooting sunset portraits in Program mode with an on camera flash is that every time the camera angle or the distance to the subject changes, the camera and flash have to recalculate everything. Camera manufacturers love to say that the chips in the cameras are so powerful that they can instantly compare your image to hundreds of thousands of images in their databases in order to give you the correct exposure.  When you shoot a whole bunch of shots in a row however, you’ll occasionally get a bad exposure because the camera isn’t smart enough to know what exactly it is that you’re shooting.  No matter how powerful the computer inside your camera is,  it will never be able to compete with the supercomputer that is between your ears.

Shooting on all manual settings can be daunting at first, but I’ve found that it actually makes it easier to get more consistent images and wastes less time in the long run.

When using flash as the main light on the subject at sunset, the aperture controls the exposure level of the subject and shutter speed controls the exposure level of the background.  This was the hardest concept for me to wrap my brain around when I first started learning how to use manual flash at sunset. What made things easier for me was learning to control or eliminate the variables that affect exposure (flash to subject distance, iso, aperture, shutter speed) in steps.

disclaimer – I am NOT an expert at this.  The following is just to show what I learned over the years so that I don’t break out into a cold sweat whenever I am asked to do a sunset portrait.

Step 1 – Get the flash off of the camera, set it up on a lightstand and trigger it with a set of Pocket Wizards.  This gives me the freedom to move around while keeping the distance from the flash to the subject constant.  By keeping this distance constant, it eliminates one variable of the exposure I need to worry about. I’ll usually set it up about 10 feet away from my subject at about a 45 degree angle off to one side.  I’ll then use a 70-200 lens to zoom in and frame the lightstand out of the shot.  If I need a wide angle shot, I’ll include the lightstand in the frame, but try to keep it on a “Photoshoppable” area of the frame (like against a clear sky) where it will be easier to take out in post production. Having the flash on a lightstand away from the camera position also eliminates the problem of “red-eye”.

Step 2 – Keep the iso constant – usually for sunsets I’ll keep it at iso 400.  This eliminates another exposure variable.

Step 3 – Wait for sunset light level to go down to where a shot of just the sunset sky looks good at camera settings of 1/125 @ f8.

Step 4 – Set the flash power settings to manual mode and set the power level to get a good exposure on the subject at f8.  Don’t really need a super powerful flash to do this. At iso 400 I can easily get this with a small Nikon SB-26 set to 1/2 power at about 10 ft away.  Keeping this constant takes away another variable I have to worry about.

Step 5 – Start shooting at 1/125 @ f8.  If I want to make the sky darker, I change the shutter speed to 1/160 or 1/200, which is about the flash sync speed limit for my 5D mkII.  If I want to make the sky lighter, I’ll slow the shutter speed down to 1/100 or slower.  As long as I keep the iso/aperture/flash power/distance from flash to subject the same, the exposure on the subject will remain the same and I only need to think about changing one thing – the shutter speed.  Having only one thing to worry about makes things hella easier for me and my Homer Simpson level brain.

Step 6 – Eventually it’ll get dark enough where I can drop the flash power down to where I can get a good exposure on the subject at f4, then repeat Step 5 at this wider aperture setting.

The great thing about learning how to do it manually is that once you get used to it, you can have fun with it and experiment.  With the newer cameras that can handle much higher iso speeds and IS lenses that let you handhold at really slow shutter speeds, I’ve been able to do handheld shots like the one below at 1/4 of a second.

 Canon 5D mkII 24-105 f4L IS Lens iso 400  handheld at 1/4@f5.6

Light is from an AB800 on lowest power setting with a 5ft Octodome to camera left. This was long after the sun had set that day and I literally could not even see Skyler’s face at this point (couldn’t use the modeling light on the AB800 since I was running it off of battery power) and I had to guesstimate the focus distance.

Hope you found this post useful and that it will keep you from making the same mistakes I made when I first started learning this stuff.

Sunset shoot with Skyler and Mishka

 Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/160@ f5.6

In one of the sections of his book “The Hot Shoe Diaries”, photographer Joe McNally talks about the benefits of shooting near the water at sunset.  Since the reflection on the water’s surface has almost the same exposure level as the sky, you can actually keep shooting long after the sun has gone below the horizon.

I recently had the chance to try this out with Skyler and Mishka, a couple of models who were visiting Maui.  We shot at a beach house that they were staying at on the southern part of Front St. in Lahaina.

We started off with a few sets in an outdoor shower.

I took these setup shots the following morning so my apologies that it does not show the actual lighting of the previous afternoon.  In this first setup picture, the sun was low in the sky to the right of this location. I setup a silver California Sunbounce Mini reflector to the left of the shower, intending to use it as the main light and the sun as a hair light.

  Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/250@ f4

Because there were a lot of trees to the right of the shower, I soon started losing the edge light as the sun got lower in the sky. I then decided to reverse it and use the reflector as the hair light. I setup an AB800 with a large softbox and used that as the main light.

Since the AB800 was now my main light, I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/160 to match the flash sync speed of the camera.

  Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/160@ f5.6

Would have liked to have more of the water showing, but we didn’t want to get the model’s hair wet for this shoot.

When we got down to the beach the water was perfectly flat, almost like a giant mirror.  There were several boats anchored just offshore which cluttered up the background, so I used a 70-200 f2.8L IS lens to compress the background and hide them.

 Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/125@ f5.6

For these shots in the water I used an Alien Bees AB800 strobe in a 5-ft Photoflex Octodome, powered by a Vagabond II battery pack and triggered with a Pocket Wizard.

The Octodome has four interior reflective panels that can be set to silver or gold –  I chose to go with 2 silver panels and 2 gold panels to match the warm light of the sunset.

We didn’t have an assistant for this shoot this first day, so I kept the lightstand on the shore right at the edge of the water and punched up the power setting on the AB800 to between 1/2 and full power.

 Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/200@ f8

  Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/125@ f5.6

Mishka was really brave for this shoot.  Got all the way into the water to get this shot even though the crabs were biting that day.

A couple of times the flash didn’t recycle fast enough between shots and we ended up with silhouettes.
When things like this happen, sometimes it’s interesting to just go with the flow and experiment with it.

  Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/125@ f5.6

The sun was pretty much gone by this point so we played around with shooting some more silhouettes for a bit.

  Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS lens iso 200 1/30@ f5.6

As the light continued to fade, I kept dragging the shutter to compensate – even as slow as 1/30th handheld with a 70-200 lens (gotta love that IS lens).  Thanks to reflection of the sky in the water, we were able to keep shooting for a while.

I really liked how the light wrapped around them to add a bit of dimensionality to their forms.
What is also great about silhouette shots is that there is very little retouching to be done. All I had to do in post was clean up some stuff in the water, punch up the colors in the sky a skosh and that was pretty much it.

One thing I should have done differently is shoot it from a lower angle, so that the horizon doesn’t cut through the middle of the frame.  If I could have gotten that horizon level into maybe the lower third of the frame, that would probably look better.

Afternoon shoot with Yves-Lauren

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to work with model Yves-Lauren.  With my assistant Quddus, we were able to do several different lighting setups very quickly in a short span of time.

Our  first setup was by the infinity pool of the estate Yves was staying at.

 

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 400 1/160@f16

For this shot I wanted to overpower the sun with the flash.  This was about 2-3pm in the afternoon in Kapalua, so the sun was off to the left of the frame.  I used a circular polariser on the lens which helped to both reduce the reflections in the pool and define the clouds in the sky better.

We used a WL1600 with an 11″ reflector to light her from across the pool.  The 11″ or long throw reflector is larger and shaped a little different from a standard 7″ reflector.  It is a little more efficient at shooting light over a greater distance.  The long throw reflector was very handy to have because it enabled my assistant to light the model from a safe distance on dry land instead of having to stand in the shallow end of the pool (batteries and water do not tend to play well with each other).

  

Canon 5D mkII  70-200 f2.8L lens iso 200 1/160@f5.6

I had originally planned to use the sun as her rim light for this next look, but by the time we were ready to start shooting it the sun was lower than the surrounding trees and we didn’t have the angle of sunlight that we needed.  Luckily, the sun was also starting to reflect off of the windows on the house behind me, which gave us a nice soft main light to work with.   I had Quddus setup the WL1600 across the pool and off to the left to use as our rim light.  We used a silver California Sunbounce Pro to help add more reflected sunlight as her main light.

 

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 200 1/160@f8

This next series of shots were taken on the balcony above the pool.  This time I wanted to use a larger light source because the softer shadows would match better with the look that Yves changed into.  Ordinarily we would have gone with the 5ft Octodome, but because it was so windy, we had to settle for a large softbox which was slightly easier to brace against the edge of the roof overhang.

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 200 1/125@f5.6

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 200 1/125@f5.6

For this last set, we used 2 lights.  The main light was a WL1600 and softbox on a C-stand boomed above camera center.

About 10 feet behind her we used an AB800 with a 1/2 or 1/4 CTO gel for a rimlight.

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 200 1/160@f8

Canon 5D mkII  24-105 f4L IS lens iso 200 1/160@f8

In hindsight I would have liked to have the rimlight surround her more as we sort of start to lose her black dress into the background, so if I had backed up the AB 800 light up even further away or maybe added a second rim light?  File it under things to remember for next time.

Iao Valley Shoot with Shawna Pt II – Shooting in a Parking Lot

By the time we were done with the shoot at Iao Valley, it was near sunset.  We had just returned to the studio and started unloading gear when our makeup artist Kat yelled out to everyone to look at the sky.

The setting sun was starting to light up the clouds in the sky, making a really cool background for a photo. The problem was that we were in the middle of a large parking lot, surrounded by trees and lamp posts, with no place for  Shawna to stand to get a clear shot of the sky.  We could have gone over to the beach across the street, but by the time we got there, the colors in the sky would have faded.

With no time to change location/wardrobe/makeup, we had Shawna scramble up on top of Q’s truck and stand on the roof.

By shooting Shawna from this angle we got rid of the distractions in the parking lot, and also made her look 10 feet tall. 🙂

The sun was behind the mountains so there was no direct light on Shawna.  In order to simulate the light of the setting sun on her, we used a 580EX flash and an ST-E2 transmitter, augmented with a set of Radiopoppers.  This was mounted onto a painter’s pole that was modified with a Kacey Pole Adapter so that Quddus could position the light high enough above Shawna to simulate the light from the setting sun.

Because we had to work fast against the fading light, I set the camera to manual mode, iso 200 at f 5.6 and left the flash in fully automated ETTL mode. I let the flash determine the exposure on the model while I adjusted the camera shutter speed to either lighten or darken the sky.

To change the color of the sky, we put a green color correction gel over the flash and set the camera to fluorescent white balance.  The white balance of the camera canceled out the green color of the gelled flash, and turned the sky purple.  Ended up tweaking the colors slightly in Lightroom.

No Rings, No Flowers, Just Love…

I really enjoy photographing weddings like these…

Many times couples get so wrapped up in planning and trying to create the “perfect dream wedding” that they lose sight of what the whole purpose of a wedding is for.  A wedding doesn’t have to be about fancy settings, worrying about getting every detail perfect, inviting hundreds of your closest friends, etc.

Stephanie and John had their ceremony at sunset on a beach in Wailea a few weekends ago.  It was a very simple ceremony, no musician, no bouquet, no circle of flowers, not even an exchange of rings.  What made this special was the love between this couple.

When the bride suddenly blurted out “I LIKE SPAGHETTI” (they chose to write their own weddings vows and yes, that WAS part of her vows), I knew this was going to be a fun couple to shoot.

While I circled the ceremony taking photographs, I could see their eyes light up whenever they looked at each other – you could just FEEL the love they shared.  It was one of those kinds of weddings where you get the “chicken skin” feeling.  Those are the best kinds of weddings to photograph, IMHO.

Plus the fact that they were up for getting a little crazy with the wedding photographer helped too. 😉

We jumped into the water and caught this shot in the surf in between the waves.  Nailed it with the sun perfectly between their lips just before it disappeared behind the clouds.  Lighting was on-camera flash with a Gary Fong cloud Lightsphere aimed directly at the couple.

Canon 1D mkII 24-70mm f2.8L lens, 580EX w/ Gary Fong Cloud Lightsphere iso 200 1/500@ f5.6

Sunset Photoshoot with Makenzie

Did a sunset shoot with Makenzie from Model Mayhem this weekend at Kapalua Bay. Ran into a few snags with lighting, but we got some great results and an awesome sunset.

With a background in hip-hop/jazz dancing, Makenzie is a great model to work with. She also has these amazing green eyes so I wanted to start out with some headshots to capture that. We had her leaning in the shadow of a tree and positioned an SB26 flash to camera right. I zoomed the lens out to 200mm to blur as much of the background as I could.

Canon 1D MkII with 70-200mm L Lens 1/250 @ f5.6

We then moved to a hill overlooking the beach. Makenzie’s mom held a Silver California Sunbounce Mini just out of camera right to bounce some fill light in. Shot it from a low angle to try to get below Makenzie’s eye level and hide the snorkelers behind her. I cropped it to a 16×9 format to try to make her legs look longer and to hide the restaurant across the bay.

Canon 1D MkII with 70-200mm L Lens 1/250 @ f5.6

Next we went out onto the rocks near the water. At first I attempted something similar to my previous shoot with bodyfitt, using a slow shutter speed under natural light to blur the incoming waves, but it wasn’t working too well. (Can’t wait to get my carbon fiber tripod which will make it much easier to lug to location). So I went in another direction and setup the beauty dish with a CTO gel and the camera set to tungsten white balance to get this shot.

Canon 1D MkII with 28-70mm L Lens 1/250 @ f11

We moved to another section of the rocks and positioned her up high. I tried to get my lightstand into a position close to me, but the terrain made it difficult. I used an AB800 bare bulb to try to lighten the shadows .

Canon 1D MkII with 28-70mm L Lens 1/250 @ f8

Around the beginning of sunset, we headed down to the beach. By some stroke of luck, the beach was nearly deserted.

I setup a large softbox on my AB800 with a 1/4 CTO gel inside. I’ve always wanted to try this in the past, but usually run into problems with the wind so I had been sticking with the beauty dish for beach shoots. It was really calm today, so I was able to get the softbox up with no problem.

Unfortunately the battery pack for the strobe stopped working after a few shots. But I did manage to get a few good shots with it before it went out completely. It’s a shame because I really liked the look we were getting with the softbox. This was one of my favorites:

Canon 1D MkII with 70-200mm L Lens 1/250 @ f8

With the sun setting quickly, I got out my 580EX and a Gary Fong lightsphere. [Thank you Chaz for reminding me to bring that ;-)]. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get this shot:

Canon 1D MkII with 24-70mm L Lens 1/250 @ f2.8

Sometimes when the conditions are right, you get really cool colors in the sky if you wait around a bit after sunset. We lucked out that night and got an awesome firestorm in the background.
At this point it was so dark that I literally couldn’t see her face. I had to rely only on the focusing aid from the 580EX to get the shot. The camera and flash setting were all manual, with the flash on 1/2 or full power by this time, using the Lightsphere with the white dome aimed directly at her.

Canon 1D MkII with 24-70mm L Lens 1/30 @ f4

Even with the few minor equipment mishaps we had, we got some pretty good shots out of this one. Now I just need to get all that sand out of my gear…

1 Light Photography

Using strobes outdoors has been a challenge for me.  I shoot mostly outdoors, so I tend to rely on using natural light and wide open apertures for my lighting.  I’ve used strobes mostly during wedding shoots to fill in shadows or when shooting indoors in dark churches.

Since I began venturing into model photography, I’ve studied every book/training DVD/website I could get my hands on in order to better understand lighting.  I wanted to learn how to use strobes not merely as a fill light, but to add that little extra kick to an image.  

One of the first things I learned was not to start by buying a whole bunch of studio lights.  It’s far easier and more efficient to start simple – 1 light.  Once you understand what you can do with that one light, then you can go on and add more lights to your gear.  The idea is to go slowly, adding one light at a time while learning what that light can and cannot do.

This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to work with Sara, a model from South Carolina who contacted me through the Model Mayhem website.  We shot in the garden and the beach at the Sands of Kahana.  This gave me a great opportunity to practice what I had learned – using a single strobe on a lightstand to supplement/enhance the natural light.

Most of the images we shot were done with a Nikon SB-28 in manual mode, triggered by a Pocket Wizard on my Canon 1DMkII.  This image was done with natural light, and the SB-28 behind her acting as a hair light.

Here we reversed the setup.  The SB-28 is now the main light, overpowering the sun.  The sun is used as a rim light to pop the model off the background.

I also had an Alien Bees AB800 and a beauty dish with me but unfortunately the battery pack for that strobe died on me that day, so I ended up having to rely on the Nikon strobe for the majority of our shots. I was really hoping to try out the beauty dish on more shots with Sara as she was a really great model to work with.  I was able to get the following shot done before the AB800 battery went down.

I was very lucky to have such a patient model to work with.  Sara was a real trooper, running back to her room countless times to change outfits and braving the passing rain showers to keep on working with me up until sunset. 

This was one of the last shots we did.  I softened the SB-28 with a Gary Fong Lightsphere II in direct mode.  One of the cool things about the Lightsphere is that it warms up the color of the flash, which looks pretty cool when shooting with the sunset in the background.

This was a fun shoot.  I got to practice new techniques I had learned and was able to create some cool shots with a model who was just awesome to work with.  Thank you Sara for all your hard work!