Desert for Dessert

I'm back from GPP in Dubai, and (mostly) caught up on the work that always piles up at home when I am away. It was great meet new friends and to see many of the folks from last year again.

After going hard for six days straight, our treat once again was to head out into the desert to get the chance to shoot in an environment like no other.
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As a GPP Repeat Offender, I am now fortunate enough to have some contacts in-country. Or, rather, in-Emirates. Nigel and the guys in the Dubai Strobist group had hooked us up with Samir, who in turn hooked us up with Mostafa over at Sharjah TV, a national media outlet headquartered on the other side of the desert.

Next thing you know, we are all set to go into said desert to do a TV feature segment while shooting Omar and his falcon. I had always wanted to learn more about falconry -- right up to the point where Mostafa informed me that some of the birds can go for over a million dollars. Yet another thing that is beyond my tax bracket.

So we head off to the desert -- in a Jag, of course. I'd tell you what kind, but it was too cool to even have a model nameplate on it. It was much like my Scion XA, in the same way that Omar's falcon was much like my kid sister's parakeet.

Driving us was Hala, a supermodel masquerading as a super-producer for GPP. McNally was there, along with assistant Drew and fellow instructor Bobbi Lane. McNally, who was going to photograph Hala, learned his lesson from last year and brought along an Elinchrom Ranger. That's 1100 watt-seconds of battery-powered retinal burn -- enough to make any octabox happy in full desert sun.

Being reliably thick-headed, I went with my speedlights -- and ended up using only two. I can easily overpower the desert sun with a single speedlight -- if I get to choose the time. That's kind like waiting until Mike Tyson is 87 years old and showing up to beat the crap out of him. But as a strategy, it is very effective.


A Bird in the Hand

Fortunately, Bobbi knew all about falcons from an earlier stint at a birding facility, or falcon farm, or whatever you call it. So she was a big help in letting us know all of the stupid things not to do, which with me is a full-time job.

So we get to the shoot location and Omar pulls out just about the most gorgeous bird of prey you could imagine. Basically, a meat-shredding machine with wings and an attitude.

Our light is still six fingers from the horizon, so that tells us we have about a buck thirty, give or take, until sundown.


First step is to scout the angles and backgrounds. I use my hand to judge how bright the sun would be on Omar and his falcon, with a Sharjah TV cameraman in tow all the while. Bobbi, meanwhile, is already making photos of Omar in the late afternoon light.

I know that I cannot hope to compete against the sun with speedlights if I soften the light form the SB's, so I set up a quick crosslight around Omar where Bobbi is busy shooting available light. Normal process -- shutter on 250th, choose an aperture that underexposes just a tad, and power back up with hard crosslight. The ambient fill sets the shadows at a manageable level.


Only problem is, the color and surface quality of Omar's traditional Arab clothing (it is called a "kandura") is throwing back nuked gamma white from the hard strobes. I can put a dot in it in post, but mostly I am just biding my time here waiting for sunset.

The important thing is that I look like I am making good pictures. With the cameras rolling, this looks a lot better than wondering scratching my butt and around looking for camel truffles, right?

As the sun gets lower, my options start to improve. We find the spot where we will shoot Omar using the sunset as a backdrop.


The sunset looks good dropped down a stop or two, so we grab a couple of sillos as we wait. Just because the light is not flash-friendly, there's no need to waste the time not shooting photos.

I mean, seriously, how often are you in the desert with a man in traditional Arab dress and a falcon?

Next year we are going out as a group to do an overnight at one of the desert encampments, so we can actually enjoy the sunset and the cool night air that follows. When you are shooting, it all happens so fast you do not get a chance to savor it.


As the light levels start to drop, I kept my two-hard-light setup (just bare flashes on stands) and did a little sidelight / front fill on Omar. The backdrop is the still-live sunset, and all of the subject light comes from flash. Key is off to the far right and gives shape and lighting direction.

The fill is from a stand right next to the camera, and fills the shadows to control the contrast range without adding any new direction to the lighting. This on-axis fill, combined with a hard key gives a cool, 1950's kinda look which I am currently digging. You can see the fill shadow just to the camera left side of Omar.


And since we are using bare light, you can really get that key light far away, too. This gives very even lighting over a large area, which makes it almost look as if it is a soundstage with a backdrop.

One of the disadvantages of working with speedlights is you tend to have to work close. Makes for nice light, but it falls off fast. So you end up working with small framing areas. Not so when you can back those babies up.


Low Ambient = Easy Umbrella Light

As soon as the sun disappears, I know from last year that the light levels will start dropping faster than stock prices did last October. And as the ambient drops, the small lights become powerful enough to use with modifiers at reasonable power settings. This is important because the light won't last long so you don't wanna be waiting on the recycle.

We put a Westcott double-fold on one of the SB-800s. That flash will become the key light. The second is fitted with an Orbis ring flash adapter. That flash will become the on-axis fill.

Working quickly, I grab an exposure for the darkening sky behind Omar. It is dark enough now to where I can use an aperture to which my flash can easily bring up the subject.


Since I plan to have the key light 3-4 feet over Omar's head, I grab a quick shot of the sand, lit by the key light from the same distance, to make sure my flash is set at an appropriate power setting. If this is off, I can quickly correct either by moving my aperture and compensating for the background by moving the shutter in the opposite direction. Or I can just vary the power on the flash before we put it up in the air. This is much quicker than doing the testing with the light in the final position.



Here's the setup shot, thanks to Bobbi. The final picture is worth the trouble, but I am still washing fine, desert sand out of my butt. (Come to think of it, If Carson Kressley asks, I am exfoliating.)

We are lucky enough to have Drew, Joe's assistant, acting not as a voice-activated light stand, but rather a VAB: A voice-activated boom. The speedlights and compact stands are light, and can be used this way for reasonable amounts of time without killing an assistant. But no worries - Drew is not my assistant, so there is really no long-term downside if anything bad happens.


The Result



By dropping the light in right on top of Omar, lots of cool things start to happen. From a direction standpoint, you get fairly dramatic light on his face, which adds a nice mood. And the light is soft enough so that it wraps well, too. (Click the pic for bigger version.)

But from a distance standpoint it is also doing good stuff. Omar's face is fully lit by the close-in source, but his white kandura falls off a little as it travels away from the key light. This helps to control the tones on the bright white material in a way that we could not accomplish if lighting from a distance.

Also, as the light is right over Omar, the sand falls off nicely as it approaches the near foreground. This is a problem that you have to deal with when you light frontally. If you will remember last year, Joe did this by gobo'ing the bottom of the umbrella.

That top light is going to leave some eye socket shadows, and it will get pretty dark as you travel down the kandura. That is where the Orbis comes in. I use it not as a main, but to provide directionless, on-axis fill.

No magic ratio to report, either. Given that you have set your exposure for the key, you simply dial in the power on the Orbis fill to taste. You can see what the fill is doing in places such as Omar's eye sockets and the kandura under his arm.

As for the light, I love the combined effect of top soft light and on-axis fill. Omar gets strong, moody light and I can fill his eye sockets as much or little as I want. The kandura moves to a creamy white, with texture and detail everywhere. And the pool of light created in the sand again makes the scene almost look like it were done against a painted backdrop.


Waiting for the Light

With low-power speedlights, for some looks you have to wait for the ambient to come to you. And when it gets there it will be moving fast, so work out everything you can in your mind as you are waiting for the levels to get manageable.

Honestly, the whole evening comes down to just a few of minutes. And you do not want to mess that time slot up when it arrives. The earlier, hard light stuff is mostly a combination of experimenting for something I might want to do at a later date and getting Omar comfy with the process of being photographed.

Before the sun went down, Bobbi kept asking if I needed her to back out and stop shooting. But really, having her there to work around (and keep Omar occupied while I planned and thought) was a huge help. Much better than having Omar (and the TV guy) stand around and watch me walk around with that WhatTheHeckAmIGonnaDoHere look on my face.

After we wrapped up, collecting gear in the dark, Hala drove us all to a very nice restaurant, where Drew and I were promptly kicked out for wearing shorts. With sand leaking out.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. "Plan B" was a wonderful, casual Arab restaurant where the food absolutely could not have been better. And sand-leaking photographers in shorts were welcome, too.

One Light, One Kill...

Okay, so imagine you are Zack "OneLight" Arias (that's him above, with the cheeky grin propping up the Cosmopolitan) and you are attending your first GPP in Dubai as an instructor. You hear it falls to the new guy to take the group portrait.

That "new guy" thing is a crock, of course. But I'm betting Zack doesn't know this. I did it last year in 129-degree heat, so this year I get to chill. (Oh, and I did it available light...)

No pressure -- you are just gonna light a couple dozen people in a very dark theatre is all. Oh yeah, but one of them happens to be Joe '57-Speedlight' McNally. No pressure there. And the pucker factor isn't lessened any by instructor Chris Hurtt and yours truly constantly mentioning how daaaark that big theatre is, either. Plus a few well-timed flash pops on his PW frequency just to keep him on his toes.

So what does Zack do? He steps up to the plate, points to the left centerfield fence and takes the first pitch downtown: He lit the entire group with one SB-25 speedlight and a, uh, Gary Fong Lightsphere. How, you might ask?

Like this.

(Insanely high ISO photo by someone who picked up my camera at the Vista bar one night in Dubai.)

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Yet Another One of Those "Nude Water Buffalo" Epic Fashion Shoot Videos

Certifiably insane UK shooter Drew Gardner, who has more imagination in his left pinky fingernail than I do in my whole body, released a full-length, behind-the-scenes DVD in the UK last month. Thanks to MPEX, it is now available as an import in the USA.

If you are one of those "dream big" type of photographers (or want to see just what it takes to make these kinds of shots) hit the jump for more info -- including a trailer.
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Long story short, it is a soup-to-nuts look at two fairly complex shoots in his forest fashion/fantasy series. This is big-light stuff (Elinchrom Rangers) on medium format digital.

Here is a short promo clip:



The first of the two shoots on the video are the badger shot excerpted above. The second is a shoot with a model on a water buffalo that resulted in the stunning photo seen on the cover (NSFW-ish) of the DVD.

Nothing is held back. Prep, shooting, lighting, dealing with problems, post production -- it's all there.

FWIW, Drew was teaching a class on the "big idea" kind of shoot last week in Dubai, except for it was scheduled at the same time as a rare, driving rainstorm in the normally arid city.

That did not stop him dragging the 1200 WS (sponsor-owned) Profoto 7B's (along with his mortified class) out into the rain to shoot, either. They drew the short straw on the weather, and ended up airing a montage of rain shots that was the feel-good hit of the closing night slideshow.

Equal parts madness and brilliance -- just like Drew's video. It is available at The Flash Centre in the UK for £20.00, and at MPEX for $24.99, respectively.
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NOTE: As mentioned above, the video a bit NSFW-ish with a decent amount of "side nakedness" in the second shoot -- and a few moments of "front nakedness," too. I checked very carefully because I am a thorough kind of guy. The cover photo gives you a good idea of the extent of most of it. And to be clear, Drew remains fully clothed throughout.

DIY Remote Trigger Debuts

Are you too geeky for PocketWizards?

Did you win your 8th grade science fair?

Do you know what an "opto-isolator" is?

Then you are a prime candidate for SPOT, the Strobist Project Open-source Trigger. Started quite a ways back, it has finally taken form -- along with a pretty cool case, as seen in this photo.

Features, specs and link after the jump.
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Here it is with no clothes.

Mad props to Till Seyfarth and all involved in this very impressive project. Next up, they will be showing you how to build a home-brew SB-800 for just $56.

(I wish....)


Specs:

• Synchs at up to 1/250th of a second
• Approximately 30-meter range
• Triggers through walls and windows
• 4 groups of adjustable flashes
• Remote power level adjustment for "old" flashes (e.g. SB-24)
• Cost of parts ~ €50
• Open source software


(Full info, schematics, wiki, source code, etc., here.)

James Rubio: Backlit Night Portrait

What do you do when you have a coupla minutes to make a quick portrait -- and the bright part of your frame calls for a shutter speed of a half-second?

You throw your one light into the back of the frame is what you do. At least that's what Hilo, Hawaii-based photographer James Rubio did in this cool wedding portrait.

Hit the jump for a quick walk-thru -- plus some tips for shooting with flash in this kind of (un)available light.
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Work Fast

He didn't have a whole lot of time to think about it, either.

"All these shots were done within 4 minutes from idea to completion since the Bride/Groom had to get to the reception," Rubio said. "It was very rushed and the shot almost did not happen."

That triangle structure would be pretty hard to resist as a backdrop. I probably would have gone for it, too. But the light was pretty much nonexistent, and James' series of photos shows exactly how he worked through the problem within just a few minutes.


The first try was to use a flashlight as a main light. There's not a lot of sky there, but the flashlight is not very powerful either. So they are easy to balance. Problem is, you have two continuous light sources. How do you balance that?

Remember, for (roughly) each third you add or subtract in distance, you change the brightness of the flashlight by a stop. That is to say, if your flashlight is 15 feet away and you need an extra stop out of it to balance, walk it forward to a distance of about 10 feet. If it is too bright, you'd walk it away to a distance of 22 (or so) feet to bleed that stop of light.

Yeah, I know it does not work out to exactly the 1.414-square-root-of-two formula that the pocket protector types would prefer, but a third is very easy both to remember and to calculate.

I digress.

So, while James could balance that flashlight and sky (and turn the sky a beautiful blue by balancing for the tungsten flashlight) he lost the beauty of the structure as a backdrop.

Okay, show of hands -- how may times has this happened to you:

You spend so much energy sweating the technicals, that you just keep working something like that flashlight shot and make a mediocre shot a little better as your grand reward.

Then, when you get home something really cool like the backlight idea hits you retroactively.

"D'Oh! Sonofa.."

Right off the bat, when you get a boatload of dark thrown at you, think backlight first. You can always add light to the front with a second strobe if you have it. But the first strobe will usually do a lot more for you in the depth and contrast department. And that department is in the back of the store.


Thinking on His Feet

Better idea: Stick that bare, wide-beamed flash way back in there and use it to light the couple and the structure.

Seriously, if I am using one flash, as often as not I'll throw it in as a back light.

James did exactly what I would have done while positioning the light -- one quick grab shot at his expected working aperture to gauge the intensity from the position of the light. No need to even focus -- this is just to see where the light will reach and what the exposure will look like. If it is way off, easy to adjust the light at this point.


So, by the time he gets back to his shooting position, the flash exposure is already close enough for horse shoes and hand grenades.

At that point, the only thing to work out is the shutter speed to get some sky. Remember, the ambient sky is going to be brighter (er, less dark) than the area under the shelter. So when you add light to under the shelter you have a nice light/dark tension to balance against.

James stopped stretching at half a sec, but I would have had no problem going further. Remember, you got almost no ambient under that teepee thing, so the flash is gonna freeze your subject even at a long shutter speed. If you accidentally juke the camera a little during a sec (or two) exposure, the worst that can happen is that your stick-hut vs. sky outline might get a little sqwooshy. That could look pretty cool, actually.

If your flash is doing the freezing, always keep going on that shutter to see what it'll do for you. (I'm very comfy going way into the Hail Mary range, myself.)


Where is the Fill Coming From?

The sand, for one thing. Not only does it wrap some nice, soft "uplight," but it warms it up, too. Ditto the structure itself -- you can see what the light reflecting of of the wood is doing on the edges of both subjects. Nice.

One thing I might do is to let the area directly behind them around the flash stay dark in post. It'll still hold because of the rim light, and you will lose the noise that is starting to happen back there.


But I Never Get Purple Skies...

You probably don't hang out in 1/2-second light at near dark, then. You can get some pretty funky colors in deep twilight. But if you don't, the best advice I can give for a "sunset in a bottle" is to shoot on the FL white balance.

This adds 30CC's of magenta into the mix, which will amp any sunset -- even a nonexistent one. Just remember to green the flash with an FL gel, and maybe an added 1/4 CTO for warmth.


Where to Aim the Flash?

Personal choice. James chose to let the light wrap through a little, giving those nice burst rays. But you could also rim light them from directly behind.

If you are gonna rim light them, I'd put it behind the bride. Why? Because the groom is basically an accessory on the wedding importance scale. (Seriously, who are we kidding here, guys...)

But if you want to make sure that flash is right behind her, one easy tip is to rotate the flash head 180 degrees and use the ready light to tell you for sure that you are hiding the flash behind the subject.


For the Marriage-Minded in Hawaii...

If you are thinking of getting hitched in the islands, check out James' portfolio. He's got some great stuff there -- and he is not afraid of the dark, either.

Three Cheers for Three Years

Woot! Strobist turns three today!

Strobist's first post was written in late February of 2006, but did not go live until April 6th. That means we are hopefully out of the terrible twos, and well on our way to potty training.

While the goal of the site has always been to learn about lighting (and have fun doing it) other stuff happens, too. And of the many cool things that stem from all of this I wanted to take a moment today to talk about one of my favorites.

Hit the jump for more on that.
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Credit Where Credit is Due

A small but growing portion of the revenues generated by this site are routed through Kiva.org, a micro-lending organization that works with entrepreneurs in developing countries. Some of you long-timers will note that I have mentioned these guys before, back in November of 2007.

As a group, we have so far participated in the funding of 37 loans, in amounts from $25 to $250 per loan. There is no interest collected on the loans other than the good feeling of helping people who are working hard to make better lives for themselves and their families. (Which is a heckuva a lot better than the stock and bond markets have done lately.)



So, where is it going? Afghanistan, Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Viet Nam, so far.

What is especially cool is that there are readers in each of those countries who are logging on to learn more about light. Okay, in the case of Tajikistan, one reader. But still...



Just above the country list is Muhammad Sediq Omar, whom you helped to expand his farm in Afghanistan. Beneath him is Yahaira San Juanita Rios Hernandez, who improved her restaurant in Mexico as a result of your learning about snoots and on-axis fill.

(BTW, is that a nice frame of Muhammad, or what? Lotsa neat compositional things happening in there.)

In a climate of risk-loving investment banks that managed to lose more money than it is possible for most humans to imagine last year, it is important to note that we have yet to lose a single penny in default on any of our micro-loans.

This downstream effect makes me feel great every time I think about it. A big thanks to both the readers and the advertisers who continue to make it possible.

If you are interested in participating in micro loans on your own, you can find out more about Kiva here, including a documentary on them from Frontline that was my first introduction to them.
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Thanks, also, to the readers who have translated (and are translating) Lighting 101 into PDFs in many different languages. As a result of your work, many more people will be exposed to basic lighting education. You have no idea how appreciative I am -- and they are. BTW, Polish and Hungarian are up next.

As for year four, we have a few fun things in the on-deck circle. But in truth this is largely an exercise in serendipity, and I'll be as surprised as you to see where this strange trip takes us in another year.


Many thanks,
DH

A Walk Around the Monobloc, Pt. 2

Last time, we took a look at the control panel of a typical monobloc flash. And while they may have looked intimidating to some of you, in the end they really weren't that different from speedlights. This time we'll concentrate on the business end, where extra power is only one of the important differences between the two.
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Bigger, in More Ways Than One

Granted, the monos are more powerful than speedlights. Bigger capacitors, more juice --and exact same principle.

But more important than that for light quality is the difference in their physical size, which is easy to see in the comparison above. (Click the pic for bigger in a new window.)

The monobloc and the speedlight are both shown in a typical configuration -- flash tube inside a standard reflector. You really can't see the flash tube in the speedlight, but it is in there. It is the tiny center in a relatively big reflector. And by moving that tune/reflector assembly closer or further away from the fresnel lens in front, you can "zoom" the flash's beam, too.

But no matter how much you zoom it, you have a total of about three square inches of lighting area. That's gonna give you a hard light unless you modify it, which in turn is gonna cost you some f/stops in light output.

Looking at the monobloc, with its standard, 7-inch reflector, my pie-are-square math days tell me I have over 38 effective square inches of light source, or at least ten times that of the speedlight.

From a distance, they are both hard lights. But up close, the speedlight stays hard and the monobloc starts to take the hardness edge off a little bit. Now that I think about it, that is one reason I love the LumiQuest SB-III in close.

In surface area the SB-III starts to approximate the size of a standard reflector on a big light. And any lost power is not an issue, because you are typically in close. It's a way to make a speedlight not have that signature hard speedlight look.

So, in addition to being more powerful, the monos are physically bigger light sources, which can really come into play when you are in tight. And that difference carries over to any light mods which do not increase the size of the source, such as grids.

A gridded speedlight and a gridded mono are basically the same tightened beam, but look very different due to the relative sizes of the sources.



Now, lets remove that reflector and look at the business end nekkid. Removing a reflector is very easy to do with most monos, and part of their system-oriented flexibility. So, what do we have now?

We have a bare-bulb flash, in this case with the tube being hidden from view (but not effectiveness) behind that translucent honker of a modeling light. And all of the light's power is intact.


Bare Bulb on a Speedlight

You can approximate this look with a Stofen, a plastic bowl or a (*cough*) $100 piece of Tupperware (must... restrain... self...) and they all do the same thing -- get that light going in all directions at once.

They don't make the light softer or magical, no matter what kind of "merry song" is sung to you to get you to buy the $100 Tupperware. The softness happens because that light can go out in all directions and bounce/fill off of walls and ceilings. Which means that anyone using said premium Tupperware outside had better have some low altitude clouds to get any benefit.

I'm just sayin'.

The beauty of bare bulb is in its full angular coverage. There is no magic, unless you count the part where your wallet can disappear if you are not careful and spend $100 on Tupperware.

But with a speedlight if you stick your StoFen (or hot-n-sour soup container or rubbing alcohol bottle or insanely overpriced Tupperware bowl) on the flash to diffuse and disperse that light into all directions, it costs you some serious f/stops. Not so much with the already more powerful monobloc, as that bare-bulb architecture is built right in.

But I can zoom my speedlights, right? Yes! Speedlights for the win!

Yeah, well, you can buy telescopic reflectors for your monos, too. These are usually highly polished and can get very expensive. But the capability is there and you can really amp already powerful monos with a polished tele reflector.

In the end, monos will offer you power, flexibility a fast shoot/recycle times. You will be able to back them up a good distance and still have them be very useful. You can overpower the sun. You can light large objects in decent ambient light levels without fear.


So, What's Not to Like?

What they cost you is money, space, pounds and an attachment to AC power if you want to get full use of the modeling lights. So they are no more of a no brainer than are speedlights -- just a different solution to a different set of problems.

But if you are speedlight-based, you may well consider picking up a mono as a "big gun" to work along with your speedlights. When you need more light, it tends to be needed in one place. Think sun-overpowering key, or a whole-room bounce fill.

I currently am re-evaluating my monobloc system and potentially pulling out the wallet to do some damage. I will be working through that later, but wanted to make sure there was a basic familiarity with monoblocs in general before we got into that.

Hopefully, now there is. If there are still Q's in your mind, hit us in the comments and we will do out best to answer them.