my favorite lighting setup to photograph kids indoors – bounce flash!

Meet Jack. He’s 1 year old. We kinda photographed him just over a year ago with the maternity photo session with his mom and dad. But this is him now, for real.

When Amy and Nick asked me to do a portrait session with him, we started off at their house. I wanted to grab a few candid photos of Jack happily playing before we set off to a nearby park. Since kids scoot around all over the place, for me, it made most sense to just use on-camera bounce flash. Minimal gear – just the speedlight on my camera. And of course, the black foamie thing.

Shooting in TTL mode, meant the flash exposure was pretty much spot on every time, regardless of where Jack zipped around.

The ambient-only exposure, as comparison.

camera settings: 1/250 @ f/4 @ 800 ISO

I wanted the background to blow out, and with that there is a light, airy feel to the photos. And of course, since I’m using (bounce) flash against a much brighter (available light) background, max flash sync speed made most sense.

If I had changed my exposure settings so that more of the background showed – as in this test shot at f/11 – then the background would’ve been better exposed and with the change in depth-of-field, would’ve been more visible. So a wide-ish aperture made sense since I didn’t want the background to show. The out-of-focus, over-exposed haze is what I wanted.

Really, this way of lighting is the most effective and simple in this environment. And … this technique is so simple that it is accessible to everyone with a  decent speedlite.

After a series of photos of the happy chap in his environment (ie, lots of toys), we went to the park for portraits with mom and dad, and for this very special announcement.

The board was made by  Created For You By Lisa.

equipment used in this photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H)

related articles

- black foamie thing
- video clip – using the black foamie thing
- bounce flash portrait – a consistent technique
- bounce flash with and without the black foamie thing

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promotion: Verosky book – Basic Lighting for Portrait Photography

Ed Verosky’s popular series of e-books have just been expanded with another title – Basic Lighting for Portrait Photography

It is designed to quickly walk you through several lessons which will allow you to create sophisticated lighting from day one, and you’ll learn more each step of the way. You can start from anywhere in the book and use any of the setups right away, but I suggest going through each chapter in order, learning a fundamental technique and building upon it as you progress through the book.

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video clip: photo session with Litepanels Sola 4 fresnel lights – w/ Ulorin Vex

A behind-the-scenes video clip of the photo session with Ulorin Vex.

We did three different setups with Ulorin Vex – three different outfits by Ulorin, and three different ways of using these lights. Even though I used very specific lights here –  the Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H) - I hope that the commentary, and the way the photo shoot was directed, will be instructional and perhaps even entertaining. Enjoy!

related articles

- review: Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Light   (model: Ulorin Vex)
- Hollywood Glamor lighting with video lights  (model: Elle Olins)

equipment used during the photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)
Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H)
Profoto BatPac portable battery (B&H)

equipment used to create the video clip

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Nikon 35mm f/1.4G  (B&H)
Manfrotto 701HDV Pro Fluid Video Mini Head (B&H)
Manfrotto fluid head monopod (B&H)
Manfrotto 458B tripod with NeoTec Pro Photo tripod legs (B&H)
Sennheiser Lavalier microphone
video clip edited with Final Cut Pro X

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photography workshops & seminars for 2013

New York workshop dates for 2013

The full-day workshops on on-location lighting in New York, will be held on the following dates:

May 21, 2013 (Tuesday)  -  NYC
July 16, 2013 (Tuesday)  -  NYC  -  5 spots still open
Oct 22, 2013 (Tuesday)  -  NYC  -  8 spots still open

These workshops will each be limited to 10 people, and there will be two models available. I do want to give everyone as much individual attention, hence the limit in class size.

individual workshops & tutoring sessions

If none of the dates (and places) suit your schedule, I do offer individual photography workshops, as well as tutoring sessions which can be in person at my studio in NJ, or via Skype.

Denver, CO – June 30, 2013 (Sunday)

I will be in Denver, Colorado at the end of June, and thought if there was enough interest in a June 30th workshop date, that we’d make it happen. To see if this would be viable, I asked for a $200 deposit from those who are interested. The minimum number was not reached, so I am refunding those who paid the deposit, as explained in the original post:

Similar to the New York workshops, these will be limited to 10 people, and there will be 2 models. For more details about the topics that will be covered, check the info page on the  full-day workshops on on-location lighting in New York. The fee for the workshop is $600

I would need a minimum of 6 people (out of a max of 10), to make this workshop viable. So in order to gauge interest (and commitment) of anyone interested, I’m going to try something that’s perhaps a little unusual – if by May 15th there are a minimum of 6 people who pay a deposit of $200, then the workshop will go ahead. If not, everyone will get a full immediate refund on their deposits. E-mail me if you’re interested.

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available light photo session in the studio – Elle

During the same photo session with Elle where the aim was for Hollywood Glamor lighting style with video lights, I also wanted to change it up completely with an entirely different look and lighting – an available light photo series in the studio. With so much light flooding into the studio, it was just a matter of positioning Elle into the light. To get away from a blank wall, the background was a backdrop.

And yes, the studio needs more furniture. We’ll revisit this territory with future shoots. But even with such a minimalist setting, the photographs came out surprisingly well.

equipment used for this photo session

camera settings for all images: 1/250 @ f3.5 @ 400 ISO
Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)

related articles

- exposure metering & observing the available light  (model: Aleona)
- observing and using the available light  (model: Anelisa)
- NJ photography studio rental
- Elle’s Model Mayhem portfolio

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creating Hollywood Glamor lighting with video lights

The old Hollywood masters such as George Hurrell, CS Bull and Laszlo Willinger had a dramatic way of lighting their portraits, with specific use of light and shade.

For my review of the Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights, I had Ulorin Vex as model. Her style and clothing are quite unique, and dramatic enough that these lights enhanced her look. I loved what we came up with.

In using these Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H) to specifically emulate Hollywood Glamor lighting, I called in another model, Elle Olins. Elle has that smoldering look to her that turned out to be perfect for this style of lighting.

This pull-back shot shows how the two Sola 4 units were set up. The light to camera left, was there to create that oval streak on the background. The Sola 4 in the foreground (camera right), was there to create the dramatic light pattern on Elle’s face.

With the barndoors on that light, I was able to minimize the light falling on her forehead, and accentuate her eyes. I also specifically lifted the bottom flap of the barndoors to create a distinct light fall-off over her lips. I really wanted Elle’s eyes to draw the viewer in. As you can see from this photo of that Sola 4 unit, I had just this narrow slit of light sneaking through.

The pull-back shot also shows, interestingly perhaps, the clutter of the studio. Shooting tight, the 4′ wide backdrop was more than enough for this kind of portrait.

You may well ask why I used this narrower backdrop here instead of the 9′ wide paper backdrops that are in my studio. Well, there was just too much available light streaming in, and we couldn’t get the kind of contrasty photos we wanted. So I turned this smaller backdrop around so that it would block the majority of light. The available light ended up giving some rim-light on Elle, as can be seen in this comparison photo.

The fortunate thing with the Litepanels Sola 4 being daylight balanced LED lights, is that the available light that snuck in, didn’t give a strange color balance.

The WYSWIG aspect of these video lights (and other continuous light sources), is that you can adjust the position of the lights (and your model’s pose), to a fine degree. You can closely observe exactly how the light falls across your model’s features. Then it’s a matter of adjusting the light levels (and focus of the light beams), and the position of your model to get the exact light you wanted.

books on Hollywood Glamor lighting

I strongly recommend this book where the authors analyze and break down some of the best known portraits and describe how the images where lit – Hollywood Portraits, by Roger Hicks and Christopher Nisperos

It is available on Amazon, along with other titles on the topic:

equipment used for this photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)
Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H)

related articles

- video clip: photo session with Litepanels Sola 4 lights  (model: Ulorin Vex)
- review: Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Light  (model: Ulorin Vex)
- review: Litepanels Croma – variable color temperature LED video light
- review: Litepanels MicroPro LED video light
- gelling your flash for effect  (model: Anelisa)
- New Jersey photography studio rental

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review: Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Light - (model: Ulorin Vex)

The dramatic look that video lights lend to photographs, is a regularly explored topic on Tangents. I also cover the use of video light in my book Direction and Quality of Light.

The video lights that I have been favoring, are the Lowel ID-Light (B&H), but like other halogen video lights, it tends to run hot. Of the LED lights, I have used the Litepanels MicroPro LED video light (review) and now the Litepanels Croma – variable color temperature LED video light (review). The LED lights tend to be under-powered for some uses. Also, video lights tend to be  small light sources, and hence quite contrasty. So there are some limitations.

So when Litepanels contacted me to ask me if I’d like to try out the Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H), I was quite keen. Especially because the arrival of these lights coincided with one of my favorite models, Ulorin Vex, visiting the East Coast for a few weeks. Ulorin Vex’s dramatic style and clothing would be very well suited to this kind of lighting.

Also check out the behind the scenes (but hopefully quite instructional) video clip about this 3-part photo session.

more about the Litepanels Sola 4 Fresnel Light specifications

The Litepanels Sola 4 is a lightweight 4.0″ Fresnel light that is Daylight balanced at 5,600K.

The beam can be dimmed, (ie, adjusted for brightness). It can also be focused between 72° to 13° which means the area that the light covers, can be adjusted with the one control knob on the back. The light is delivered by heat-free daylight-balanced LEDs.

According to the spec sheet, the Sola 4 uses only a small fraction of the power a conventional fixture would require to produce the same volume of light (39W, equivalent to 300W of HMI light). It definitely doesn’t produce much heat.

The spec sheet also states that the color balance doesn’t shift as the light is dimmed. This is hugely important.

the Litepanels Sola 4 Fresnel Light in use

The Sola 4 runs on AC power (110 – 240 VAC). To work with them on location, I used the Profoto BatPac portable battery (B&H) to effortlessly run these for the three different parts of this photo session.

There is a behind the scenes video clip of this shoot, that will be up in a few days.

Let’s run through the first setup, and see the thought-process behind the image at the top.

For this first setup, I decided to use the passage outside my studio area. With the strong backlighting, I wanted the background to blow out a bit. The initial test shot showed that we could be onto something here.

1/200 @ f/3.2 @ 800 ISO
Nikon D4 (B&H);  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)

For this series of images, I used two  Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H) on light-stands to camera right. The one beam was set to a wide spread, and with the power down. This would be the fill light so that there was a hint of detail lower down on her body. It also made the main light slightly less contrasty.

The main light was the other Sola 4 focused more tightly on Ulorin Vex’s face.

1/200 @ f/3.2 @ 800 ISO
Nikon D4 (B&H);  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)

Drama! I love it. But the daylight WB image looked like it could do with something more.

With this in mind, I used two of the gels that come with each head, and gelled the lights for Tungsten / Incandescent. This turned the background blue.

1/125 @ f/3.2 @ 1250 ISO
Nikon D4 (B&H);  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)

The gels cut down the amount of light, so I pulled my shutter speed lower, and the ISO a touch higher. This in turn made the background blow out even more – and I think this added an even more ethereal effect to the final image.

The behind-the-scenes video clip will show more of the specific setup.

Teaser images of the other two setups we shot with Ulorin Vex, using the Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel lights. More details to come in follow-up articles.

Ulorin Vex’s latex outfits by Westward Bound

summary

These units  are very easy to use – as video lights tend to be. The two control knobs on the back are obvious – dimmer & focus. The way to tilt the light is obvious. The barndoors are easy to clip on once you figured out they have to slide in from the top.

One quibble, when the lights are focused, there is a dull spot in the middle when the light is spread towards the very wide end. Ideally, the light could be more evenly spread then. So we tended to work with the lights focused within a certain range. The beauty of continuous lights though is that you can see the effect. The adjust-to-taste aspect of continuous lights mean that you will generally see exactly what you’re going to record with your camera.

The other disadvantage to the lights is the need for external power. If you work outside of the studio or some convenient indoor place, you’re going to have to run extension cables or bring along an external power pack that can give AC. It takes 14-28V DC (via 4-pin XLR) so you do have options. It need not be the hefty Profoto battery pack! It’s just what I have on hand.

Oh, they are spendy! You’re going to have to figure out ways to make these lights be a benefit for your photography work and business.

If you need a more powerful light with a larger front surface, there is the Litepanels Sola 6 LED Fresnel Daylight Kit

That said, I really do like these lights. They are powerful enough that you can move the lights back and not interfere with the composition. With the smaller LED video lights, you have to bring the light fairly close to your subject, and this can be a limit to how your frame your photos … or alternately, your camera settings. (If you move the light further away, the decrease in light will affect your camera settings.) So having a more powerful set of LED lights make a difference.

Summary – I love these lights!

powering the Sola 4 units

There are various options to power the Sola 4 (and Sola 6) units, that would keep these lights individually mobile.

One example would be Anton Bauer Dionic HC battery (B&H), which can be attached to the light-stand with the Anton QRC Gold Mount (B&H). This would then directly feed to the XLR mount. But, as I said, there are options.

equipment used for this photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)
Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights (B&H)
Profoto BatPac portable battery (B&H)

related articles

- video clip: photo session with Litepanels Sola 4 lights  (model: Ulorin Vex)
- Hollywood Glamor lighting with video lights  (model: Elle)
- review: Litepanels Croma – variable color temperature LED video light
- review: Litepanels MicroPro LED video light
- gelling your flash for effect  (model: Anelisa)

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photo session – Modern Gypsies – stilt-walking Showgirl

On the same day that we did the Silver Birds photo session with the Modern Gypsies, we did a few other setups, including this one where Irene was on stilts … as a showgirl. Since the photos are meant for their promotional material, we needed to make the images vibrant.

We scouted around a warehouse district of Brooklyn, looking for interesting backgrounds. I felt that this huge mural would make a colorful background compared to the bright white costume.

Still working with the Profoto Acute B2 600 W/s powerpack (B&H), and a Profoto beauty dish (B&H) for our lighting. Lots of juice in a very portable arrangement, and easy to set up.

Setting up. Here you can get an idea of just how tall Irene was on those stilts. Fortunately, the Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H) goes as high as 12 feet. I didn’t want the light to come from below her – I dislike horror movie lighting. So the light still had to come in from an appropriately high angle.

Camera settings: 1/250 @ f/5.6 @ 200 ISO
I intentionally under-exposed the available light so that the flash would make the image pop. The main image here was over-exposed by 2/3rds of a stop because I asked Irene to move forward and I didn’t adjust the power on the Profoto. It was easy enough to pull the exposure down on the RAW file with no detriment to the final image.

I felt that even though this background was complementary, we didn’t really get a sense of Irene’s height on the stilts in the final images.

So we moved around the corner and shot down the sidewalk. The sun-drenched look (along with the differently scaled architecture), gave a completely different look to the images.

Camera settings: 1/250 @ f/5.6 @ 100 ISO
The comparison photo to show the effect of the lighting.

I do love this lighting setup - the Profoto Acute B2 600 W/s powerpack (B&H), and a Profoto beauty dish (B&H) with a sock. The recycle time is fast, and it isn’t a problem to dump enough light to match the sun on a bright day.

And if you were wondering just how Irene got her head-gear on … this is how we went about it. Peter Salo, who helped me on the day, steadying Irene backwards.

equipment used for this photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Profoto Acute B2 600 W/s powerpack (B&H)
Profoto beauty dish (B&H)  w/ a sock
Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)

more info about the Modern Gypsies

- Modern Gypsies website
- Modern Gypsies Productions on Facebook

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wedding photography – make those moments happen!

Anticipation and timing on the photographer’s part is essential to getting those key moments on the wedding day. Certain moments will happen, so we have to be ready for them.

This relies on your keen observation and you ability to recognize important moments. You have to know your cameras and equipment, and you have to know the fundamentals of photography. You have to be ready. And you can only be ready if you know your equipment well, and know the techniques. No excuses.

But there is no need to passively wait for moments - it is also possible to make them happen. And even though the photographer is guiding the process here, what is captured is still very true to the day’s events.

Here is an example of how I nudge things along to make sure I get a wonderful moment.

As the bride’s preparation finishes up, there’s usually a lot of bustle and activity with family members looking in and giving hugs and advice. It can get a little hectic. So these beautiful last moments with a bride and her mom just don’t naturally happen. There’s just too much activity.

This is where I get gently bossy with everyone and get everyone out of the room – except the bride and her mom. With a gentle, “just talk to each other”, I turn around and half-close the door. They have a few minutes of privacy and the bride and her mom invariably will react. They will hug and hold hands. There might be tears. The emotions are very real.

And of course I am ready with my camera, which have already been set to the proper camera settings. This is not the moment to fiddle with the camera controls. A side note here: if you constantly chimp, you will lose the moments!

So does this enrage the hearts of the purist photo-journalistic wedding photographers who don’t interact with their clients? Who cares. The images look great. And the bride and her family will love this last glimpse of a mother with her daughter before the wedding.

related links

- wedding photography: controlling those found moments
- anticipation and timing
- portraits of the bride – looking for the less obvious image
- more articles on wedding photography
- NJ wedding photographer

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photo session – Modern Gypsies – Silver Birds

Regular followers of Tangents, and everyone who has a copy of my book, off-camera flash, should be familiar with the Modern Gypsies. They are a performance group in Brooklyn and I count myself fortunate that I sometimes get to collaborate with them on promotional photos for them. It’s always exciting to work with inspiringly creative people. At the start of the month, we got together for another series of photo shoots, of which this is the first of the four. I’ll post the other sections in follow-up articles.

The theme here – Silver Birds. This silver-painted rooftop in Brooklyn, and the expansive blue sky seemed to work work well as complementary colors.

The sun is brutally bright, so I knew I’d need take along powerful off-camera flash. For ease of use, and for portability, I went with the usual Profoto Acute B2 600 W/s powerpack (B&H), and a Profoto beauty dish (B&H)  with a sock.

With that setup, I was able to easily pump out Sunny 16 kind of flash – 1/250 @ f11 @ 100 ISO. Those are the settings for all the images here. I varied the power of the AcuteB powerpack between full-power and half a stop down from full power for these images. The way the Profoto beauty dish clamps on, is super-easy. Fast.

The image at the top of the article was warmed up in post. Here is the neutral version of that photo.

The pull-back shot while prepping. My friend, Peter Salo, was helping (and Instagramming) on the day. Michael Saab, the driving force behind the Modern Gypsies, is in the blue T-shirt – aka PinkMan.

An initial setup which didn’t quite work because of the steep slant to this doorway’s roof. But it shows the huge difference the additional lighting makes, in comparison to the ambient-light only shot.

I would love to try this again with a more New York / Gothic building, and a dramatic sky. The sky was so clear blue here that it looks like a studio backdrop. That said, the quality of lighting from the beauty dish (with the sock), is just so much better than hard direct speedlight would’ve given.

equipment used for this photo session

Nikon D4 (B&H)
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S  (B&H)
Profoto Acute B2 600 W/s powerpack (B&H)
Profoto beauty dish (B&H)  w/ a sock
Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)

more info about the Modern Gypsies

- Modern Gypsies website
- Modern Gypsies Productions on Facebook

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