Hi everybody. Welcome to another thrilling – edge of your seat blog post. Ok, so maybe it isn’t quite that exciting but I’m sure that both of you that read this will get something out of it! Ha.
So, to tonight’s video. Right off the bat I want to send a big thank you to John at ViWest Video Instruction for all his help and enthusiasm in getting these videos out there. This is our first episode using a green screen background which allowed us to use the virtual apartment backdrop. Cool stuff.
The location we used for the video is an old disused dairy milking shed! It turned out to be a superb spot and there really was somewhere cool to take a shot almost everywhere you turned your head. Very cool stuff.
Anyway that’s enough from me for a little bit, have a look at the video…
What I’ll do now is just give you all a quick rundown on the lighting set-up that was used for each set that we did in the video.
This is probably my favorite image of the afternoon. It was actually the last shot that was taken on that segment of live shooting on the video. I probably shouldn’t be telling you all this, but in this shot the hair light positioned at the rear of the set has actually gone off a little over-cooked. It was actually dialed in to be quite a bit softer than it is in this image. But this is actually a good point to remember when it comes to using Nikon CLS out in the field, or in any location for that matter.
My point being - the CLS system only works well to a point. Let me now qualify that statement. Is it relying on the fact that the camera’s metering system can get a clear view of all the light that is being added in to the shot. This is obviously very easy for the key light (softbox) as the light it is emitting is filling the foreground; i.e., Serena, very clearly. CLS works by incorporating Nikons wonderful i-TTL metering system wherein a series of usually unperceivable “pre-flashes” occur momentarily after the shutter button is pressed but before the image is actually taken. Now, in this particular image the camera’s meter must have been dissatisfied with the amount of light it could see coming from the hair light during the pre-flash so it just dumped everything into the shot. In this instance I recon the result is quite pleasing, but it is not strictly what I told the camera to do.
So this is something to keep in mind; wherever possible make sure that the light coming from each remote speedlight is clearly visible to the camera’s meter… unless you don’t want it to see…
Anyway, to quickly recap on the video, the main light is coming from a Nikon SB-900 shooting through a collapsible Lastolite softbox. The rear light is a Nikon SB-800 mounted on a shelf on the back wall by using a Manfrotto spring clamp. That light is also gridded using a newly purchased Premier Flex Adaptor System and a Honeycomb diffuser or grid. I have only just heard about the Premier flash accessories and I have to say that they work really well. They also do a Beauty Dish for a speedlight that I intend to purchase tomorrow and give it a good workout. More on that in the coming weeks…
This next shot is just a really simple set-up. This was taken using only the shoot through umbrella and SB-900; the hair light was not on for this particular exposure. In hindsight I think I would have liked to have the umbrella a little closer to Serena as although an umbrella is a soft light modifier there are a few harsh shadows in the image simply because of the way we took the shot and due to the narrowness of the room we were in, I had to position the umbrella on the other side of the room; as you can see in the video.
That actually brings up another lesson for the younger players out there. A light source is only as “soft” as the distance between it and your subject. That same umbrella placed 300mm from Serena’s head would produce virtually no shadows whatsoever but rather it would wrap around her face enveloping it in a wonderful soft glow. But, move that same light source and modifier (the umbrella!) 3000mm from the subject and this is the result; the shadows are much more pronounced. This goes for absolutely any light modifier too, whether it is an umbrella, softbox or silk. The closer the light source is to your subject, the softer it will appear.
And now, the final image for today’s blog post. We were running out of time and had to do one more lighting scenario to wrap up the video. We actually took a bit of time getting the last scenario (with the umbrella) right. All the while the sun was setting right behind us, but we could not see it directly from the room we were in. When we finished though and came out into the light – my word it looked cool! There was only one thing for it; place Serena in the huge doorway at the end of the shed with the sun right behind her.
I made mention of this next fact in the video, but I’ll say it again. From experience, especially in bright light scenarios like this one, I find it beneficial to be as close to your light source as possible. This is because we are only using light, or in this case infrared light, to trigger the flashes. In really bright light this system does not work at all if you are more than a few feet away which is why in the video I don’t use anything else other than a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Ideally I would like to use my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for portraits but this would mean that unless we were in total cover (like the first scenario for instance) the remote flashes simply will not receive the signal from the commander flash on top of my D700.
Anyway, this last set-up is just using the Lastolite softbox again and a SB-900. I set the metering on the camera to [Centre Weighted] and took a meter reading from Serena’s face and then re-composed the scene and took the shot. This ensures that the camera will send enough flash to correctly expose Serena’s face. I had actually set the camera to manual exposure for this shot. I pointed the camera at the background and took note of the exposure meter in the viewfinder. From memory it was something like 1/2000th second shutter @ f/4.5, ISO200. I then set the exposure +2 stops, or about 1/500th second at f/4.5 to really blow out the background. This also produces another effect; it means that all that sun-setting goodness will produce a nice natural rim light on the subject as it has done here. Point to note on this one – i-TTL works with Nikons no matter what shutter speed you have selected when you have [Auto(FP)] sync speed set in-camera. Sorry Canon guys! But the end result is quite nice as you can see.
Ok, well I think that is enough from me for one sitting. Have a great week everyone! Oh, don’t forget to keep your comments and suggestions coming – I really appreciate them.
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