Hi everyone and welcome to another enthralling edition of our Timography Blog. To get you guys in the swing of things, my text looks like this and Sandy's text is in italics... just so you know... :o)
So, what’s happened since our last post? Well, we have received an overwhelming amount of positive comments and support for the series of images that we took down in Albany, so thank you for all who contributed. Warm fuzzies all round! Sandy is getting more and more amazing behind the camera with each new assignment. She is doing such a wonderful job and soon I fear it will be her teaching me a thing or two!
I must admit... that I do ‘come to life’ whilst working with children. I love the challenge of capturing something unique about a child. Jade, my daughter and probably THE most photographed child I know, is most of the time a very willing participant and although I photograph her all the time... I still manage to capture something that’s a little different and unique which just melts my heart.
So, to business. This weekend saw Sandy and I out in the sunshine with her daughter with the intention of taking some outdoor portraits in full sun, using the flash to overpower the ambient light and create a pleasing light on the subject. We wanted to stay pretty close to home for this shoot so we ended up choosing Champion Lakes Rowing Arena here in Kelmscott. This is a nice quiet area with (obviously!) a nice big lake that we could use in the background but it also has a new housing estate going up, which we thought would make for an interesting backdrop for Sandy’s daughter. I also wanted to keep things simple from an equipment standpoint, so we took only one camera body, a couple of lenses, a light meter, radio triggers and the lighting gear comprising of one head and a beauty dish.
When I first started setting up Timography and building our inventory of equipment I wanted to make sure that the lighting gear we purchased would be reliable, versatile, powerful and most importantly, portable. I have been so happy with the Bowens lighting equipment that we now have. It isn’t as cheap as some, but geez it is good. And they make an awesome little battery pack which means that I can power the strobe heads on location; and I have mentioned this many times in the past. Fantastic.
This is the first time Tim has let me drive the beauty dish on location. I must say I have become quite fond of using a strobe head on location for it’s simplicity and exposure stability. I have currently been using my built-in speedlight to trigger a remote flash with TTL metering and I’m very happy with my results. However, with a strobe head, I do like the fact that I can create a desired exposure and know it’s not going to change much which then gives me more time to focus on working with and getting to know the subject better. It still takes me a while for the cogs to start turning on setting it all up and establishing a flash to ambient light ratio... but step by step I slowly get there. I might also add that my son, who is only 18 months old, was also with us on this shoot and this made concentrating a little more difficult so big thanks to Tim for being so understanding and patient :o)
And now, to the images accompanying this post. As I said in the intro, the purpose of this shoot was to practice overpowering the strong morning sun. We started out at about 10am, and already the ambient was reading at ISO100, 1/250th second shutter speed @ f/11! So we ended up trying a few different variations with light ratios. The images with Jade at the water’s edge were all shot with the flash output at about ½ a f/stop above the ambient, whereas the images of Jade in the pink hat were all shot with the flash output almost two stops greater, or about f/16-f/18. The reason for this fluctuation is that for the pink hat shots, Jade was much closer to the light source at only about 1 ½ meters away. She was moving about a little bit (as kids do!) but mostly kept creeping closer to the flash, meaning stronger light was hitting her.
I really didn’t think we would end up with many good shots this morning. Usually Jade is very willing and the better shots are normally some from the beginning of a shoot. It was the other way today. Jade was hungry, and thirsty and wanted her lollipop that I had brought along as a bribe. She was fidgety and acting a little silly, even getting a tad grumpy. But hey, she is only 5 and it was very ‘stop start’ for her due to her brother continuously running in the opposite direction. You will not capture a child’s true personality if you force them or make them feel uncomfortable. You can only work with what you’ve got and if what you’ve got isn’t working... you move on and try something else. So we packed up and headed for the water.
So yeah, we were certainly overpowering the sun with the pink hat images. I really love how the beauty dish has again lived up to its name. It is such a versatile light modifier. It gives out more light than a soft box but is gentler than just a high-efficiency bowl reflector. The trade-off however with Jade standing so close to the light source is that her legs and feet were not quite getting the coverage they deserved. Still makes for a gorgeous shot though I think and helps to accentuate the light falling on her upper body.
The last couple of images here show Jade by the water’s edge. As mentioned we pulled the flash output back to be just over that of the bright sky, that being about 1/250th second shutter speed @ f/13 or thereabouts. The reason for this is that we wanted to make sure the highlights on the top of the water caused by the suns reflections were clearly visible. Both Sandy and I really love this last image. Jades pose is spot on; although she was not being directed at this point, from memory Sandy has just asked her to grab the bottom of her dress and swing her arms from side-to-side.
It was here that little Jade shone :o) You can see it in her face and body language that she was now comfortable and enjoying herself. And what a difference it makes. Jade did a great job, I learnt a little more and we all had a great morning. Oh, and the little man … well, he at this point was soaking wet and muddy so I can assure you he had a wonderful time too :o)
For the record, the "little man" is Sandy's son ok!
So that about wraps up another blog post from us. Thanks for watching. We’ll be continuing to use the beauty dish out on location in the coming weeks, so I hope to share some more images with you all soon. Keep shooting what you love and take care. Bye from us!
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