Lighting

With today’s planned shoot postponed by the rain, at least the postie battled throught the deluge to deliver a new toy. PocketWizard’s – long overdue – AC3 Zone Controller. This isn’t a proper review, no technical jargon, charts, data but a first impression as to will it do what I bought it for? Most of my lighting setups are using either Profoto 7b’s and AcuteB’s. Big, powerful, impressive lights, but in the case of the 7b, heavy ( the new lighter battery costs £550+vat ). The AcuteB is a great, small but powerful light but it is one battery, one head. Another AcuteB costs £2000+ and that is still only one light ( although I know it is only a matter of time before I order one ). So for those jobs that don’t have the need masses of light – I was once photographing some executives on a rooftop overlooking the Bank of England in the heart of the City of London with the 7b’s, when a message came from an office across the street to please stop, as the flash was upsetting them – we didn’t! – why not follow the increasing trend and use small strobes or speedlites/speedlights.

The internet is awash with websites extolling the virtues of using small speedlites rather than larger flash systems. Most notable is Strobist, who I believe favours using speedlites on manual output. On the other side of the fence, as it were, is Joe McNally, who favours the TTL system. Both achieve great results ( both use Nikon ). I recently attended Joe’s lighting presentation in London, which was not only entertaining and funny but inspiring as Joe demonstrated a masterful touch in diffusing and modifing the small light sources for impressive results. As a Canon user I could only look on in ( maybe misplaced ) envy at the Nikon TTL system, which seems so much better than Canon’s. In effort to ‘improve’ my Canon flash system, I invested last year in Pocketwizard’s wireless TTL triggers, the MiniTT1 and the FlexTT5, in response to a shoot in a radio studio in which the infra red trigger could not find all my strategically placed strobes placed in two rooms. I couldn’t get the shot I wanted. Having used Pocketwizard’s Transreceiver Plus triggers on my Profotos for years and always found them very reliable, so the promise of radio triggered TTL on my Canon’s – finally!!

Well, in truth I haven’t used them in many shoots since. The flashes trigger well, they integrate with my AcuteB or 7B on the same shoot. The MiniTTL works with the transreceivers also, which frees one up to be attached to a light rather than acting as a trigger on my camera hotshoe. But even with battery packs attached, the strobes can be significantly slower than the Profotos to recharge and ready to fire and they eat through AA batteries at an alarming rate. But the single biggest handicap is being able to tweak the flash output mid-shoot. On the Profotos you can adjust flash output on a dial on the battery pack with the head high on a lightstand buried in a softbox and out of reach. But with the speedlites, you have to crank the stand down, adjust the flash and crank it up – all this is slow, you may have to tweak it several times, and interrupts the flow of the shoot of the impatient executive, celebrity or bored subject. It also doesn’t look very professional, ” not only is he using these tiny lights but he keeps having to get them down and adjust them…” So when Pocketwizard announced the AC3 ZoneController, allowing you to control three sets of speedlites, dialling their power up or down from three small dials on your camera hotshoe, without having to constantly adjust the lights by hand themselves.. gotta have!

So this morning, rip the packet open, crank up three lights on FlexTT5′s, set flashes to manual, pop the AC3 on top of the MiniTT1, set three zones, set to ‘M’ and fire!  Adjust two zones, fire, chimp – looks the same?  Adjust again, fire, chimp..still looks the same?  Homer Simpson with a camera! Finally read the manual, DOH!

Set speedlites to TTL, AC3 to manual…eureka!  AC3 to TTL..again, it works. Dial up….dial down,…integrate with AcuteB….it works! All from a small addition to the camera hotshoe, see how it piggybacks the MiniTT1! As I said, just a first impression – just when you get one, read the manual first! Tomorrow’s shoot will see how it works for real…corporate boardroom, five executives with no time for a scruffy snapper constantly adjusting the lights!

Update 12-8-10: So did it work on yesterday’s shoot? It did, but not a true test really. I shot with an AcuteB head in very large Chimera softbox triggered by a Plus II transreceiver and three 580EX II speedlite’s being controlled via the FlexTT5 & the Ac3. It was great to be able to adjust the speedlites without getting down from the stepladder I was shooting on. However, every so often, the MiniTT1 failed to trigger any of the flashes. Now this may be a duff battery but apart from leaving the lens cap on, the flash failing to go off but your shutter does, always is embarassing. Can’t blame the AC3, could just be the battery, but I’ve a shoot next week which I’m planning to shoot with the speedlites only – signs are good though.

A portrait shoot from last month for Virgin Green Fund, photographing the London team for their website and literature. Shooting in a small meeting room, I was looking for a bright, clean look, mixing natural daylight and the ‘poor man’s’ HMI, the Interfit Monstar 3 light ( about £375 with an octobox, lightstand and case ). A continous source, daylight balanced ( about 5000 K ) powered by three massive 150 watt lightbulbs – see the photos below of the light with the bulbs attached next to my 1DS MKIII camera for scale. Output from these is said to be the equivalent of 1800 watts of tungsten lighting!

Shooting with the octobox reflector that comes with the light, without the front diffuser panel, it does give enough output to lift the light levels with a nice bright, flat light, even when shooting against the light. Combined with the high ISO capabilties of camera such as the Canon 5D MKII or the Nikon D3S, allows you to light a room and shoot with, seemingly, more freedom than a strobe system. Letting the background bleach out a bit helps give that “high-key-Ikea -catalogue-lifestyle-bright-aired-look”. A more modern, contemporary business look away from the wood panelled boardroom shots of yesteryear. The only downside of this light is the sheer size of the bulbs, with need to be handled carefully as they would be easy to smash. The upside, pulling a roller along the street with this kit in it is considerably easier on your back than a Profoto 7b pack! It doesn’t replace the Profotos, useless outdoors, but in the right situation it is a great light to work with – but then if the budget stretches to real HMI’s!

Some shots can be see on a slideshow by clicking on the image below.

A corporate shoot in The City for Schroders from last week. The latest in a series of shoots for them over the past few years, photographing various key personnel for their image library with intended use in both company literature and for external editorial – to accompany interviews in business titles for example. With a fifteen minute window for each subject, which is rarely actually the full fifteen minutes, the idea is to get a variety of shots. What sets these shoots apart from many other such assignments is the ability to use their boardroom as a location.

Unlike many, this not only has a view  and plenty of space but also has a reasonable amount of natural light, as the sun arcs across the London skyline. Previously for these shoots I had shot one setup with my Profoto 7b’s and a very large Chimera softbox, grids, etc, as well as shots by the window with a reflector and more natural looking shots using the window light – shooting into the boardroom with the windows behind as a large ‘softbox’. Sticking with the last two setups, this time rather than using strobes I enhanced the natural light with a my Interfit Monstar 3 light with it’s Octobox attached. A daylight balanced continous light source – I hope to discuss this light soon in a forthcoming post when it was used in another slightly different corporate shoot last week . I have usually used this light to “lift” the light in a room when shooting the sort of “reportage” meeting shots of executives beloved by annual reports rather than have a flash constantly going off which can distract the subjects.  When it has the octobox diffuser panel attached  for portraits the output isn’t great but it emits a soft light that enhances the natural light in the room without overpowering the background. The result is similar as with a flash/softbox, but I can shoot with a more open aperture to seperate the subject from the backdrop to, hopefully, create a clean, natural looking and flattering lighting. Both the octobox light and light from the window is also bounced by a couple of large 48″ Lastolite sunfire reflectors. Clicking on the portrait below should start a slideshow of some images from this shoot.

Time to get some recent work up on this blog. This was a portrait session with England’s Chief Medical Officer , Sir Liam Donaldson for his annual report. Shot in his office in Whitehall in central London, it was the sunlight streaming through the window near his desk, that immediately stood out as the obvious spot to take the portrait. Being the UK, it was then a frantic race to get the light and softbox set up before a cloud blocked out the sunlight! More shots were then taken outside using the soft available light and a lastolite reflector.

Canon 1DS MKIII, 85mm f1.2 lens

After that last post I thought I should post something less depressing today. So, stretching the “personal work” category, here are some photos I took recently when trying out my new Interfit Strobies Portrait Kit, a selection of attachments to fit onto my 580EXII speedlight ( a Beauty Dish, Barndoors, snoot, softbox, honeycomb grid and a globe diffuser ). Much of my lighting work is done mostly with the Profoto 7b or AcuteB 600. But in the cupboard are also Arri tungsten lights, Elinchrom Minilites, Interfit Coolites and the Interfit Monstar but speedlights have really come into their own in recent years. Much of their reemergence as credible lighting units, instead of just sitting on top of your SLR, must be down to sites like Strobist which show that great results are possible with the humble little flashes. I would recommend to any photography student, or pro wishing to brush up their lighting skills, the dvd that David Hobby has produced.

All of these images were shot on a Canon 5d MKII using the beauty dish attachment ( minus the centre piece, so acting as a larger reflector )  on a 580EXII speedlight.

As you can probably guess, not a very quiet shoot!

This was a shoot commissioned by McMurry in the US to photograph the professional film and TV stuntman, Lee Sheward, who has worked on films such as Titanic, Mission Impossible and The Bourne Supremacy  and who, as it turned out, lived in the next town to me in West Sussex. The shoot was for a McMurry’s client, AON insurance, for one of their customer magazines. So what could we get Lee to do for the photograph? Famous for his full body burns, check out this link , the editorial budget was unlikely to accommodate the required fire crew, assisting stuntmen, paramedics, etc for such a scale of stunt but Lee offered to set his arms on fire while he stood in his garden!  Throw in a teacup and saucer bought from a local charity shop, to add that “British” effect, it looked like being a different portrait from the norm.

After shooting some full lengths against a seamless white backdrop set up in his barn, the shoot moved on to the exciting bit – at least I was hoping it would be after selling the idea to the art director back at McMurry. The last time I had shot with fire was several years earlier one Christmas Eve at the Met Police Firearms Training centre just outside London. The idea there had been to show how they trained to protect VIP’s from attack. So stood in the centre of an arena, I was handed some earplugs by the enthusiastic explosives expert who set up a “bomb” in a pile of tyres. Two cars were then set to come around, one containing the “VIP” and the other, protection officers. The ‘bomb’ would go off as the first car passed and the unit would then do they stuff in front of my camera. The explosives officer then ran off into a bunker – everyone else apart from me was either in a car or a bunker!?!

The cars came around..BANG!!..the pile of tyres is thrown high into the air, crashing to the ground around me. Did I get it? Well, given these were pre-digital days, to play safe,  I asked could we do it again? I was met with broad grin. The explosive officer’s grin got even bigger when I mentioned that as this wasn’t video I wasn’t concerned about the bang but rather could we have a fireball?  Of course, “I’ll put some petrol on top” was the response, not sure if his CO allowed him to do this, but I did get a big fireball that practically obscured both cars as it went off.

Back to Lee, once his wife returned from shopping we were ready to go. He put on some protective pads on his forearms, donned an old Timberland shirt ( it looked okay to me ), smeared on the flammable gel he had mixed and with his wife and son either side of him holding wet blankets to douse out the flames and his daughter holding a long match/taper, it was a case of check the lighting and countdown. It was over in seconds. As you can see from the photos below, the sun decided to go in as the flames were lit which was a shame for the shot as it lifted the background.  The second shot is the first of the flames and the one used while the last shot shows the flames near the end before Lee ended the shoot by throwing down the teacup, and you can now see the sleeves are burnt. Thanks again Lee! How many CEO’s can I now persuade to do something similar?

Canon 1DS MKIII, 50/1.2mm lens, ISO100, 1/30th @ f9. Profoto 7b with two heads

I aim to post tearsheets from time to time, so to start, three from the old blog, all shot for the prestigious US Business title Barron’s, two from 2008 and one from 2009.

Canon 1DS MKIII, 50/1.2mm lens, ISO100, 1/250th @ f11. profoto 7b battery pack with single head. Plus Canon 580EXII speedlite handheld by the assistant to light the dog.

Canon 1DS MKIII, 50/1.2mm lens, ISO100, 1/200th @ f7.1. Profoto 7b with a single head.

Canon 1DS MKIII, 85/1.2mm lens, ISO200, 1/250th @ f2.0 Available light.

Given the time of the year I thought I’d kick off this blog with this image.

It was shot back in September this year in Oxford for OUP ( Oxford University Press ) Educational Publishing, for a forthcoming workbook teaching English to foreign students..

Canon 1DS MKIII, ISO200, 16-35mm f2.8 lens @ 16mm, 1/60th @ f9  Three Canon 580EXII speedlites, Ezy softbox, Honl Grids and a Profoto AcuteB 600 ( behind the door)  triggered by Pocketwizards.

The brief was to illustrate two children preparing for Christmas, hanging decorations on the tree and putting out the food for Father Christmas and his reindeer. The key aim in Educational Publishing shoots is to relay all the required information clearly within the particular layout but still create an interesting image on the page. More so than most other editorial photography, images for educational publishing need to contain particular information important to the text – so for example, here the reader needs to clearly see key vocabulary items – stockings, mince pies, presents, santa claus and reindeer ( hence the cards, too early in September for SC and his gang! ) – within a convincing setting.

The layout was L-shaped, but with very little space at the bottom in which to compress all this information, which did prove tricky. This explains why the wallspace above the fireplace is clear, to allow text to drop in here. Tilting the camera angle helped get the stockings in shot but still retain enough of the plate in the foreground.