Video – Nice Light at High Noon
The main goal on this shoot for Kim, Ake and myself on this shoot was to experiment freely, hoping that we would learn something along the way. I think it’s very important for a professional photographer to do some personal work from time to time. I’m often trying new ideas when I shoot for clients but you can only put so much experimentation in a photoshoot like that. When I’m doing free work, I have the luxuory to come home without a single usable image. A lot of these experiments creep back into my paid work sooner or later.
As someone who tries to make a living out of (mainly) location photography in a country like Belgium, you wouldn’t come very far if you only shoot when the conditions are right. Instead, you’ve got to be crazy creative and develop the right skills to shape the existing conditions into the atmosphere you want.
We made these images at high noon in a nice park. By placing Kim under the tree canopy there isn’t any harsh sunlight from straight above to cast ugly shadows. There were also trees all around her. Only on her left side there was an open space that allowed soft indirect (but still directional) light coming in. The open space acts like a very huge softbox.
The only problem now was that there wasn’t much depth in the pictures. Because of the dark background, there isn’t much separation for the model. That’s why I placed a small flash (an old Nikon SB-24) behind the model for some hairlight. this gives the effect of late afternoon sun. I’ve used this technique on many occasions to put a bright sparkle in a picture on one of the many dull Belgian days.
You don’t need that much flashpower for this effect. I don’t really remember, but I guess the SB-24 was on 1/16 of it’s power. I trigger my flashes wirelessly with Pocketwizards. If you want to know more about working with these small flashes, I highly recomend to pay a visit to David Hobby’s website Strobist (you might have to take a day or three off to read every article on his site).
To prevent light from the flash entering the lens (lensflare) and keep the illuminated are small, I added a selfmade snoot to the flash. It’s actually just a piece of cardboard wrapped in gaffer tape.
When you use a main light and a backlight it’s usually best to place both sources opposite to eachother. This is called cross-lighting. In the pictures above that’s exactely what I did. But because the main light was so soft, I could get away with placing the backlight on the same side as the main light too as you can see in the pictures below.
I strongly believe in giving something back to the photographic community, after all I learned a lot from other people myself. That’s why I wanted to experiment a little with video as a way to share my techniques. It was the first time my assistant shot video and we didn’t prepare anything. So it’s a bit improvised, check it out:
If you have ideas on how to improve this kind of video’s, please hit the comments. Your input on this blog will be also highle appreciated.
WHat an excellent post, and fantastic video! Thank you for sharing it, I will be experimenting with this type of lighting very very soon
Thanks again!
Tanya
Thank you so much for sharing this video! I really can’t wait to see more. I think there is a lot I can learn from you. That video is awesome, don’t worry about it feeling improvised or anything, it really doesn’t.
Thanks again,
Peter
Thanks so much for the video tutorial! A quick question, if you don’t mind: for this technique, in addition to the location requirements you already have (shaded, indirect ambient light from one direction, etc), do you make sure that the background is darker than the model?
great start, not only tutorial quality, but also the output is great. Already added your Rss feed, sits right next to the strobist one…^^
very nice indeed,
I love your work, amazing style. I will be surely following your channel in youTube.
Could you please talk more about your retouching?
Fantastic. Love how you managed to produce such shots. Would like to learn more
Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed the video and will have to try the technique next time I’m in a park like that. Incredibly beautiful model as well.
Quick question – what lens were you using for that shoot?
Thanks a lot for all these kind words.
@neilsen: This kind of hairlight/backlight usually works best agains a dark background. If you use it against a light background, the backlighting will not have a separation effect (or at least not as strong).
@jalil: I believe there are better resources for retouching info then me. There isn’t much retouching work in these images actually. 15 seconds in Lightroom and then 3 minutes or so in photoshop to clean up the small details. I might produce a little video of my workflow later.
@Ivan: most of these pictures are shot with the 70-200 L F/2.8 IS, the last one is with the 50mm F/1.4
Interesting — would like to see a focus on the snoot and any other fun gear you may have constructed!
Great video tutorial! Short and to the point! This is the best way to show techniques IMO. Look forward to your next tutorial. While I wait, I am going to try your techniques on my 4 months old baby
I think he is just as cute as your model….okay, maybe not…..
Excellent tutorial. Look forward to more as you build the site.
@joshua: I’ll try to add as much info as I can in the future
@calvin: congratulations with your new model. I have 3 kids and the youngest is just over a month old
@brian: thanks
Looks like the video link isn’t working. This one seems to work so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqMI72jsXRQ
It works fine here Ken.
Hi Bert
great video tutorial!
i learnt a lot from watching your video
nicely done..and i’m looking forward for more excitement from watching your tutorial
Great tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing. I do mostly studio, and feel a little lost when I go outside, can never seem to find shadows that are not TOO evenly lit. You get a soft but still directional light that makes your model look absolutely stunning!
Thanks Chad
Hi, Bert
Very nice video, like the placement of Camera, subject and flash setup, in video. keep it up, can you show chart for every video you make in the future.. Like your work…. NEIL USA
Thank you Neil
Thank you for all the advice and the excellent videos.
I have accidentally bump into this site, and what a great site it is. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
thx