The Wireless Approach

Happy New Year! Today's post comes from the book Just One Flash: A Practical Approach to Lighting for Digital Photography by Rod & Robin Deutschmann. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.


Communication Through the Air
There are only two ways of triggering your flash wirelessly: optically (using another light source as a triggering device) or through the use of a radio transmitter and receiver.

Radio Triggering.
The radio option is, by far, the best; it’s cheaper, easier to use, and more reliable. To trigger your remote flash, we recommend a simple Cactus radio transmitter and receiver combination. At less than $40 a pair, there really is no better option for the manual off-camera flash photographer. Attach the transmitter to your camera and the receiver to your flash (any flash) and you’re ready to shoot. As a manual shooter, there will be no need to worry about camera or flash settings; you will have already dialed those in.



Beyond this, all of the same rules, processes, and techniques apply as before—except that you do lose the high-speed sync option. This isn’t that big of a deal, since you already know how to employ the cross-polarizing technique or to use several neutral-density filters to eliminate excess light.There are, of course, other radio systems available. Pocket Wizard is a very popular brand among photographers looking for a way around manual shooting. They offer a transceiver that allows for both manual and automatic shooting . . . but at nearly $200 a unit, this is a very expensive way of getting your flash to behave. As we tell our students, it really pays to be a confident manual shooter.

Off-camera wireless flash offers the optimum in control. With your flash now positioned well away from the camera, there is no excuse for an image not to appear as you like it. For these images, a volunteer (thanks Ed) held a flash and pointed it at our subject while each student in the workshop created their own version of the scene—changing the white balance, contrast, saturation, and focus to match their own unique vision.

When the flash is set to gently illuminate your subject, it should just caress, not overwhelm. In the image directly below, we see a perfectly illuminated model. In the bottom photo, we see what happens when the flash is set too high.



Optical Triggering.
You also have an optical choice when it comes to triggering your off-camera flashes. This comes in the form of small optical triggering devices that sit on the foot of your flash. When they sense another flash firing they send a small electrical signal to the flash they are attached to and force it to fire. This is called a “slaved” flash. The flash creating the triggering burst is the “master” unit.

This is a classic approach, but it has some drawbacks. First, it requires a line-of-sight triggering scenario. If the receiver can’t see the triggering flash, it will not fire its own unit. This prohibits certain placement constructs that you, as the artist, may feel are important—such as backlighting and complex side-lighting scenarios. Additionally, while slaved flashes are extraordinarily useful indoors, they don’t work so well outside. If there is an excess of ambient light (such as sunlight) there is a strong chance the receiver will not “see” the triggering flash. Plus, the price can be prohibitive. A good optical device will cost $50 or more . . . and if you’re going to spend that much on a tool that has limitations, why not spend less on a radio version that doesn’t?

To maintain the beauty of the sky above San Diego’s skyline, a single hand-held flash was employed. This extra light, aimed at our model and her concrete perch, enabled the photographer to choose a shutter speed that allowed the background to look the way it does. Any shutter speed slower than this would have created a background that was just too bright for the intended message.

Many camera manufacturers today offer an advanced lighting system that employs a similar optical slave/master technology. This is limited, as well, by line-of-sight prerequisites and requires expensive proprietary flash units to work. Again, a simple radio transmitter and receiver will outperform this advanced system—and will do it for a fraction of the cost. There is nothing advanced about a flash system that limits you to a line-of-sight firing scenario.

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Lighting Design in Action

Today's post comes from the book Wes Kroninger's Lighting: Design Techniques for Digital Photographers by Wes Kroninger. For this post we are featuring three of his many lighting designs from the book. In this book Kroninger showcases a number of his remarkable images and breaks them down into how they were setup and what equipment was used to achieve the final result, often times including valuable tips about that shot. Each shot is accompanied by multiple diagrams. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

The Scoop
This image is another example of the teamwork between performing and visual artists. It was captured in an abandoned warehouse where I had wanted to create a series of images for a long time. I visualized the juxtaposition of the beautiful lines of the dancers contrasted with the gritty texture of the old building. It took some investigation and a lot of phone calls to get access to the location, but the site proved to be perfect for the shoot.

Tech
There was no electricity, so battery-powered lights were used to create these images. One 4x6-foot softbox was used as the main light. A second bare-bulb strobe was placed off set to camera right to add some light to the darkened building. In this image, a third light was placed on the first floor pointing up through the hole in the floor at the bottom left of the image.

Tip
I did my research on which battery powered lights had the shortest flash duration, but I overlooked the fact that (to save on battery charge) most battery-powered strobe packs have little to no modeling light. As the sun set, this was a big problem while trying to focus. Fortunately, a friend had come to the set to shoot some video and happened to bring a generator with a hot light, which created just enough ambient light to focus.


The Scoop
When photographing actors for their promotional materials, it is a good idea to keep your lighting as simple as possible. Casting agents who are searching for acting talent like to see what a potential selection looks like without distractions or excessive embellishment. By keeping the lighting simple, you make the image a quick read of an actor’s facial features and overall appearance.

Tech
This is another example of how simple lighting can be when the right decisions are made for the right subject. Here, one medium softbox was used overhead. One reflector was used from below to add some upward fill. A digital “cross-processing” effect was used by selecting the tungsten white balance setting while using studio strobes; this created an overall cool blue tone to the image. Texture and grain were also applied for added effect.



The Scoop
Some of the best experiences as a photographer come when collaborating with other artists. Working with dancers is no exception. They are so conscious of their movement and the position of their bodies in action that it guarantees a beautiful image.

Tech
To create this image, two 4x6-foot softboxes were used at corners of the set. To achieve a very short flash duration, I dialed the pack down to a low setting. I adjusted for this loss of illumination by increasing the ISO of my camera to 400. (I generally hesitate to go above 400, because I want to eliminate as much grain or digital noise from the image as possible.) The model was backlit with two gridded lights at the edge of the seamless paper, one on either side.

Tip
When I photograph dancers, I like to stop motion. I find it fascinating to see still frames, frozen in time, of movements that otherwise pass so quickly before our eyes. Certain equipment selections have to be made to achieve these results. Some lights have very fast flash duration (the flash tube itself stays illuminated for a short duration during each firing). This speed eliminates any streaking or blurring in the captured image— because, essentially, the light is doing the work of your shutter. Most strobe packs offer their shortest flash duration when at low power settings, then grow longer as the power is increased.

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Direction of the Light

Today's post comes from the book Lighting Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios by Billy Pegram. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

In addition to its quality, you must also consider the direction of the light. As noted above, light that comes from overhead is usually not flattering, because it creates dark shadows on the eyes. Instead, look for light that strikes the subject from another angle.

Front Light. Light that comes from directly in front of the subject is commonly used in beauty photography because it tends to smooth the skin and flatter female faces. However, it can also flatten the features and create a lack of depth in your image.

Angled or Side Light. Light that strikes the subject’s face from an angle puts highlights on one side of the subject (the side closer to the light) and shadows on the other side of the subject (the side farther from the light). This adds a sense of depth and helps show the shape of the subject. As a result, it is a great lighting choice for images designed to showcase the model’s body (such as fitness shots). Because light from the side accentuates texture, it also works well for clothing shots where texture needs to be visible. One downfall of this lighting is that the model’s face will be shown with texture, as well. This can be effective with men’s facial structure, but it is not normally as flattering to a woman’s face.

Light that skims across the body from the side is great for highlighting a toned physique.

Backlight. Backlight occurs when the light source is directly behind the subject and directed toward the camera. One thing to watch out for when using strong backlighting is lens flare. This occurs when light shines directly into the lens and results in a loss of contrast and color saturation, and in some cases the creation of bright geometric artifacts (reflections off the elements within the lens itself).

In this image, Backlighting created highlights to separate the subject from the background.

When paired with some kind of stronger front or side light, backlighting can add impact and separation to a photograph by accenting the edges of the subject, an effect called rim lighting. In the image above, a light placed at an angle to the subject illuminated her from the front. Two lights behind the subject created bright highlights (rim lighting) along the edges of her body, separating her from the background. In this case, the lights themselves also formed a compositional element in the background.

With a weaker (or nonexistent) front or side light, backlighting can also allow you to create silhouette (or semi-silhouette) effects. Experimenting with this technique you can achieve some amazing photographs. In the series of photographs below, I focused on the model. Her body shielded my lens, and I had her move slightly to my left so the sun would just break past her body. I varied the output of my flash for each photograph, achieving a variety of different exposure and results. Who is to say which exposure is correct?

Different flash settings combine with backlighting to produce a variety of effects.

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Portrait Photography Recipes

Today's post comes from the book Rangefinder's Professional Photography: Techniques From the Pages of Rangefinder Magazine, edited by Bill Hurter. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers. This book compiles the work of almost 100 photographers as featured in Rangefinder magazine's Cookbook features. Essentially, each photographer offers a photograph and explains how they created it. Here are two of the "recipes".


Fernando Escovar: A Retro Fashion Series
I thought it might be a good idea to produce a retro style in my next fashion series, so I started with an old Shure microphone, like the ones you see in movies from the 1950s. I remembered a location at Bellagio in Las Vegas where they have a cool lounge called the Fontana Bar. They also have an old drum set with an ornate “B” on the bass drum.

A model/actress friend of mine, Amanda Swisten, loves anything retro, so I asked if she would do this for me. As a photographer you have to make a lot of phone calls to orchestrate these “mini movies.” The hair and makeup all had to be just right for this project, which ran as a sixteen-page spread and cover for Las Vegas magazine.



After I scouted and secured the location, I made a shot list with the editor to see what outfit looked best for each scene. That exercise took half a day. After making the selections, we had a fitting with Amanda to double-check the clothes.



I am all digital now, sporting Canon’s 1Ds Mark II, and I don’t remember how I ever lived before digital. The other day I was shooting an assignment for a client who wanted film. I kept looking down at the camera body to view the image I had just captured, but I couldn’t because it was a film camera.

With digital, I can quickly check my work when I am building a shot with lights—like the image of Amanda singing in front of the striking red curtains. I wanted to make sure I was getting shadows where I wanted them. I also wanted to keep light on the drum set and not fully on Amanda while shooting 100 ISO at f/8 and 1/125 second; shooting digital allowed me to ensure
these elements.

We made fine adjustments, flagged off the main Profoto strobe with some GatorBoard, and covered the other strobes with amber gels to give off some deeper colors. I only used three heads on this shot with an Acute 2400 pack.

INGREDIENTS
Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II
Exposure: 100 ISO at f/8,
1/125 second
Light: Profoto strobe,
flagged off with
GatorBoard; other
strobes covered with
amber gels; Acute
2400 pack

Monte Zucker: The Touch
For this image, Monte Zucker wanted to create a high-key portrait outdoors with simple props. In order to do so, the first thing he looked for was a covered area with strong backlighting. The perfect setting was under a covered porch with no light coming in from above. To get the backlighting, he waited for the afternoon sun, then used a Westcott translucent panel directly behind the couple to diffuse the backlight.

The camera was a Canon EOS 10D loaded with a 640MB Delkin memory card. The ISO was adjusted to 200. Monte says, “I used aperture priority with the lens set at f/5.6. The internal exposure meter saw a lot of white behind them and stopped down too much, so the figures were underexposed. I had to override the in-camera meter by a stop and a half to get the correct exposure on their faces.



“Heads were positioned for profiles of both, with my normal lighting pattern for profiles coming thru the Westcott translucent panel. In addition, they were lying on a Westcott Black/White 4x6-foot panel.

“I used a 27-inch silver reflector as a kicker to help brighten the image. The reflector (Westcott’s Monte Illuminator) was tipped upward to catch light coming over the top of the translucent panel. This opened up the shadows slightly without overpowering the main light coming through behind them.”


Very little was done in Photoshop, except to remove a few minor blemishes from their skin. “The couple in the picture were high-school friends. They came to pose for one of my workshops. They got more and more into my photographing them when they saw how much fun we were having. They originally told me that they didn’t like posed photos, but as we took more pictures and they looked at the LCD screen, they got more enthusiastic. They said, ‘These aren’t what we meant when we said we didn’t like posed pictures. These are fun!’ They said they’ve never looked this good in photographs.”

About photography, Monte says, “It’s exciting to see how far you can take it and nail it every time! I believe in it completely and teach it with love and with passion.” —Bob Rose

INGREDIENTS
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon 28–135mm
f/4 IS Zoom
Memory Card: Delkin
640MB
White Balance: ExpoDisc
Light Control: Westcott
4x6-foot panel,
Translucent panel and
27-inch silver reflector
(Monte Illuminator)

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Window Lighting

Today's post comes from the book Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

One of the most popular choices for indoor lighting is window light. It’s available for a good part of the day and it’s cheap. When you’ve got indirect sunlight through the window, it’s also easy to work with. Even with direct sunlight, a simple translucent scrim, such as the Westcott 1707, can make it useable for portraiture. The key to successful window lighting is that you want to achieve the same lighting patterns as you would when creating a studio portrait.

When you know what you’re doing, window light can create a dramatic impact.

Sometimes it works to show the window itself in your image. This can be a distraction, though, so you should use the setup judiciously.

DIRECTION OF THE WINDOW
When photographers first began creating daylight portraits, they favored north light as their main light source. That’s because a north-facing window gets no direct sunlight and is usable most of the day. Of course, if you live in the southern hemisphere, you need to go to a window with a southern exposure.

To create a fullface view, the camera is next to the wall with the window.

To create a two-thirds view, the camera moves further out into the room.

For a profile, move the camera even further into the room. For all these views, the subject never moves; the camera is simply repositioned. The background has been muted, however, by positioning the camera.

COMMON PITFALLS
Height of the Light Source. There are several pitfalls with using window light. One of them is the height of the light source. As we discussed in a previous chapter, good portrait lighting should come from above the eye level of the subject. You might think that this would not be a problem with light coming through a window, but quite often the light is not coming from the sky. Often, it’s bouncing off a building or off the sidewalk outside. This means the light will be coming up from below the subject. That’s not good at all; the more powerful light will miss your subject’s face and concentrate on the lower part of their body.

When you see this happening, you need to seat your subject so that the predominant amount of light is hitting their face with a slight fall-off toward the lower part of their body. Alternately, you can cover the bottom of the window and hope that the light coming in over top of that obstruction will be more appropriate. Better yet, find a different window.

Window Treatments. Another thing to be aware of is window treatments that cover the top of the opening and force most of the light to come in from below. If you’re standing your subject near a window like this, the strongest light will be on the bottom of that person, missing the face. Not good! To correct that problem, you would need to seat your subject so that the strongest light illuminates their face.

Showing the Window. Many photographers who use window light show the window in all of their photographs. For the most part, I find the windows to be a distraction. Certainly, you wouldn’t want to get your portrait lights in a photograph, would you? I can see including the window in a portrait from time to time, but not in every image.

DISTANCE OF WINDOW TO SUBJECT
If you keep your subjects a short distance from the window, you’ll find that the light wraps around them more beautifully and with much less contrast than when they’re very close to the window. Therefore, I’ve found it best to work a few feet from the window. With digital cameras, it’s easy to increase your ISO setting to 600, 800, or 1000 without degrading the photograph,
so the drop in light intensity shouldn’t be a big problem.



CAMERA AND SUBJECT POSITIONS
One of the biggest problems photographers have with window lighting is knowing where to stand when setting up for the portrait, and how to change from one facial view to another during the session. Here’s the secret: When photographing with a light source that you cannot move, you have to position your subject’s face to attain the proper lighting first, then adjust your camera position to get the desired view of the face. In other words, when you can’t move the light, move the camera.


Position the Subject. Many photographers have trouble finding the right pattern on their subjects’ faces. Often, this is because they are not standing in the right place. To really see what you’re doing and to “set” the light pattern, you need to be standing against the wall—right next to the window. Your subjects should be standing a few feet away from the window and around the middle or slightly closer to the far end of the opening. Then, turn the face toward the window—but not directly into the window.When you do that you get flat lighting and lose all dimension to the face. Once you see the desired pattern, keep the subject’s face in place and pose the body to support the face.

Position the Camera. Once the proper pose is achieved—that’s it; you cannot turn the subject to achieve full-face, two-thirds, and profile views. Instead, you will move the camera from one position to another. For a full-face picture by a window, the camera will need to be located right against the wall by the window. That’s the only place that you can position yourself and still get a proper light pattern. For a two-thirds view, move away from the wall toward the center of the room. For a profile, move still further into the room. Because the subject and the window remain stationary, the lighting on the subject’s face will be consistent.

USING A REFLECTOR WITH WINDOW LIGHT
When placing a reflector to enhance the window light you have two choices—just as you do when using a reflector in the studio. If the light pattern is already there and all you want to do is to open up the shadows, then the reflector goes on the shadowed side of the face. If, however, there is light only on one side of the face, there is no light in the eyes, and there is no appropriate lighting pattern, then the reflector should be placed on the highlight side of the face; it is what will create the lighting pattern for you.

CAMERA AND SUBJECT POSITIONS
One of the biggest problems photographers have with window lighting is knowing where to stand when setting up for the portrait, and how to change no appropriate lighting pattern, then the reflector should be placed on the highlight side of the face; it is what will create the lighting pattern for you.

In some cases, a reflector can be be paired with window light to be used as the main light.

Reflector for Fill Light. The most common use for a reflector is to open up the shadows in a portrait, allowing you to render detail throughout the image.When used for this purpose, the reflector should remain forward of the face, not beside the it. When it is in front of the face, it can pick up the light from the window and push it around to open up the shadows. When it is beside the face, on the other hand, it tends to act like a second main light source, bringing in noticeable light from the side opposite the main light.

Reflector for Main Light. Another use for a reflector is when the window lights only half of the face. In this case, what you need is an appropriate main light. To accomplish this, the reflector should be placed on the highlight side of the face and, initially, turned toward the window. Then, slowly turn the reflector until it bounces the light onto the shadow side of the face and creates the desired lighting pattern.

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Photographing Models with Natural Light

Today's post comes from the book Lighting Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios by Billy Pegram. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Natural vs. Artificial Light
There are two sources of light: natural (which includes sunlight, moonlight, and reflected light from either the sun or moon), and artificial (which includes sources like tungsten lights, fluorescent lights, electronic flash, and studio flash). Natural light is not limited to the outdoors, nor is artificial light exclusively indoors. Many times, I use flash to fill in shadows while shooting outdoors. I have also effectively used filtered window light for an indoor shot with natural light.

As you’ll see, sunlight is a great option for photography. It’s natural, often very flattering to your subjects, and widely abundant (and you can’t beat the price!). However, it does present certain challenges when it comes to control—and, unless you can shoot near a window, it’s not always an option for images shot indoors. In many cases, you’ll also find that you need more precise control than you can easily exercise over natural light. That is why photographers also need to be adept at creating effective lighting setups using artificial light sources.

As a photographer, both of these forms of light are at your disposal. It’s up to you to learn how to use them effectively in all their many incarnations.

Sunlight
Generally, the average photographer is most concerned with daylight. But saying “daylight” is just the beginning of the story—there are countless variations of just this one light source.

1. The high contrast in this scene, shot in bright sunlight, wasn’t captured optimally using the camera’s autoexposure mode.

Bright Sunlight. There are several problems inherent in working with bright sunlight. These problems intensify when shooting against a brightly lit background such as a light-colored wall, a beach, or snow. In these cases, the overall light tones in the image can trick the in-camera meter and lead to incorrect exposures. When shooting against a predominately dark background, you may find that your film or image sensor can’t handle the very high contrast of the scene—you’ll either have blown-out highlights (white with no detail) or blocked up shadows (black with no detail). Fortunately, with a digital camera, it is easy to shoot a few images and then preview them. Working in the manual mode (for total control), pay attention to the exposure settings as you are shooting, review your results, then adjust the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO as needed. For the most accurate results, it’s advisable to use an incident light meter and monitor the amount of light that is actually striking your subject, then set your camera accordingly. You also bracket your exposures (shoot some above and below the meter’s recommended exposure setting) to ensure you capture all the critical details.

2. Switching to the manual mode allowed the scene to be recorded more appealingly.

Cloudy Skies. Some beginning photographers hide when clouds cover the sun. The seasoned professional, however, realizes how beneficial this lighting can be. It is as if the sky has become a huge softbox, softening the hard light. Film and digital imaging equipment have a difficult time recording the high contrast scenes created by bright sunlight. When cloud cover softens this light, however, the range of contrast between shadow and highlight is lowered. Color is more vibrant and shadows are not as overpowering. The softer light is also easier on the model’s eyes. If desired, the images captured on a cloudy day can be warmed up either with an on-camera filter, by adjusting the white-balance setting, or after the shoot in Photoshop.

Practical Example: Bright Sunlight. Sunlight is the major source of light for photography—in fact, we’re usually only imitating it when we use studio lights. Therefore, photographers must learn to work with the variety and quality of light given by the sun on any particular date and time.

3. Sunlight through a thin layer of clouds produced soft, even lighting.

For this demonstration, I will address five varieties of sunlight and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The photographs in this series are unedited, allowing you to fully appreciate the differences in quality between them. All of the images were shot at 1/200 second at f/11—except for image 3; because of the low intensity of the light, this image was shot at 1/60 second at f/8.

For photograph 3, the sun was diffused by a thin layer of clouds, which provided beautiful, even lighting that was soft and virtually shadow-free. Notice how the exposure is consistent throughout the entire image. Also, notice how the colors in the jeans are true to life. This is like having a huge softbox covering the model. It is no wonder that this is the preferred light for most photographers. Very little modification needs to be done to create beautiful photographs of models or landscape scenes under this light. When shooting models, however, it is usually best if you direct the model to turn her face away from the sun to prevent squinting.

4. When the clouds moved out, the model was left in direct sun. Even with the addition of a reflector, the shadows are very pronounced.

In photograph 4, the clouds had moved from the scene and the model was in full afternoon sun. Although a silver reflector was placed next to the fence, bouncing the sunlight back to the model, the shadows are still very prevalent. There’s a significant difference in quality between this image and the previous one; the image sensor can no longer handle the large difference in exposure between the bright sunlight and the heavy shadows. Notice, particularly, the heavy shadows on the background. There is an advantage to using this style light, though: it allows you to enhance the curves of the model’s body. Notice the shadowing on the model’s chest and how it accentuates the contours of the legs. Be careful, however, that you put sufficient fill light on the model’s face. Otherwise, you will create unwanted contours on her face, as well! Because the reflected light in a situation like this can be very bright, you may need to have the model close her eyes and open them for the exposure on a set count.

5. Removing the reflector results in an image that is not appealing.

Photograph 5 was shot without the use of a reflector. Notice how hard the light is on the model’s face and how every little imperfection is magnified. The shirt has also lost some of the detail. Overall, it is not a very pleasing photograph.

6. Hard light is common in fashion photography because it emphasizes the texture of the clothing.

Bright sunlight coming over your shoulder can be acceptable with landscapes. It can also work with models, provided that the face is not the primary area of interest in the image, as shown in photograph 6. Many high-fashion images are actually shot this way because of the way the harder light enhances the texture of the clothing. In this situation, it is best to have the model look away from the sun or at least down. Generally speaking, if a photograph calls for bright light with contrast, it is best to schedule the shoot for the golden hour.

7. Adding fill flash allows you to create a more flattering effect.

Photograph 7 shows what, when given the choice, is my favorite solution to this lighting situation. This is a combination of sunlight with fill flash. It is the most technically challenging to accomplish and make look natural, but it provides the photographer with the most control. The principle is this: the sunlight exposes the majority of the image; therefore, you set your exposure for the sunlight. Then, you add an auxiliary flash to fill in (lighten) the shadows to whatever degree you desire. You let the sunlight contour the model’s body and use the flash to reduce the negative effects of sunlight on imperfections. This also allows the model to look away from the sun, eliminating squinting.

8. Here, cloud-covered skies paired with flash create a good lighting scenario.

Photograph 8 was shot under an overcast sky with the use of a flash. This combination gives the photographer the softness of the cloud-covered sunlight and the control of using a flash. Notice the detail in the jeans, the vibrant color, and the lack of heavy shadows. Many photographers prefer this lighting combination for shooting models, because you have the beautiful light covering the model’s face and figure—but, by controlling the output of the flash, you can also quickly change the look and feel of the image.

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