Anatomy of a Photo

So after a week of constant practice with the mannequin (see previous blog), I finally had a chance to implement what I had been doing with live people. Last weekend I took my gear out to a popular bar that the bands I work with often play and I managed to get a couple of moments with everyone's favorite bartender Carly and had her pose for me:

If you can get over the fact that, "Hey, it's a hot chick. Cool, huh huh", and realize that she IS wearing shorts underneath her shirt (ahem)...and look at the photo in my previous blog you'll see right away I tried to implement the same concepts here as I practiced with on the mannequin. Below is a diagram of the lighting set up...although the print might be a bit too small to read the info.

So I have a 42" umbrella with a Canon Speedlite 580 above and to my (Camera) left. Behind the subject and to the right of the shot is the small softbox, 16"x12" with a Canon Speedlite 430. In order to match the relative guide numbers of both flashes, since the 580 is more powerful, I set the 580 to 24mm and the 430 to 28mm to achieve a base GN of about 92' each. Unfortunately I don't remember the exact power settings on each, but I think the 580 was set to anywhere from 1/4th power to 1/16th power, while the 430 was set anywhere from an 1/8th to 1/32nd, but generally less power than the main, key light of the 580. Shutter speed was 1/25th, aperture f4.0 and the ISO was 640, in order to pick up the background, which is lit by the bar's houselights.

Here's another shot, this time with a very happy Matt (who helped me out setting up the light stands):

So overall I was pretty satisfied with the results of the live shot. I wish I had more time with the live subjects to fine tune what I was doing, but the bar was closing so she needed to get back to work counting down the cash registers, etc. (Oh, and it was a pajama-theme night, which explains her lack of, um, pants.)

The Mannequin

It's taken me a long time to get the hang of flash photography. Ambient light, natural light like a late-afternoon sun and artificial lighting for bands has always been easy for me. I remember one of the wedding photographers I assisted last year, Joshua Hoffine, telling me it took him over a year to get the hang of flash photography and off-camera lighting, and I realized it's taken me something like 15 or 16 months to really begin to feel I had a consistent grasp of it.

Note, I say "consistency". I've always been able to get one or two "lucky" shots out of dozens as I tried my luck with off camera flash and radio slaves. But getting the same results every time was elusive. And I felt it was critical to advancing my skills.

For a couple of the weddings I shot this fall I went with Canon's flash system, with a Canon Speedlite 580 mounted on the camera triggering my Canon Speedlite 430 off-camera. The results were promising and definitely convenient. I even considered selling my Pocket Wizards. But then I found "her"...

I always remembered another thing Joshua told me: He practiced his lighting skills on a mannequin. I very briefly considered buying one until I discovered how expensive they are; a good one can cost $400 plus. So I shelved that idea until last month, when I was driving home one night I noticed someone in my neighborhood was actually throwing out a mannequin for the garbage truck to take away.

I hesitated as I kept driving home, then thought, what the hell. I circled around and went back, and asked the owner if they were tossing out the mannequin and he said to go ahead and take it. Crazy.

Of course that wasn't enough. After a few test shots I quickly realized I needed to dress up the mannequin and to find a wig to complete it. So after doing that, the other week I finally set out to start practicing my lighting, and with the pocket wizards.

In the course of one week of shooting for a couple hours a night I went from, say, Level 2 to Level 7 as far as beginning to grasp what I was doing, and more importantly, getting consistency. Setting my flashes, accounting for the distance, ISO, gels, etc...and getting the same result over and over again...the way I intended when I set up the shot. It was immense. Before I used to just set the timer and run into the shot to be the practice subject, which took forever. And using a mannequin was a lot better than even having someone just stand there while I practice because you don't have to worry about them getting impatient.

So with the shot above, you can see the key light illuminating her Rembrandt style (light positioned 45 degrees from where she's facing. I think that's the official term), and another light outlining her from behind her and to the right. I'd call that the backlight but I'm not employing it the way I've seen online, with it lighting a backdrop directly behind the subject. Slow shutter speed, about 1/25th or 1/30th, and 400 ISO to pick up the background. What I really love about the results is how the "backlight" (for lack of a better term) outlines the shape of her face on her left (not to mention the wig). In my next blog I'll show the results with a "live" human subject.

So I guess the moral of the story is, if you want to practicing lighting with off-camera strobes/flash/whatever...find yourself a mannequin. Be prepared for people to look at you weird and say "that's creepy" when you try to explain it to them, however...

Welcome to Wherever You Are

Hey, this is my initial blog. I have both myspace and facebook accounts, of which I already post blogs to, so I don't know if I'll utilize this one much. Most likely this will be photography-exclusive content that I will post to this blog. Stay tuned.