Copy me Lighting Thread 8

Michael Sewell

Michael Sewell

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Michael A. Sewell
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Basically posted to refresh the "Follow me lighting technique" thread, as I believe it's a valuable resource :)

ok, I thought I would leave posting a little while, to see if someone else might "tip up". All of a sudden, 11 months slide by and here I am. :shrug:


Thread 7 was the sunset shot with three techniques to bring out the best of the sunset (underexposure to saturate the colours, and overlighting the subjects to compensate. Finally there was the white balance switch to really make the sunset buzz).

I'm sticking with weddings for this one too. A real overcast and gloomy looking day that could have caused the images to be equally dull and uninteresting. So rather than try and fight the cloudy sky, I decided to make a feature of it.

Using a similar technique to no. 7, I underexposed the scene by a stop to a stop and a half (-1.0EV to -1.5EV) to saturate and increase the contrast in the sky. Of course, this also does the same thing to our bride, which isn’t good. To combat this, and effectively overexpose the bride to compensate, I used three speedlights, each set at 1/2 power. Why three? because I wanted to spread them out a little to act as fill for each other. Also, using three speedlights at a lower power setting means they’ll recycle quicker than using one at full power.

I also needed the speedlights to be far enough away, to be out of frame. No modifiers were used, other than stofens, mainly due to the distance and the fact any modifier would just eat power anyway. Plus, as I’ve already mentioned, using three speedlights would help fill any shadows, thereby reducing that “hard lit” look.

Before anyone asks about the radio triggers, they are Yongnuo RF-602 and they can be bought from [user]Flash In The Pan[/user]

Taken at Beeston Manor, near Hoghton which is not far from junction 3 of the M65 (Superb wedding venue with great staff and owners who really look after their guests and it has excellent photo opportunities too. I highly recommend it )

Many thanks to my rather unassuming and beautiful young bride, Louise.

D3 1/250th ISO100 24-70mm f6.3

WedFayre_103.jpg

EDIT : Re-uploaded image, as original link broke​
 
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Interesting. Never really though of using multiple speedlights to soften the light.

Can you post a SOOC version? Then we can see how the lights are really working.
 
Hi Jonathan,

Nice to see you at Focus, although I didn't get to speak to you. I spent my time with Garry, although you were all very busy.
I'm rubbish at remembering to get the Behind The Scenes shots, as that would really highlight the effectiveness. I'll dig out the Raw and sort a SOOC Jpeg conversion for you.
 
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Cracking shot, very inspirational and got me looking at all the other follow me threads :)

The only one thing I'd say is to clone out or crop the black blob on left which I assume is a tree :)
 
Calzor Suzay said:
The only one thing I'd say is to clone out or crop the black blob on left which I assume is a tree :)
Click to expand...

yep, and something I wish I had done right at the start. The image has been so widely seen now, changing it at this point is somewhat moot.
 
This is in response to Jonathans request for the SOOC image.
Glad you asked, Jonathan, as I also came across an image that was the test shot for the setting, without additional lighting.

The image on the left is a standard exposure with no additional lighting, and correctly exposed for the scene. Pretty bland and flat eh?
The image on the right is straight out of camera with exposure and lighting as above. And yes, the horizon is cock-eyed! :puke:
Both images had to be converted from the raw files (I only shoot raw). Converted via Lightroom, with no processing as such, just conversion. Resized and combined in photoshop for here.
Combined.jpg
 
Thanks. Yeah, lighting makes all the difference.

Oh look, I copied you :D 'xactly the same plan - drop the sky a bit for drama, light the front. Shoot in a place that Uncle Bob won't get anything like :)

VA_152459.jpg


Lit with a Safari to camera left. IIRC all we had to hand to soften the light was a shoot through brolly (this was an impromptu bit between church and reception. Exif says we were in the field for 3m 15s and we had problems with the PWs. My brand new assistant was looking a little shell shocked...)
 
:LOL::clap:
Nice one Jonathan, that's a cracker.
That was the sky I was hoping for, but didn't get.
Looks like we were at the same "School of Horizons", although I'm betting yours was deliberate. (y)

Anyone reading this thread should be able to easily see the advantage in going that little bit further than most of your competitors. This technique will work in good and bad weather, with equally dramatic results.

Thanks for the example Jonathan
 
Michael Sewell said:
<snip>

I also needed the speedlights to be far enough away, to be out of frame. No modifiers were used, other than stofens, mainly due to the distance and the fact any modifier would just eat power anyway. Plus, as I’ve already mentioned, using three speedlights would help fill any shadows, thereby reducing that “hard lit” look.

<snip>
Click to expand...

Why did you use Stofens? They do nothing when used outside, other than waste huge amounts of power... :thinking:
 
Hi Hoppy, nice to catch up with you :)

Two reasons for the stofens, and the first isn't a biggy, but the stofen throws the light around, pretty much like a bare bulb, meaning the light will illuminate more of the foreground. The second reason is more important for me. The stofens give me a visible confirmation that the speedlights fired, as I'm usually behind them.
And third reason, not actually in force for this shot, the stofens hold gels in place real well :)
 
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Michael Sewell said:
Hi Hoppy, nice to catch up with you :)

Two reasons for the stofens, and the first isn't a biggy, but the stofen throws the light around, pretty much like a bare bulb, meaning the light will illuminate more of the foreground. The second reason is more important for me. The stofens give me a visible confirmation that the speedlights fired, as I'm usually behind them.
And third reason, not actually in force for this shot, the stofens hold gels in place real well :)
Click to expand...

Haha! Sounds reason enough to me :D
 
Also....on Nikon guns the "stofen" that comes in the kit automagically zooms the head out wider than the zoom buttons do.
 
About as simple as it gets really Michael, OCF, 580EXII about 5 feet away, shoot through brolly, camera right, manual mode at 1/16th power and zoomed the flash to 105mm. Expose the ambient -1 stop lower than the flash and bingo.


Ohh and damned lucky with the clouds and sun...
 
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This thread is great. Very nice pictures, and great technique.

Thanks for sharing.
 
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