Night Football with Flash

July 20, 2008 | Filed Under football, off-camera flash, photography tips | 2 Comments 

If you are a sports photographer and frequently shoot high school night games of football, soccer, or lacrosse, you have probably experienced poor lighting.  Some of the newer fields have decent lighting, but a majority of the ones I visit are marginal at best.

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Strobist is Expanding (Del Boca Vista, Phase II)

June 25, 2008 | Filed Under off-camera flash, studio strobes | 1 Comment 

To those that are regular readers of David Hobby’s Strobist website are intimately familiar with the motto, LESS GEAR, MORE BRAIN, BETTER LIGHT, however, that tagline has been recently replaced with LEARN TO LIGHT.   The enormous popularity of David’s website over the past two years has caused hundreds of thousands of photographers to take their on-camera flashes, off-camera and create awesome images using relatively inexpensive equipment.  

With the knowledge he has given to the photographic community with regards to small flashes, David is now expanding his Strobist site to discuss the use of other lighting equipment — mainly studio strobes.  

As David wrote in his post Birthdays, Heresies and Watt-Seconds:

I don’t care if they are using speedlights, Profotos or magnesium powder. Light is light. And we may as well be learning from the folks who are working at the highest levels.

Year three of Strobist should be filled with more interesting reading and learning.

-30-

Mount Mat Madness V

January 22, 2008 | Filed Under off-camera flash, wrestling | Leave a Comment 

Saturday I spent the entire day at the 5th annual Mount Mat Madness tournament. This is one of the toughest high school wrestling tournaments on the east coast. For anyone who loves the sport of wrestling, this is a must-see event.

I was on-hand to shoot some key semi-finals matches as well as all of the championship finals matches.

The lighting inside of the athletic center at CCBC is nothing spectacular, so I brought my trusty speedlight setup with me.

A very nice balcony along one side of the building provided a great location for me to mount my two speedlights. Using superclamps, I could easily mount them to the railing on the balcony.

I set my two Canon 580EXs at 1/4 +0.3 power; 105mm zoom and pointed the lights slightly inward towards the center of the mat and aiming at the far end of the mat. You can see a view from the balcony as they were setting up the mat for the finals. Once the lights were in place, it was time to head down matside to get my camera settings worked out.

I snapped a few shots of people walking across the mat and by checking my histogram on the camera, determined ISO 400; f/5.0; 1/250s was pretty close. I set my WB to daylight and was ready to go.

The finals did not disappoint — there was some fantastic wrestling and I was able to watch it on my belly at the edge of the mat. I’m already looking forward to MMM-VI!

First Bridal Shoot

January 5, 2008 | Filed Under bridal, off-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

Today I was on location in Germantown, MD to photograph my first Bridal Shoot. The morning started out in front of the Black Rock Center for the Arts building. With the temperatures in the upper 30’s, not much time was spent outdoors. We quickly ran across the street to continue the shoot inside the Germantown library.

The fine folks at the library allowed us to setup and shoot in the beautiful rotunda area that they have.

Emily, the bride, was married back in May but never had a bridal session, so she was excited to put back on the wedding dress and have a couple hours of once again being the center of attention.

Many of the library patrons would come over and watch with much interest. So, if you ever want to not be noticed, don’t put on a wedding dress.

Follow the bouncing ball

December 23, 2007 | Filed Under basketball, off-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

I had an assignment to shoot the Hampton at UMBC basketball game at the RAC Arena yesterday. I’ve been to this arena in the past and know it is as dimly lit as the average high school gym — boo. Usually college events have better lighting, but this is not the case at UMBC.

I brought two flashes with me to mount to the railings on the upper level to add a bit more light to the scene. Here is a shot from the other end of the court to show my setup.

I set the flashes to 1/4 power and 70mm zoom. I aimed each towards the center of the court. With this setup, I was able to shoot at ISO 200; f/2.8; 1/250.

UMBC came away with the win 83-65.

Halloween House

October 17, 2007 | Filed Under exterior, off-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

I just returned from an assignment to shoot a home here in Bel Air that goes all out in decorating for Halloween. I purposely arrived at sunset so I could make good use of the sky as well as see the lights on display.

This shot was taken at 6:50p — about 20 minutes after sunset.

To make the sky look even more blue, I set my camera’s white balance to tungsten. The rest of the camera settings were 1/4 sec SS, ISO 200, f/5.6.

I also used two off-camera strobes, both with a CTO gel to match my tungsten setting of the camera. One Vivitar 285 at 1/8 power on lightstand about 15 feet in front of left side of house. Second Vivitar 285 at 1/2 power in my right hand over my head pointed at front door area.

This technique works great for portraits taken at dusk with the sky in the background.

Welcome Maestra!

October 1, 2007 | Filed Under events, off-camera flash, on-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

On Friday night the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened it’s 2007 season at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This night also welcomed Maestra Marin Alsop, the first woman to head a major American symphony.

For this night, I was contracted to photograph the “after-party” consisting of candids and some posed shots for the BSO of the cast and BSO donors. To help light the room and subjects, I utilized two off-camera strobes, as well as an on-camera flash for fill light.

There were approximately 300 in attendance, and the mood of the night was extremely up-beat. I’m sure the champange and food helped, but in general I think everyone was extremely pleased with the nights performance.

Sun and Flash

August 29, 2007 | Filed Under off-camera flash | Leave a Comment 

The sun is a wonderful light source — especially in the early morning or late afternoon. But if the sun is coming in from the side, you get some pretty dark shadows on the opposite side.

Inspired by the images of Brent Williamson I decided to try a bit of crosslighting this afternoon.

With the beautiful warm late afternoon sun to work with shining onto the subject from the right, I setup a 580EX off to the left about 15 feet away at 1/32 power. Triggered using pocket wizards, the direct flash put just enough light into the dark shadow areas for a pleasing photograph. The idea is to use the flash in a very subtle way as to not even look like flash was used.

This is a very simple setup. If you don’t have pocket wizards, an off-camera sync cord will work just as well.

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