New gear test shoot(small strobes)

     Last week I ordered some new equipment from Midwest Photo Exchange and you all know as soon as it came in the mail I just had to play with my new toys.  I ordered a LumoPro Umbrella Swivel,  LumoPro Studio Clamp w/ Double Stud, and Cactus V4 Radio Slave Set.  I got all this equipment to use with my  Canon 580EX II Speedlites so I would have a smaller and lighter strobe kit to use when I'm just walking around the city or out with friends.  

    I went into my grandmothers room and set up my speedlite with a 1/2 CTO gel on the door with the clamp and umbrella swivel and pointed it toward my grandmother's face.  My grandmother has a lamp on her night stand I wanted to simulate that light with the angle the light was pointing at her from and the warmth of the gel. At the end of the post is a shot of the setup.

    I liked the look but I wanted to make the image more moody, more dramtic.  So I taped a Profoto 5° Grid on the speedlite to spot the light on to her face.
  

    I was losing to much of the detail in the shadows and to fix that I added another speedlite on camra as a fill light.  I also added another 1/2 CTO gel on the speelite on the door and set the color balance on my camra to tungsten.  This makes the light on the door have the warmth I want and the fill light turn blue, this simulate a lamp lighting her face and a tv filling in the rest of the room with light.

Set up

Wilson Kelly Album

(click on image to enlarge) 

       I did the design and photography for Wilson Kelly's next album.  I had an idea of both of these location and the exact lighting I wanted for a while but never had the right subject to be able to use them, so when Wilson called me up to make his HipHop album everything fell in to place.  I knew I wanted the inside and outside to be two page spreads and these locations fit in perfectly.  For the outside I lit him with strip box, about four feet away, high, and angled down for the front and a tight grid to add separation on his back.  On the inside I used the same lighting but there were far away just out of the shot.

(click on image to enlarge) 

Workshop with John Ricard HipHop photographer

      In December I was invited by John Ricard, a great hiphop photographer, to a lighting work shop in his studio in Manhattan.  A lot of the information from the work shop I already knew from attend Hallmark and from assisting, but there was a a couple of great tips I learned, as well as getting to use some of John's awesome equipment.

      One of the points that John said that stuck with me was that for what ever portrait you are hired to do your subject wants to look good, that is your job as a photographer is to make that person look their best.  So before trying to make a crazy image, just try to make your subject look their best.  From reading about sport photography they always talk about having a safe shot, that is the shot that is not over the top but you're sure that what you good is good, then you can go and experiment with something more wild.  On all my shoots I have always tried to have a minimum of three set ups but they were just any three, now I have made sure one of the set ups is 100% about making my subject look great above everything else.  

     The second tip that has helped me a ton was when bring in you lights closer to you subject there's less fall of on you back ground. But the subject can't move as much or the f-stop on them will change on them.  This has help me working in my studio that I have set up in my garage, it's a small space and I was having problems with my lights spilling on my background and not getting a pure black.  On the other hand having you lights farther away form you subjects gives your subject more room to move, like for kids or action shots.

     It was also awesome being able to shoot with John's Profoto Magnum Reflector and the PML by White Lighting, I've set these up assisting on shoots but I have never been about to shoot with them.  I really loved the PML and planing on getting one soon.  These are my two favor shots and if you would like to see what John had posted on his blog about the workshop click here.