Firemonkeyphoto

Portraits over 3 years0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on July 31st, 2010

I have been shooting headshots of  Edinburgh University Sports Union’s committee for three years now. Often I’m shooting the same people in different committee positions. Meanwhile my lighting has been evolving. I have more kit available and considerably more know-how. Here is a comparison of my shoots over the three years:

Year 1: Unfamiliar rental kit and a wierd location. I pulled over a golden divider wall to make a cleanish background and put two light lights in the ’safe’ 45/45 configuration.

Year 2: Arranged a speedlight to flood a neutral coloured wall. Large silver brolly camera high right, softbox for fill. Using lots of large modifiers in a right space (to get the background) was a bit intimidating for some of my subjects.

Year 3: Weather was good so used a wall outside. Lit the background with a gridded flash aimed to rake across the stonework. Two lights to rimlight and a rotabox stood off a few meters as the mainlight.

I’m happiest with the single left photo from year 2, however the setup had a flaw in that it created a “dark eye” on the right that was underlit by the high mainlight and was’nt filled properly by the softbox. The lighting had to work on ten people of different ages, sexes and builds. The year 1 photos hit a problem with cases of “rugby player brow” due to the all the lighting being set high and aimed down. The year 2 low softbox was specifically tailored to deal with this, but did’nt always get both eyes. By year 3 I just dropped my mainlight to head height and made sure if was sufficiently backed off not to vary in exposure dramatically across the face or be a distraction when shooting. It could have been closer to the middle for more even exposure, but I was fine with how it fell. A subtle gradient in lightroom could even things up if it looked like a problem. I concentrated on giving my light a bit more depth, making sure there were shadows and a decent hair/side/backlight that I varied from person to person.

The examples I am happiest are generally the women. I hypothesise this is because a generic light looks better on ladies and OK on blokes, wheras a special “bloke” shooting light would make the men look great would’nt work on the ladies. There are a number of other factors that may explain it, but thats my first thought. As a compromise in the 3rd year I walked the rimlights around to form a side light when shooting the men, this was a change I could make while chatting to the subject and getting them in the right spot for all the other lights. Over all three years I used a marker on the floor so I could guide people easily into the right place.

O Me of Little Faith0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, Sports, 5Dmk2 on March 16th, 2010

When I got there, I discovered fans were thin on the ground, but I was knackered and out of lucozade and haribo. Screw it, I would work the angles and try to find a picture.

The result: Meh. However I’m “inspired” to keep lugging that darn light to other DH races and see if I can do better.

Samhuinn 20090
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on February 28th, 2010

Its freezing cold, breath is misting in the air and I’m sweating profusely. On my back is my biggest camera bag, chock full and on my front is another sack full of rope and metal. Behind me is the registry office and I’m meant to be inside it. Halloween revellers pass, glimpsing at us with our painted faces and finding us photographers still as freaks in a melange of wierdness. Time goes on and the other photographers in our team head into position, cameras in hand. I’m not in position, my camera is’nt near my hands and the kit I’m carrying does’nt allow me to make a good backup plan. I’m to be on the third floor, flashes rigged, tripod up and harness on ten minutes ago. Dan and Ania, my last companions have to move soon. The day of packing and checking, the practice shoots and careful organisation are sliding down the drain because someone, somehow got the time wrong. Soon the Samhuinn procession will come down the Royal Mile, surrounded by spectators and I’m going to miss it.

The man with the key appears, sometime after eternity (subjective I suppose) and I’m in. Racing for the wedding chamber on the second floor. I dump my sacks and run through the kit, assembling it as fast as I can. I’m muttering “Do it like you practiced, just faster, same order”. Its pitch black outside so the flashes get rigged first. Three all sliding home onto one light tripod. The tripod and each flash clipped to a rope, the rope clipped to some stout plumbing. Full power, full zoom, the throw from the second floor out to the stage outside St Giles is long and right at the edge of what my kit can do. The time-lapse camera is prepared, the cable release is shorted, meaning that when the camera is switched on, it will motordrive for the entire event. 10s exposure on shutter priority, the light goes from dim to blinding during the performance and that’ll give the camera a chance to cope with the flares. Focus checked, double checked and triple checked. The camera is clipped and placed next to the flashes on the huge windowsills. Last but not least is my two hand-cameras. 5D bolted onto a titanic 500mm F4 from lensforhire.co.uk and a 1D with a 70-200mm for some flexibility. The 500 goes on a borrowed tripod and all the gear is clipped back to the building. I’ve dumped all my insulating layers and in only a long-sleeve t-shirt I’m out on the ledge in the chill October air. The crowd have gathered but the main procession is’nt in place yet. I plan to use the time to dial in my aperture for the flashes, around f/5.6. The pocketwizard on my 1D can’t reach the flashes, just two windows down, its AA batteries are somehow kaput. The TTL1 on my 5D is fine but there is no time to swap. I push the 1D to its highest usable ISO, 1600, crank the lens as wide as it will go and machinegun the procession, trying to pan with my subjects between the slaps of the shutter.

The procession reaches the stage and its game on for my flashes, the 500mm lens ultra-tight on the performers. The 5D can’t focus the big glass at the dim start of the ceremony so I’m manually focusing. Its a BIG focus ring but a nice tight lens so I do ok. Its VERY tight for the fire-dances so I switch to the 70-200mm, VERY time consuming with all the ropes, straps, tripod set about me. The 70-200mm is finally in the tripod and the flashes are doing OK. I’m hoping the time-lapse camera is still shooting but I can’t move to check it, even as the chill begins to settle through my shirt.

Fire dances and swirls, flightless birds are driven off by painted men and the stage goes red. The Red-Men are showstealers, stacking human beings to the beat of battling drums. The pyro guy is on the stage and the flare goes off, I expose a few frames at 1/20th before zapping the shutter to the maximum 1/250th I can squeeze from my strobes. A second flare backlights the performers and the hags are on the stage. Hags tear the hearts out of the red men and the Wild Hunt starts to encroach upon the stage. Somehow I find time to trade ISO for flash power, dropping each flash to half and throwing on a warm layer. Giant insects are battling a tree and I’m switching up for my 500mm for the fight of the kings.

The Kings are huge with recurved legs, I can’t include all of one in the frame. They duel with flaming swords and staves, posing and finally one is set ablaze and they fall. The Cailleach is onstage revealling with shockingly white hair and bloody teeth. She revives one (or both..) and friends and performers begin to mob the stage.

The drummers flank proceedings and the crowd surges in. The dancing begins and slowly dies down, my work is over. The gear goes into the bags and I meet my escort home outside, we work late pulling together an edit for the BBC website and other news outlets before slinking off to the after-party at Three Sisters.

Sheer bloody persistence0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, 5Dmk2, Night on February 25th, 2010

I had this photograph in my head for months. Every time we rode to this staircase on the way out to the Pentlands, I would poke myself about it. I was certain there was a good picture to be made. I tried a few times to get myself and another party out there for a shoot, but it was only last night I succeeded. This is a pretty frequent occurance, finding a location or visualising a photograph long before it can be taken. They don’t always work out, angles don’t always fall the way you remember them and locations can lose their magic in the wrong light. This was’nt quite the photo I originally imagined, the light was far better than I had remembered and fell perfectly for the lighting technique I used.

I used my big Elinchrom Ranger pack, tucked into my bag with the head on a tripod on a steep and greasy slope. The final photograph used a gridded reflector to allow the Exposure Enduro on the bike’s handlebars to fill the bottom of the scene. I got focus by getting Simon to shine the light in his face until I managed to dial in the manual focus (using live view). The staircase was otherwise pitch black, preventing the orange sodium lights contaminating the bike’s light or the flash light.

The thing that really made the photo possible, however, was the titular persistence. Simon rode the staircase about twenty times, tirelessly wheeling his bike back up the staircase, stopping halfway so I could check focus and then cheerfully repeating. Only once did he stumble on the descent, but that landed him nearly over the wall. Each time I needed to change the power of the flash I had to run a steep marathon of brambles, thorns and a slick slope which could only be climbed by lunging for tree stumps near its summit and clawing up through the snow and mud. This process took around five minutes, the flash power was changed three times and its pocketwizard ran out of battery once. The exposure was made by bending backwards over the wall and tucking the camera hard onto my left shoulder. It was only marginally possible to see through the viewfinder. We tried triggering the flash while Simon was partway down the descent, but it seems easier to find him in the top image. One hundred and fourty eight exposures were made over two hours for the images you see here. I’m glad we made them, it is good to get them out of my head.

Mud & moonlight0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, 5Dmk2 on February 11th, 2010

The lights were backed off and snooted so they cast a “textured” light that passed through trees and other obstacles, giving a more textured, shadowy look. The two light sources were set so that they should fill each others shadows, softening the light and making it appear more natural. Blue gels were added to both flashes to give an impression of ultra-strong moonlight. I wound up backing this off in post-processing, and am still undecided about the effect. The actual shooting on the ride went differently to the plan. The first shot of the evening was a sketchy muddy chute (tremendous fun) which I shot using the exposure enduro on my handlebars and ambient light.

The closest I came to what I had pre-visualised is the first image of this post. I’d like to try this setup on a rootier section or on something that lends itself to a night-time landscape. I’m intrigued by the idea of manufactured moonlight.. can you tell?

Innerleithen winter series: round 1, practice0
neil posted in Photos, bikes, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on January 31st, 2010

All shot using my Elinchrom Ranger pack. The sheer power of the pack meant I could back the light well away from the track and work wider in a larger area of light. It also meant I could light dark areas of forest though sufficient clutter to give the impression of dappled sunlight. Care was taken to ensure the light was nowhere near the riders line of sight, lighting from the side or rear.  It took about the same time to rig as a single speedlight and the pack and head fitted well in my camera bag. Using the pocketwizard ttl’s delay setting I could reliably get a flash synch of 1/320th and 1/400th (with the shutter effect in the above and below images), much better than the native synch of 1/200th and the speedlight synch of 1/250th. This sort of increase is very valuable when working with fast moving downhillers.

The temperature hovered sufficiently close to zero to harden the track. Areas of heavy braking were being polished to a disconcerting lacquered mud finish, featuring the asthetics of common mud and the friction of an ice rink. The practice session was interrupted by a riders meeting on wether the course was worth racing, the race still being in doubt at sundown on saturday. I hope to make it on the sunday, for the race, on one of the later races.

Wild Hunt0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, phototech, 5Dmk2 on January 11th, 2010

I’ve got another shoot at in half an hour, we’d arranged to meet twenty minutes ago, but there is no sign of Wild Hunt. I’m just packing up to head on to the next assignment when my phone rings, they’re on the Royal Mile and headed over. Graham and I re-rig all the lights and set them up facing the glowsticks we are going to use to position the group on the featureless grassy field. Three lights, snooted & flagged to prevent excessive spill onto the grass. The camera, unusually for me, is on a tripod. The tripod’s head is inverted so that the camera hangs inches above the ground and the 70-200mm lens is clamped into place. This lets me hold a 10 second exposure, f8, ISO 800 to fill in the night sky. Streetlights are reflecting off the cloud give a spooky orange sky, we were’nt that lucky with the clouds, on a good night they provide a wonderful dappled orange fractal background. I missed a trick here, if I’d blue gelled the strobes and then balanced it out, the sky would’ve been a deeper more fun shade of orange. I’m still nailing down focus and testing the lights when the hunters roll up to strap on stilts and pull out swords. We do some static shots with them arranged in a vee, stacked as tight as I can get them. They move a little, creating dark shadows around themselves. If I’d had my creative hat on, I’d have zoomed in after the flash to create a black outline around the performers (next time!).

I know I’ve got the safe shot. I could go now and get to the second assignment, but I’m meeting the next group nearby and I’ve surely got time to make another photo? Plumping for extra credit, I ask the hunters to run through the area defined by the glowsticks. Graham takes charge of the flashes, primed to trigger them when the hunters are in the flash sweet spot and sufficiently spread. This leaves me free to open the shutter and work with the group. After the first run-thru, I show them the image on the camera’s LCD. In seconds the whole group is on hands and knees behind the camera (except the two ladies on stilts), shouting and laughing and totally up for another go. We do three and I notice that one girl hangs back, there is some negotiation and the whole group runs through at her pace, making sure they are all in the picture. Pop! They come through and bee-line for the camera, leaving their shadows on the night sky. Sweet. I’m happy, they’re enthused and want to see it big ASAP.

The next assignment call, its a misunderstanding somewhere, we are’nt shooting until next week. In fact the shoot never happens. That would’ve been a blow, except I took a fun photo already.

Waterfall take 20
neil posted in Photos, Neil, 5Dmk2 on January 6th, 2010

There is a local waterfall which freezes when the conditions are right. With the recent low temperatures, we were pretty sure it would be ready to climb. Last time we tried was in the dark and I struggled to light the waterfall. This time we had bright sunshine in between the snow showers and the whole shoot was more manageable. The icy hike in precluded bringing enough light to work in daylight, so I used my 70-200mm at f2.8 for the entire shoot.

It was.

Hundred Meter Club @ Wee Red Bar0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, 5Dmk2 on January 3rd, 2010

Hugh, drummer for The Hundred Metre Club (THMC) dropped me a text message. They were launching three songs at the Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh and wanted me to shoot the gig.

“Light the ***** out of it” was one of the messages in the resulting conversation. Hugh happens to be a photographer (check out his stuff here) and understands that being at the mercy of the venue’s lighting rig can be a nightmare. The photos I made of his band in the Ark were ‘meh’ at best and another local photographer suggested that the Wee Red’s rig was worse. So I came to the gig an hour and a half before kickoff loaded for bear. I would prefer to scout the location and have a defined lighting plan before the shoot, but in this case time had been extremely tight. Flash photography during a gig is normally a massive no-no as it reveals the distinctly unsexy location, removes the mystery and the interest and flattens the whole thing off. My plan was to make the lighting look like a really well lit gig. It had to be tightly controlled to keep it from highlighting the beer bottles, set-lists, cables and paraphenalia of the stage. As THMC were running the show, I could put up lightstands and set the lighting beforehand. This is rarely allowed at a gig, I’ve only been asked to do it once before.

Looking at the gig photographs I liked on flickr revealed two things. They tended to be strongly backlit and have well defined strong (almost blown out) colours. I knew the band were planning to use a smoke machine, which gave me another reason to use back or side lighting. Choosing the colours was relatively easy. I hate green gels for producing a colour, ruling that out, and purple and pink did’nt really suit the band. I could’nt see yellow working against blue and it would’ve been boring against red. Red and blue contrast nicely and provide strong thick colours without looking washed out or sickly. I doubled the red and blue gels up on two flashes apiece and set the flashes at the back of the stage while the bands set up. Four flashes may sound like overkill, but I wanted to be able to light the whole band and shoot from a variety of angles without changing the setup. One of the flashes of each colour was zoomed to 105mm and carried a long snoot, aimed towards the opposite corner of the stage. The other was zoomed to 50mm and angled so the edge of the beam would just catch the nearside guitarist.

My backup/rescue/alternate plan involved a 580EX on a Gorillapod at the front of the stage. It was controlled by the ST-E2 TTL unit on my camera, if I needed fill at any time, I just had to turn the ST-E2 on and Canon’s system would take care of the rest. The ST-E2 was stacked onto one of Pocketwizards new TTL radio units which sat in my camera hotshoe. The IR beam from the ST-E2 also helps the camera focus in low light so it was reassuring to be able to use it and the pocketwizard similtaneously.

Merry Christmas0
neil posted in Photos, Neil, 5Dmk2 on December 25th, 2009