On Fat Tuesday before I headed to Santa Fe, Steve Schuenke and I went down to Galveston for the Fat Tuesday parade. The parade started around sunset, so I knew that I would be using our strobes to capture the action. I also knew that I would not be able to use the flash rig that I used at the Renaissance and Dickens’ festivals. Since I would be moving in and among the crowd, I would need to have my flash on camera.
When I am confronted with this type of shooting, I use my Nikon SB-800, connected to the camera with a Nikon SB-29 iTTL cable and connected to my Really Right Stuff Wedding Pro Flash Bracket (WPF-1). You can check-out the flash bracket here. I like this bracket because: it gets the flash off the camera in the correct orientation (landscape or portrait), it is easy to attach and use, and it fold-down into a very small package (8.25” x 3” x 1.5”) which means it can always be in your camera bag ready to use.
The camera setting I use are generally: aperture priority mode, ISO 800, rear curtain sync for the flash, camera EV compensation at -1.5 to -2.5 EV and flash EV compensation at +.5 to +1.5 EV. By using the camera with these settings, I can “drag” the shutter to get some ambient light (still slightly underexposed, reflective of the night scene) but adequately expose my subject.
The second I saw this young lady, I knew that I wanted her portrait. She seemed so relaxed and composed while she watched literally hundreds of people scramble for beads being dropped from a balcony above her. I wanted three things in this shot: her calm face, her bright and colorful beads and the glow from lights behind her. I feathered my flash so that most of the light was really pointing about two feet to her right—that helped make the light very soft on her.
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 150mm, shot at ISO 200, f/4 and 1/30th of a second with Nikon SB-800 connected to camera with SC-29 iTTL cord and attached to camera with Really Right Stuff Wedding Pro Flash Bracket.
Post Processing: Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and vibrance, added slight vignette to darken corners.
Very nice Patrick!
ReplyDeleteGreat expression, composition and color! Good post-processing work as well!
Well done!
Barry
This shot is wonderful! I think you accomplished all the things you wanted and made an image that captures the viewer's attention. Her expression is beautiful, the colors are vibrant and I like the way you have framed her in the composition so that we get parts of her hat and her beads and they frame her face. Very nice lighting too, I never would have thought a flash on a bracket just an inch or two off the camera would give such a nice exposure.
ReplyDeleteCindi
Cool shot. Love the color!!
ReplyDeleteBrian
Outstanding. You really have her calmness coming through the photo. Although the colors are wonderful, I would like to see a black and white version.
ReplyDeleteThe Professor
Yes, great color and really nice image. And thanks for the technical exposure information. I think I finally figured it out too. It seems strange to put in neg EV on the camera, but really works well to balance the flash.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steve, your numbers do not seem to add-up but in reading Joe McNally's new book, I notice that he uses similar EV adjustments to camera and flash. Now, how are you suppose to figure this out on your own?
ReplyDeleteTop notch photo. You did EVERYTHING you wanted to do with this image. Look forward to more Fat Tuesday images--I hope they are coming.
Ted
Awwwwsome shot Larry. Great exposure, color and emotion.
ReplyDeleteDHaass