Cool Lights . . . I Mean, "Hot!"

"There is light you create that is a photographic reaction to light as it exists in the world, and there is light you create just because it's cool." - Gregory Heisler

The concept for this photoshoot was directly inspired by Gregory Heisler's photo of Alonzo Mourning.  I wanted to do lighting just for the sake of "cool lighting".  But my model here is a hottie so I'm calling this photo set "Hot Lights".  The resulting photos were, of course, nowhere near what Mr. Heisler has achieved but the key word here is "inspiration" - not "duplicate".  It was a very good case study so I set out to try what can be done with my modest lighting equipment.

Color Management 2: A Recipe of Speedlites, Gels and White Balance

Photo by Jun Dumipnas

In part 1 of Color Management, we talked about how to preserve ambient light and match it's white balance with our flash.  But what if you want to change it entirely?  Did I hear someone say, "fix it in Photoshop"???  STOP . . . get out of this classroom, you're dismissed!! 

Here, we do things IN CAMERA.  Photoshop is a last resort.  You'd probably ask, "Why would you even want to change ambient light?"  Well, you know, sometimes, the location you are given is just not perfect - or it is perfect but the light is just not inspiring.  

Bokeh Portraits Under Bright Sunlight

Strobing with lens wide open at f/2 in bright sunlit background.

In a previous topic, we talked about various ways on how we can beat the sun.  But balancing ambient (in this case, sunlight) exposure with flash is one thing.  What about BOKEH?  Did I hear someone say, "Fix it in PHOTOSHOP"????  Stop now . . . stop what you're doing and slap yourself!

Color Management 1: "There Is No White Light."

This is a follow-up to the previous blog post titled "Restraining Power."  Although the photos featured here are from a separate photoshoot, the same lighting setup was used as before but this time, the photos are presented in color so there was a slight modification in camera white balance setup and the gel filters.  The Fujifilm X10 was sold that morning so these shots were all taken with a Canon EOS 7D.  We now have here a camera with bigger sensor and better dynamic range so, color it is!  

Restraining Power

A lot of enthusiasts and hobbyists avoid shooting with flash because it tends to ruin the beauty and atmosphere cast by ambient light.  In the previous entry, we talked about blasting our Speedlites to keep up with the power of the sun.  This time we'll talk about keeping up with ambient light by shooting with a powered down flash.

Support Your Ambient Light . . .

I don't mean to say shoot solely with ambient and ditch your flash.  No, no, no.  What I'm proposing here is to utilize ambient light and then support it with flash (or strobe or however you wish to call it).  As much as I scout for location, scouting for natural beautiful naturally occuring light is part of the thought process too.

Pools of light, light shafts, suns rays, back lights . . . I look for all of those and think how they could be useful in my photoshoots . . . and then I introduce a flash, or maybe 2.  Ambient, on its own, tend to light everything equally - without regard as to what you want to give more emphasis.  A dash of flash helps to lift your subjects up by a notch above the background.

How Can You Beat The SUN???

Literally, with 1 Speedlite?  YOU CAN'T!!!  The brightest light source in the Solar System, there is nothing brighter on Earth, so if you're shooting directly against it, you can kiss that shot goodbye.  Back in the 70s and 80s, Kodak has been preaching us to shoot in the direction of sunlight, not against it.  But light is more dramatic in the opposite direction. The only problem is, anything or anyone you put in front of that sunlight turns into a dark patch of silhouette.

Biker Girl

The beautiful Star Villanueva once again in our blog.  As promised in the previous post, this time, we'll be deconstructing her red bike set.  We did all of her sets within a small villa compound (including the indoor sets) with plenty of possibilities.  

"There Are Many Ways To Skin The Cat."

When you have that rare opportunity to photograph an elusive subject, what do you do?  You make the most out of it.  My small team and I had the opportunity to have Star Villanueva for a few hours of photoshoot on a Friday morning.  The main concept was to shoot her with a racing bike which a colleague of mine happily brought along as a prop.  We had 1 setup with the bike and the rest of the sets were done indoors.  We'll disect the bike shots on another day, for now let me tell you about the indoor shots.