Halfway Point
- Peter O'Neill
- Jul 16, 2016
- 5 min read
July 16th, 2016, and we have reached the halfway point for this year's holiday programme. Five visiting photographers have already passed through Sedlarevo with a further four to visit us over the coming three months. We are also now at the peak point of the summer regarding the temperature and have been enduring 30+ Centigrade for the past three weeks. The temperature isn't too much of a problem if we have some cloud cover to look forward to, but bald blue skies are a photographer's nightmare and, apart from the odd day or two, we have had to work pretty hard to ensure our visitors get some decent light to work with. This has required the two co-hosts, myself and Marilyn, (featured in a Latex dress on the left), spending many hours holding up diffusers over the models to eliminate blinding hot-spots while the photographers take advantage of the shaded light. The smarter ones amongst you may smile and say, 'Why don't they go into the shade?' Well, life isn't as simple as that, it is the location and the model's place within it that makes the required shot, and some of the best locations tend not to have a shady side when you want it. So we provide shade or diffused light and, as this tends to lower the contrast, we then have to pop in a bit of 'sparkle' via a speedlight to add a bit of zip so, while one holds up a diffuser, the other pops in the sparkle via a Yongnuo 460 ll and a Godox small, 60x60, softbox. The result is images like these:
The Yongnuo 460 ll have been with us for over seven years and still push out the light as regular and as constant as they have since Day 1. Many of our visitors bring their own camera brand speedlights and Pocket Wizards but we find all this high tech gear is a nightmare, always seems to need a lot of setting up whereas we set the Yongnuos with their RF603 triggers on their stands in a couple of minutes and off we go. The only time they ever fail to work is when their batteries have died. Our speedlight set of four Yongnuos and five RF 603 triggers, in total, cost less than the price of a single Canon or Nikon middle range speedlight, give us all the light we need on any photo-shoot and don't need a degree in electronics to operate successfully. What we have added recently, as mentioned above, is a couple of Godox 60x60 softbox diffusers, and, with a Yongnuo stuck up the back of each, we can handhold or stand mount these for fill or main illumination on every occasion. All our visitors this year were impressed by the light from these Godox units and now, we never go out on location without them. They come complete with a Bowens 'S' mount to hold the speedlight, and the softbox itself folds up small and fits into its own carrying case along with the 'S' mount. I would say that 50% of all images on our photo holidays this year have utilised the Godox 60x60 softboxes in some role or other. We now look forward to meeting three new visitors, and one of our regular visitors, over the next couple of months and trust we can give as good a service to them as we did to our first five.
Having sung the praises of the Godox 60x60 softboxes, it may be helpful to pass on our tip as to how
we balanced the available light to capture the blue sky of the background and the golden sunflowers with the light falling on the model in the images below.
Generally, in the fierce light we are confronted with here in the summer in Bulgaria, a general matrix or average reading will give us the blue sky and golden sunflowers we need but our model will be almost a silhouette, image 2 below. If we spot meter the model, we end up with a well lit model and a completely blown out sky and sunflowers. In a situation like this, without wishing to take the long route via Photoshop by combining a number of images produced by bracketing, we use the available light for the background and supplementary lighting via the Yongnuo speedlight fired through the Godox soft box to light the model. (Krista is shown on the left in Yambol high street, part lit by the Yongnuo and Godox softbox).
Our method is simple, without going down the road of 'High Speed Sync' as many speedlights and cameras do not have this facility, we go the easier way. Most cameras, entry level or professional level, have a flash sync speed of between 1/160 - 1/320 depending on the model and this is the controlling factor of our method.
Knowing the Yongnuo flash trigger has a recommended top sync speed of 1/160 of a second, we set our camera to 'Shutter Priority/Time Value' and meter the scene at 1/160 of a second and, in light conditions like in Bulgaria, we set the ISO at its lowest, generally ISO 100. This will give us an f-stop which, for example, could be f16. We now know that when we set up the shot in the Manual mode, the background and sky will render as we want it to be by using these settings, ISO 100, 1/160 at f16, (Image 1). We now know that to prevent the model being underexposed at these settings, (Image 2), we must illuminate her with sufficient light via the speedlight to achieve f16 and produce the balanced image we see in Image 3. To do this we can use two or three methods. 1. Use the Guide Number, which on the YN 460 ll, is 38 in metres at ISO 1OO. To do this, we divide the GN by the f-stop required to find the distance we must place the flash from the model to achieve f16. Our calculation shows that positioning the flash approximately 2.4 metres from the model will produce the required light. 2. Use a flash meter and position the flash where it gives a reading of f16.
or 3. Trial and error by moving the flash forward or backwards until we are happy with the image on the camera back. The YN 460 ll has six power settings so it is simple enough to do.
The method we used for the finished shot of Nikki, Image 3, was via the Guide number first and, as the Godox cuts back a certain amount of light through the softbox, we adjusted the power settings accordingly until we were happy with the lighting on the finished image.
This method takes literally seconds to carry out and far less time than it does to describe. What do we do if we cannot produce enough light to reach the smaller apertures required with one speedlight to balance? We add a second unit into the set-up until we do get the light required.
Image 1 Image 2 Image 3
No degree in physics was required to achieve this and the results are what we required.
The following images are by one of this years visitors, Anneke Schram, which shows just what can be achieved on our holiday programmes with pre-visit planning, at which Anneke excels. These images are from her Biblical shoot and again lit by the Godox soft box but, in this case, using a Canon speedlight on Manual setting as with the Yongnuos.
More new faces to shoot and feature for our Model's List on our next Blog so join us again soon. If you like what you read, share us with your friends and follow us on Facebook https://web.facebook.com/photomodelholidays/
Enjoy your photography wherever you are, and stay happy. Peter
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