It may surprise you to learn that underwater photographers have been doing the ‘Strobist’ thing for many years now – well, almost. Using off-camera, multiple strobes is quite normal for underwater photogs, mainly in an attempt to minimise the amount of backscatter in the final image. However the vast majority of people don’t venture beyond jumping in and spreading their strobes and even less attempt to think about and control how a subject is lit. The situation IS changing – there are now a number of underwater photographers that are pushing new lighting techniques, even to the extent of using remote releases and slaved strobes – but unfortunately, flat, unexciting lighting is still the norm.
I’ll hold up my hands and confess that I fell into the lazy majority and, despite playing with multiple strobes for many years, that my lighting skills are terrible. To make matters worse I used flash lighting so infrequently on dry land that I never really had the opportunity – or need – to remedy this situation. However, as I have moved away from u/w photography over the last few years I have begun to think more and more about lighting and recognised that I needed to fill a very large gap in my photographic education.
So how to go about remedying this? Well, first and foremost, by reading the Strobist site run by David Hobby – a veritable goldmine for information-starved-but-aspiring-radio-transmitting-gelling-gobo’ing-snooting photographers. Secondly, reading Joe McNally‘s books – again, great sources of information and inspiration – and scouring sites such as those of Dave Black and Louis Pang, both great practitioners of off-camera lighting. I have also spent a huge amount of time looking at photographers’ work in magazines, books and on websites, attempting to deconstruct how they have lit a subject. And lastly I have gone out, bought some gear and started shooting – experience is everything in my books.
The upshot of all this is that I attempted a few portraits using off-camera lighting during my recent trip to Africa. They are not perfect by any means, but I feel like I’ve made a start on learning how to set up and shoot the sort of photographs I hope will become a larger part of my work in the future. One of the things I love about photography is that you never stop learning – the more you get to grapple with light, natural or otherwise, the better your photographs will become.
Shot with an Elemental 50cm softbox, quite low on camera left, Sb 600 with 1/4 cut CTO, ttl sync cord.
My original plan was to shoot Alex with a dramatic sunset in the background but a line a clouds across the horizon made this impossible. I made an attempt to balance the light of the bright sun, still sitting up above the line of clouds, with my single Sb 600 but because of problems with my cheap ebay radio triggers, I was unable to use high-speed flash synch and my Sb 600 mounted in the softbox was simply too weak to balance the bright sunlight. Instead I moved Alex away from the sun and abandoned the radio triggers – at least the sync cord was reliable. Whilst I like how Alex is lit, the light from the softbox just misses part of the foreground, bottom right. I failed to notice this when checking the image on the camera lcd in the bright sunlight…
Lessons learned – With radio triggers, you get what you pay for – I am currently looking at replacing the ebay, ‘poverty triggers’ with more reliable Pocket Wizards or Radio Poppers. When you are checking images on the lcd screen, make sure you do it in shade if at all possible. Also, you can never have enough light. An Sb 900, or most likely a couple of strobes, would have allowed me to balance against the bright sun. Unfortunately, the speed ring of the Elemental softbox only allows for a single strobe so I think an SB 900 is going to be on the cards.
Shot with an Elemental 50cm softbox high on camera left, Sb 600 with 1/4 cut CTO, ttl sync cord.
Like the first image, my plan was to shoot alex with several other Masai backlit by a setting sun. Once again, clouds along the horizon made this impossible and I was forced to shoot with the sun much higher in the sky than I would have liked. My single Sb 600 was simply not powerful enough for the type of image I had in mind. The result – the sky is close to being burnt out and not what I set out to achieve.
Lessons learned – Once again, you can never have enough light at your disposal.
All shot with an Elemental 50cm softbox on camera left, Sb 600 with 1/4 cut CTO, ttl sync cord.
The Sb 600/softbox combination was much better suited to shooting in lower light where it was much easy to balance against any ambient. The first image, of a young boy, is for all intents and purposes lit solely by the softbox. Ambient light was coming in through a doorway to camera left but very little actually reached the position of the boy. There was no way I could use ambient light to add any extra definition to Wilson. The second image – of a young mother and her baby – was taken in a classroom with light coming in from some small windows to the left and an open door to the right. I wanted to shoot the mother against the blackboards on the wall behind but in retrospect, it might have been better to move her closer to the open door, allowing the natural light to better define the left side of her face. The second image is more succesful in this respect. The hut had just a single door, partially blocked by an internal wall, and I positioned Alex in the narrow entrance to take advantage of the what ambient light was coming in. It was quite simple to balance the light from the softbox against the ambient, giving Alex’s face and arm more definition than with the softbox alone.
Lessons learnt – Take advantage of whatever ambient light is available. A natural light source, such as a window or door, can add some extra definition and by gelling with a CTO, the cooler natural light provides some colour contrast.
Shot with an Elemental 50cm softbox high on camera left, Sb 600 with 1/4 cut CTO, ttl sync cord.
After I shot Alex, his family asked me to take a few family shots. Once again I was inside a dark hut with light coming in from a single source, a doorway partially obscured by an internal wall. In this case, the ambient light added some definition to the faces of the baby and the lady in the middle, but the lady on the left is in shadow and lit solely by the softbox. An additional strobe, perhaps gelled with an 1/8 or 1/16 CTB and positioned behind the family and camera right, would have supplemented the ambient light and provided better definition to all three faces in the group.
Lesson learned – Having an additional strobe would have been very useful. The plan at the moment is to buy an SB 900 and two receivers, to give me more options in situations such as this.
These images are a start I hope and I’ll continue to work on off-camera lighting whenever I can. And in the future, my travel bag will always include the kit necessary to shoot these sorts of images. Additional strobes, a compact softbox, a selection of gels and some sort of trigger or cord take up little space but give a photographer a huge range of options and control over how a subject is lit.
Lastly, setting up a softbox in Tanzania. Lessons learned – Big, spiky trees make great impromptu light stands. But big, non-spikey trees are infinitely preferrable.
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beautifull pictures!!!
Matt you have the Strobist technique down pat. Outstanding photography.
Steve
Gilli and Steve – Many thanks for the kind comments! Still learning, got a long way to go yet I think…
Those are some tremendous photographs, wish mine were that decent!