So I thought I’d post this one as a run through of the set up. No, I didn’t take set up shots. Maybe one day I will think a little bit more thoroughly about this blogging business and actually get it working well.
So BMW wanted a portrait of Steve Quartermain for their magazine Evolution. I’ve photographed Steve before – great guy, really easy to work with. He stood chatting to the marketing manager as I ran about setting stuff up.
Metering for Ambient Light
10:33AM
The car to be used was chosen and there was some great window light coming through to the left (camera left) so the first step was to take a meter reading for the ambient light.
Good. f2.8 ensures steve will stand out with a shallow depth of field and 1/125th sec gives me a safe fast shutter speed to ensure there’s no movement or camera shake.
Test shot with Subject
10:34 AM
Next, chuck steve in the shot and do a quick test while I’m chatting to him. Want to make sure the light on his face is working well and my exposure is good.
So as you can see (ignoring the fact that he isn’t in focus, hey, it’s just a test, gimme a break) there is some really nice side lighting coming in.
Adding flash to lift the shot
10:37AM – The shot was feeling a little flat to me, so I decided to set up my off camera flash (canon speedlite) about 45 degrees behind and to camera right of Steve. I metered it for one stop over the ambient light to give it a bit more of a kick.
All in all, about 5mins from ‘Hi’ to ‘Bye’. I’m really loving shooting with off camera flash. It just makes the possibilities limitless and eases the amount of stuff I have to carry around…ok, it all comes down to laziness really 😉
