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This Week In Photo 373: Monkey Business
By Syl Arena On August 17, 2014 · Leave a Comment
Recently I joined Frederick Van Johnson and Dan Ablan on This Week In Photo for another rousing conversation about the world of photography. Among the issues we discuss on TWiP 373 is the question of who owns the copyright for selfie made by a monkey with a stolen camera. [True story--after the pic went viral on the web, the photographer asked Wikipedia to take it down and they refused. Check out the story and see the photo here.] We also discuss how a newspaper made an appalling mistake by using a photograph from Facebook and cheer on comedian Adam Carolla’s fight against a patent troll. As always, the show is also full of random comments and laughs. Watch it / listen to it here.
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Tagged with: Dan Ablan • Frederick Van Johnson
Video Tutorial: Modifying Speedlites with Syl Arena on B&H Prospectives
By Syl Arena On July 29, 2014 · Leave a Comment
In this 13 minute video, I talk about three different reasons to modify Speedlites:
- Increase the apparent size to create soft light
- Limit the direction of the light to guide the viewer’s eye
- Change the color of the flash to blend it in with another light source or to make it stand out for creative effect
I also put my favorite Speedlite modifiers into action in a series of headshots of my favorite mensch and fellow Peachpit author Gabriel Biderman— author of Night Photography: From Snapshots To Great Shots. To see a kit with the small mods and gels that I used click here. Also, here’s the link to the Impact Quickbox that I used in the video.
Thanks to all my friends at B&H Photo for making this video possible.
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Lighting A Western With Canon Speedlites, A Chimera Softbox, And The LumoPro Double Flash Bracket
By Syl Arena On July 16, 2014 · 2 Comments
Fig. 1—Thomas and Jesse James in the saloon at Eaves Movie Ranch south of Santa Fe. Click through for a high-res version. 1/80″, f/8, ISO 800. Canon 5D Mark III, 24–105mm F/4L IS.
While teaching my ‘Crafting Dramatic Light’ workshop in Santa Fe last week, I had the good fortune to return to Eaves Movie Ranch with my class. Built in the 1960s for the filming of ‘The Cheyenne Social Club‘ (starring Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Jones), Eaves continues to operate as a town-sized set for western movies and TV shows. Earlier this summer, ‘Jane Got A Gun‘—starring Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor—shot at Eaves.
If my photo above of Thomas Wingate, the head honcho at Eaves, looks familiar, it’s because Thomas has been photographed by every visitor to Eaves over many years. One of my favorite Thomas pix is this all-American shot by McNally—who introduced me to Thomas in 2008.
Shooting Speedlites In A Studio Softbox
Although I am known for my work with Speedlites, I shot large strobes for a couple of decades before exploring the world of small flash. While I do not miss the weight of studio lights—especially the power packs—I do miss using the wide range of modifiers that I assembled over the years (most of which are still stored in my garage). For this shoot, I used the LumoPro LP739 Double Flash Bracket to fire a pair of Canon 600EX-RT Speedlites into a Chimera softbox.
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Tagged with: Chimera softbox • Eaves Movie Ranch • LumoPro Double Flash Bracket • Santa Fe Photo Workshops
Crafting Dramatic Golden Hour Light With Off-Camera Flash
By Syl Arena On June 25, 2014 · 2 Comments
Fig. 1 – This dramatic light for this shot was made by firing a gelled Speedlite through a louvered window blind.
Fig. 2 – Our set was a interior space with wood paneling and large windows. The sky outside was heavily overcast.
There are two keys to creating golden hour light with a Speedlite or strobe—gel your flash to create golden light and position it to create long, angled shadows. Both are easy to do with off-camera flash.
The first step—creating golden light—actually begins by underexposing the ambient light in the scene. As you can see below in the middle panel of Fig. 3, I pulled three stops of ambient light out by increasing my shutter speed two stops and closing the aperture down one stop. Pulling the ambient down to near black is critical. Essentially you are establishing the tone of the shadows that will fall between the slashes of golden light created by your flash.
Fig. 3 – This tryptic shows how I developed the lighting in three steps: (left) the ambient windowlight as metered by the camera, (middle) the ambient light after I dimmed it by three stops, and (right) the golden hour light I created with my gelled Speedlite. Click to see a high-res version.