Tag: 580exII

Technique: How it was done… Battery Shot

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Equipment, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Setup for the Battery Shot
Setup for the Battery Shot

I have a couple of questions about how I did the battey shot in this post so thought I’d post the lighting setup in the form of the sketch above. It’s a very simple technique and took about 5 minutes to do.

The foundation for the set was a sheet of black corrugated plastic upon which I sat my camera bag to act as a black background. I then roughly positioned two 580EX II speedlites, the one to camera left standing up on its penguin feet and the one to camera right laying down on its side. Both were fitted with Pocket Wizard triggers. I’d originally planned to use the window light to light the set with the speedlites just adding a cool effect to represent the concept of power. In the end I elected to use the ambient just as fill with the main illumination coming from the speedlites bouncing into a silver reflector.

I’ve repeated the final image after the jump for those that are interested. Continue reading Technique: How it was done… Battery Shot »

Quick Tip: Packing Some Power

 Gavin   Equipment, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Packing Some Power - 24 AA Batteries
Packing Some Power - Spare AA Batteries

I do a lot of strobist work out on location and really enjoy it. One thing that is a real bind is battery management and how to pack them in your kit bag so you know which ones are which when it comes to using them. This quick tip explains how I go about it.

The image above is, for me, part of the solution. I simply use an old, plastic business card box with dividers made from some of the old cards. It’ll comfortably hold 24 AA batterie, enough for 2 spare sets with 3 speedlites  or 3 spare sets with 2 speedlites. This is more than enough for me as I’ve never depleted more than two sets per flash gun and only then because I was in a dark nighclub.

The dividers keep them together in their sets of 4 and depending on which way up I put them I can immediately tell if they’re charged (positive end up) or depleted (negative end up). They’re only used in my speedlites so its really easy to maintain the grouping – they’re either in the box, in the speedlite or in the charger but just in case I do also number them as I mentioned in this post on Battery Management I wrote a while back.

There are commercial solutions to keep batteries together but I like this quick tip. It’ a nil cost solution made from something I already had lying around the house.

Tutorial – A Light Retouch

 Gavin   Digital Darkroom, Lightroom, Techniques, Tips, Workflow
Lightroom Retouch Tutorial, Before and After
Lightroom Retouch, Before and After

Here is a “before” and “after” look of a beauty shot I did last week. The “before” shot on the left being straight off the camera and the “after” shot post retouch. The interesting thing about this image is that all the retouch was done in LightRoom 3 and so is entirely non-destructive. Yes, I could have done this in PhotoShop too, but on this occasion I chose LightRoom.

Step-by-step tutorial after the jump…

Omar Mansoor Fashion Show at Runway Club

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Equipment, Event, Fashion, Strobist, Techniques, Tips

This was the last show in the Fashion Meets Music tour and the one that yielded the best images although the evening wasn’t withot a few technical hitches. Thanks are very definitely due to Ande from the Dilema Agency for all her hard work and efforts, not only thoughout the tour but especially for this event.

As one might ecpect with night clubs, the environment is dark and Runway was especially so as the next sequence of images show

Continue reading Omar Mansoor Fashion Show at Runway Club »

Finest Fashion at Embassy Club

 Gavin   Event, Fashion, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Fashion meets music tour, Embassy Club
Bianca Bast at the Fashion meets music tour, Embassy Club

Hot on the heels (sorry for the pun :-)) of the fashion show at the Funky Buddha club came the second leg (not sorry for that on :-)) of the tour. This time at the Embassy Club and featuring two different designers, Cushh Clothing and Bianca Bast.

This time I was significantly better prepared and I was working on the assumption that come the time of the show, the club would turn off all their lights again. Sure enough, they did. One of the lessons I’d learned at the previous show was a single speedlite was definitely not going to do the job for me whether on camera or off. I’m really glad I made that assumption too because this place was like a cave. A very trendy, fashionable and up market cave, but a cave nevertheless.

This time I was determined not to be beaten and only walk away with a handful of images. The goal was at least one image, suitable for submission of each outfit.

So, what did I do differently?

Continue reading Finest Fashion at Embassy Club »