Category: Strobist

Everything specific to off camera flash and remote triggering speedlights

Creative Vision…

 Gavin   Strobist, Tips
Lanyon Quoit

Last weekend I followed David duChémin’s seminar on creative vision over at Creative Live. It was a fantastic session and really got me to thinking about the way I create my images. On reflection I have been doing exactly what David was encouraging albeit unaware. Case in point would be my recent visit to Lanyon Quoit just outside Penzance.

I went there at probably the worst time of the day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. The light was very bright and very hard. The scene was one of extreme contrast with hot, bright highlights and dark, black shadows. Even the 14 bits of colour depth of the 5D mk II were going to struggle to capture that amount of dynamic range.

The image below will give you an idea of just how bad the light was. In hindsight I could have tried making an HDR image but that thought never crossed my mind. Besides I’d neglected to bring my tripod.

Original scene

So, how did I get from the original scene to the image I’ve shoen at the top of this post? Continue reading Creative Vision… »

Tip: Custom WB library

 Gavin   Strobist, Tips

As I was capturing the images for my post on Bending colours to make a sunset sizzle I realised that there are a couple of flaws with this technique:

  1. There isn’t always a white wall around
  2. It takes a couple of minutes extra to do

There are always workarounds: one could carry a whitebalance card for example but that is just more stuff to carry. If time is of a premium and you’re likely to be swapping filters then time to calibrate could become a big issue.

But what if you have a library of calibration images on a CF card that you can use? I don’t know about you but I have a few smaller cards lying around that are next to useless these days. The 16MB card won’t physically hold a full size RAW image from the 5DmkII and the 64MB card might just take 3 but that’s you’re limit. So, useless for capturing images but could be pressed back into service to hold a library of WB calibration images. Then, every time the gels are changed it is simply a case of loading the card, selecting the right image and creating a custom WB setting.

Haven’t tried it yet so I don’t know if it will work. It’s just a theory but could be very useful 🙂

Bending colours to make a sunset sizzle

 Gavin   Low Light, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Sunset portrait with impact

Last year on holiday the sunsets were absolutely fantastic. This year they were nothing to speak of, mainly down to the lack of clouds. Nevertheless, with a little creative thought it is still possible to make a great sunset portrait without resorting to Photoshop.

Take this image for example. The inset is the true representation of the scene but by bending the colours of the background you can create a cool portrait, in camera. Granted you can achieve the same in Photoshop, and indeed I’m not averse to that, but as this is so easy to do at the point of capture it makes sense to avoid having to manipulate if after the fact.

The secret to this image is to get the camera to change the colours in the background for you whilst leaving those in the foreground untouched. Sound complicated? Believe it or not it is incredibly simple and only takes a couple of minutes to do. Continue reading Bending colours to make a sunset sizzle »

Popping a little flash…

 Gavin   Equipment, Strobist, Tips
Simple technique for a fun effect

This is a great little technique you can use to give your subjects a little “pop” and really make them stand out from the background. It’s all done in-camera and takes moments to do.

I took these on a very bright, sunny day with no cloud cover. Normally I hate working in this kind of light as it is far too contrasty.

If you’re interested in how to create images like this, hit the “jump” to the full article. Continue reading Popping a little flash… »