I love working in low light conditions but the shoot I did a few days ago over at Greenwich really stretched me and my equipment to the limit. This wasn’t just low light, for the most part we had no light. If that wasn’t challenging enough, add the beautiful Dilsa wearing a black dress and black hat and you guessed it we have a serious issue to contend with.
Thankfully I was prepared though. We were supposed to be shooting from sunset through to twilight so I’d brought my strobist kit with me.
The image above was taken down on the river bank where there were no street lights and it realls was extremely dark. Focussing was a major issue. The AF of the 5DmkII just wasn’t having any of it but thankfully I’d remembered to bring a Maglite torch with me to use as a makeshift AF assist light, a trick I pick up from the amazing Mr. Hobby. This image was one of several I took at that location. Dilsa was lit by a 580exII firing into a shoot through brolly and triggered by my PocketWizard Mini/Flex system. I even had issues here too – the PW Mini really struggled to trigger the flash so I had to resort to a spare Flex transceiver in the hot shoe instead. I can honestly say I’ve never had a problem with the Mini/Flex until that particular evening and the only thing I can think of is maybe the radios on the commuter boats on the river were interfering with me.
The boats were also the source of another unforeseen issue, i.e. their wake with the rising tide. Maybe I’m cynical but I’m sure their captains were opening the taps as they passed us creating a large wake that on one occasion nearly left us with wet feet.
This second image was taken slightly earlier in the evening when there was still a littke colour left in the sky. I like this shot because you can better see Dilsa’s body shape unlike the first image where the hat has just disappeared.
For me though my favourite has to be the first image. It commands so much more mystery and leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks with their mind’s eye.
To see more of Dilsa’s work, please visit her portfolio page on ModelMayhem.
