Big groups, small flash. Wait a minute! The bigger the group, the bigger the flash! Not necessarily. With the tech packed into Speedlights and cameras nowadays, the old adage of go big or go home is not always true.
The three pics on the blog today were all shot with the same light shaper. A Lastolite 4 in 1 umbrella. Convertible to four different styles of shaper, the baseline umbrella aspect of this tool is 51″ across. Big enough for a group, very lovely for a person.
And with the redoubtable group above, I figured I better bring my best game, and good light. Mixed in on the bench there are country music stalwarts The Kentucky Headhunters and Black Stone Cherry. Great folks to work with, and patient as hell. (One thing about rockin’ country bands–they didn’t mind posing in the loft of a barn in Kentucky in July. We’re talking over a hundred degrees up there.)
The above was shot with the aforementioned umbrella high and to camera left. There are three SB 910 units, fitted on a tri-flash, firing into it and it’s oriented in reflective mode, not shoot through. (This approach produces more scatter and widens the coverage a bit.) On the floor on either side of the camera were two tri-flips fittted with silver reflectors. A single SB-910 unit, fitted onto the extension arm of an Avenger c-stand with a Justin clamp bounced down into each to provide a little bit of low wash of light that just filled in the group slightly. Easy. Lighting ratio between the high umbrella and the low fills is most likely about 3-1. Give or take a few photons.
Covers the group nicely! But how does it drape itself on a single person? In beautiful fashion, to be sure.
The lovely Fallon Rivers, above, is Johnny Cash’s great niece. She is perched on a fence at the country home in Bon Aqua, Tennessee, where Johnny would often retreat to write and recharge. Off to camera right, a good 10-12′ feet from her is the good old 4 in 1, this timed used in shoot through fashion, again with 3 Speedlights firing into it. High speed sync deployed here, as I am shooting my 200mm f2 right at f2. (Shutter translated to 1/4000th at that f-stop.) Highlights on her hair courtesy of the fading sun.
And then, there is Miss Joanne Cash, Johnny’s sister, gospel singer with many albums to her credit, and bona fide country music royalty. Light is to camera left, with a bit of tri-grip reflector below it.
At the distance the light is from Fallon, it retains a nice glow, but at the short distance (maybe 3′) it is to Miss Joanne, the light from the Speedlights positively wraps her up like a soft blanket.
Same light source, expressed three different ways. Versatile, light, easy to tote around. Country music folks are good folks. CMA’s coming up this weekend!
More tk….
;
Joe, what makes you use 3 flashes in a shot like Miss Joanne´s instead of only 1 flash with a shoot-thru umbrella? Wouldn´t you get a similar result with 1 flash in a 1 person portrait? Is there any rule of thumb on this? Thanks!
Mr. Joe, I do not know why it is, but when you explain something, I actually understand the entire concept. So…how are you with differential equations??? Really, each tim you explain a setup for a shot from a book, blog, video or seminar, I understand what you are saying and for some odd reason it sticks in my head for future use.
Thanks a bunch
PJ
That big light is actually the sun?
I bought an SB700 for my D300 and really love the light it produces. And now seeing these images and what having just a few speedlights can do, I want to get the same setup! Thanks, Joe, the images above are amazing.
many thanks as always PJ, for stopping by the blog and the kind words…
i’ll use the three light thing for power, for sure, but also for recycle quickness and sheer volume of light. Bigger source of light (Speedlight source times three) makes for a richer light coming out of the shaper. One light works well too, though. Just a little less rounded.
over the group, through the barn window…yep, afternoon sun
Really like the picture of Fallon, do you use Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, are these JPEGs from the camera? Thank you
HI back….we use Photoshop for retouching, but I do try to make any image as close to final as I can in camera.
GOOD LORD, JOE. The light on Fallon is so soft it looks like bounced natural light. Thank you for continuing to inspire me to do more with my speedlights. They’re like my best little robot friends ever 🙂
Beautiful photographs. As always, thanks for the details on how you shot them.
Stunning! The lighting in the first picture is so soft and beautiful I thought it was bounced by a reflector.
Is the light on Fallon’s hair just a sunlight catch from the back, or was that produced from reflector? I’m guessing sunlight since she is kind of edge lit all the way down the left side, but just making sure…
Yep Daniel….all sunlight. No reflectors used….best, Joe