Peru is a beautiful dream in so many ways. The ocean, the desert, the lush highlands, and then of course, the magical city of Lima. So much elegance, and beauty everywhere, sometimes ornate, sometimes stark. As a photog, it’s exhausting, ’cause you want to shoot, you know, everywhere.
Claudia Maria, pictured above, is one of the people you love to work with, as she simply owns the camera as soon as she steps in front of the lens. Her look, her gown, matches the historically gorgeous main district of Lima, resplendent with architecture from long ago. These venues are invitations to put your camera to your eye.
So, here’s the thing. We just ran this picture on our Instagram account, and there were some questions about the lighting. In contrast to the intricate beading on her dress, and the nighttime allure of the picture, the lighting is dead bang simple, pedestrian really. Beauty combo, over and under, two Nikon SB-910 Speedlights. Lastolite Ezybox HotShoe softbox, with the white interior, giving the light a little smoothness, as opposed to the snap of a silver inside. You can see the upper is unfettered, open front, while the low light has a fabric grid, containing the spill. Tried and true C-stands. SB910 units, with SD-9 battery packs, triggered wirelessly with a flash commander at camera. Sounds old school now, in this age of radio TTL.
Certain adjustments were made, as you can see in the banner photo. An apple box for height. (As if she needed any more, given the fashion shoes!) Slow shutter, so Gitzo Systematic tripod for the camera. Nikon D810, fitted with a Nikkor 70-200mm, at 2.8, 1/30th of a second, ISO 400. Shot on aperture priority. Flashes were adjusted via TTL here and there, and I might have used manual values once I got things dialed in. Can’t really remember.
But, I do remember Peru, fondly. Wonderful people. The crew at La Casa Films. Pizza by Raffi! The fact that I ate an entire red pepper in a bar at Lima and thought I had ingested a flame thrower into my throat. The ceviche. The beer. The memory of running off a cliff with a lawnmower engine and a large fan tied to my back for beach aerials. Need to go back there.
A fun BTS video from the adventure…
I was thinking of using this one, though instead, but at the end of the day, it just lacked a little, well, a lot, of, well….everything. :-))))
So….elegant light for an elegant lady. But at its core, super simple. Thanks for the questions on Instagram! More tk….
As always, great information. Don’t miss the video, people!
Nice work! Also, I’m glad to see your assistants know how to use c-stands and sandbags – lots of people get that wrong. (Sandbags off the ground, etc.)
Very handsome model on the last picture 🙂 , but seriously, have a question, now you have radio controlled sb5000, but in those days of optical cls, was there any asignment you couldn’t do because of limitations with the speedlights? Curious to know, because I still love optical triggering.
Oh sure…..there were obstacles that just couldn’t be overcome with line of sight ttl. You could work out optical triggering manually, and get by, but the idea of seeing that commander flash was sometimes limiting. Best, Joe
Thanks, yeah, gotta keep those lights from tipping over!
Many thanks, Dan!
Thank you Joe. One query. The ambient light is yellow but the background in the final image appears orange. Please throw some light on this. Was it Kelvin settings in camera or post processing ?Thanks in advance.
Awesome work, There is so many types of lighting and modifiers. And choosing what works well for you, is key to your photography work. With basic soft boxes and one or two lights you can achieve anything.
Joe, I know it’s an old photo, but is there any chance you can make a post about how you did the picture of the dog and his trainer in the circus? I believe that was something you made for Nikon, if I’m not wrong. Thanks.
Hi Jorge…I’ll try, perhaps to give it a go on my blog at some point…all the best, and thanks for stopping by the blog…Joe
Interesting! ??