Gear -
Canon 40D Camera, Canon 24-70L f2.8 Lens, Canon 580ex II Flash Gun, Canon ST-E2 Transmitter, Manfrotto 5001b Nano Light Stand, 8" Snoot.
What I wanted to achieve -
A long time admirer of Damien Lovegrove, fashion and lifestyle photographer based in Bristol, I wondered if I could mimic his style but intermingle it with my photographic passion of Pet Photography.
Hi and welcome to my first ever featured photo :).
I run a Dog Walking / Animal Ambulance service with my partner Jen here in Gloucester. Through this I have managed lots of commissions for Pet Photography and now attend Rescue Dog Show events around the country with my portable studio.
One of our customers owns Paddy in the photo above, she also owns the gorgeous garden that he is sitting in. Previously I have asked to use the garden after walks etc to just play around in with my camera, its like a playground for photographers, very well thought out and lots of interesting features.
After the walk on this day, Paddy was fairly chilled, it was a burning hot day, just after dinner so the sun was high in the sky, usually a photographers nightmare. Harsh shadows, black holes where eyes should be, and very contrasty blown out highlights.
Is there any point in getting ANY kit out in this ?
Of course there is :).
Obviously I wont need flash with all that sunshine right ?
Of course I do ! :)
But using flash with animals is a big no no ! ?
Only if used on camera, you can get some terrific photos using flash and animals.
Ok here is how I went about it.
I knew I wanted this style photo, any of you that knows Damien Lovegroves work, will know its a typical style for him when he is using flash, if you haven't heard of Damien Lovegrove please please google him, then buy his DVD's. His style of teaching is great, doesnt get bogged down with lots of technical stuff and keeps your interest all the way through his shoots in easy to understand segments.
Ideally I would have used 2 flashes, one as a 'kicker' light or rim light from behind, but lining a dog up between lights isnt really an option (they move around so often and if you try to stop them they get stressed, so best to just go with the flow and take it as it comes), so I had to compromise and use just one. For this reason I knew I was going to get a harsh shadow behind on the steps, but I decided I would quite like that, I was going for a 'spotlight' effect anyway so a shadow was sympathetic to the effect I wanted to achieve ie it would feel natural.
So first thing was to get a light up there, and work out how to produce a spotlight effect from it. As it was a full on midday sun, I knew I was going to need a fast shutter speed to cut out all that ambient light and leave me with just enough to appear as a pool on top of the steps.
I fitted a Canon 580ex II flash to the light stand, this is the latest professional Canon Speedlite, I went for a Canon flash as opposed to one of my remote Nikon flashes as I wanted to make use of my Canon ST-E2 transmitter which would allow me to go above my usual 1/250 sec shutter speed when firing flash. I would need a much quicker shutter speed to shut out all that sunlight !.
[*The ST-E2 transmitter has a high speed sync button on it, as does the 580ex flash gun, when these are activated, it doesnt make my shutter speed sync faster on the camera, that can never be more that 1/250 sec on my Canon 40D, as it is a mechanical shutter, instead it pulses the flash very quickly so that each time the camera sensor is seeing the shutter blade the flash pulses so that you get a flash for each position of the blade, this builds the picture up in segments, and the final result is a full picture lit by flash. Try syncing your camera above its native sync speed without the high speed sync option and you will get dark bands over part of your photo. With High Speed Sync I can use flash right up to my maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 sec which is kind of awesome when using in harsh sunlight. The only problem is that the harsh sunlight means you have to be in a good position to allow the transmitter to see the flash, not a huge problem but one you need to be aware of.]
I then fitted my home made 8" snoot to the flash head, you can use a roll of dark cardboard or whatever you have with you really to make a snoot, mine is made from a waterproof car seat cover and a car sun screen, this gives me the option to have a black snoot or a white one, the colour means the light falls off quicker with the black on the inside of the snoot than the white which is bouncing light all round the place whilst its travelling down the snoot. I wanted a defined spotlight so I used mine with the black on the inside of the snoot. I set the 580 to 'SLAVE' and 'Group A' 'Channel 1' and MANUALLY set the power to 1/4, and make sure High Speed Sync is activated. I like to set my flash power manually for 2 reasons. At a certain power, say 1/4, I know I can shoot and shoot and shoot fairly rapidly, the recycle time is fast, and at 1/4 the batteries are going to last me all day. Secondly, my light isnt changing that drastically, and if the sun were to go behind a cloud, I can just adjust my aperature to compensate, I wont need to keep going back and resetting the flash power unless it goes REALLY dark, like eclipse dark ! :). In TTL mode, the flash will change its power automatically when it senses slight changes in the light, taking that control away from me, and being a control freak thats not good ! :P. This is where I differ to Damien Lovegrove, he uses TTL to brilliant effect, and I cant fault him, I guess its just a question of technique, this is how I like to do it. Actually using TTL is a good idea if you dont have a brilliant understanding of how all your cameras features work together, it will always give your subject good light, albeit constantly changing ever so slightly, while you get on with your composure and ambient.
I want my key light (the flash) to come in from left of the camera position, so face the front of the flashgun to the right, or toward the camera position, then move the head to point at Paddy on its own, this means the infra red panel on the front is facing the ST-E2 transmitter which will be on top of the camera. The stand is also slightly forward of the camera position as unfortunately infra red doesnt bend back and behind you :P.
Ok so thats the flash and position sorted, it sounds longwinded writing about it, but in practice takes seconds and Paddy is sat happily sunning himself on the steps still. Next I put the transmitter onto the camera, lock it in place and switch my camera on then the transmitter, making sure High Speed Sync is enabled. Push the test button on the transmitter to make sure its syncing ok with the flash, and it fires ok, I can barely catch the flash in the bright sunlight with my naked eye, but do notice the snoot is slightly high for Paddys position, so quickly lower it and test the flash again, as far as I can tell its fine. If you have trouble seeing where the flash is hitting, just take a photo to test and you will see straight away if you have it in the right place or not.
Which brings me on to my camera settings, I like to feel my way toward the final settings as I'm not using TTL, so the flash is not going to be taken into consideration by the cameras metering system, so I start with a 1/1000 sec and take a look, I had actually expected to be way above that in the strong light, but it was quite close to start, im shooting at ISO 100 to ensure as clean a photo as possible in my shadows. Its actually a little too dark, so I go to 1/800 sec, and the steps are looking nice. I started my aperature off at f/8, wanting the steps to have detail all through (the larger the aperature number the smaller the aperature and the more things are in focus) but this left Paddy looking pretty dark and grey, so opened the aperature up a couple times until I reached f/4.5 which although had a couple hotspots, made the overall look and feel of the photomuch more desirable and how I interpret my original goal of wanting the Lovegrove look. The fall off is looking good and although I may choose to darken slightly in post production, its pretty much where I want to be.
Now all I need is Paddy to pose, he is almost asleep at this point, the sun beating down and the birds singing all round, must admit I was getting that way myself. At that point something started happening back down by the house behind me, attracting his attention and making him sit up and look. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I shot a few frames and job done, resulting in the above photo.
In post production, I did end up darkening the sleepers a touch more, and sharpening slightly just to bring out the textures of the steps, I used curves to bring the midtones down a touch and ever so gently applied some saturation. A small tweak to the highlights brought the hotspots on Paddys chest down a bit too to a level I was happy with.
Did I achieve what I set out to ?
I think I did, it has resulted in a great fashion style photo of Paddy, with lots of texture and life, and although I didnt get there as quickly as Damien, I feel I did get there, albeit without the rim light, which maybe could have seperated Paddy more, and lessened that harshness of the shadow behind him, but all in all I think its a keeper,and MOST importantly, the owner was thrilled with it ! :)
Final Settings-
ISO 100
F/4.5
1/800 sec
AWB
Flash 1/4 power Snooted
