Use gels on your flash for special effects.

I like to follow this principle.  “The more skills you have, the better your chances for success.”  I used to use this principle as a climbing instructor when teaching students rope systems.  Inevitably on some climb something wouldn’t go right, maybe a simple thing like getting a rope stuck.  The more rescue and climbing systems you knew, the better your chances of having a solution to fix the problem.
The same is true for photographers.  Every photographer has a story about a ‘photo shoot gone bad.’  Strobes don’t fire, talent doesn’t show up, permits aren’t in order.  What separates one photographer from another is how they deal with these situations.  Clients like photographers who have solutions, not problems.  Knowing more technical skills behind the camera also helps.  And one of my favorite things to do is add gels to flash to spice things up.

Creative Use of High Speed Sync

When most people think of high speed sync, they think fast shutter speeds and freezing the action.  True, shooting at 1/8000 with flash is going to freeze the action no matter what the main light source is illuminating the subject.  But what about other uses of high speed sync and flash.  Until the release of the Pocket Wizard Flex system and Hypersync (see my last post), I was often frustrated shooting in bright sun.  I needed an aperture of F16 to get the right exposure at 1/200, my fastest sync speed using my Elinchrom Rangers.  What if I wanted to use a wide open aperture like F2.8 to get soft focus and blur out the background?  The answer is use high speed sync for selective focus shots in bright, sunny conditions.  Maybe high speed sync should be called ‘soft focus sync.’

Elinchrom Ranger High Speed Sync w/ Pocket Wizard

High speed sync is critical for the action sports shooter.  If you want to freeze action and use flash, your options are limited.  One choice is you could use high speed sync using speedlights and shoot at 1/2000 or faster, but the power output and effective flash range is greatly reduced unless you use multiple speedlights.  Another option is using studio strobe packs/heads and underexposing the daylight so that the main light illuminating your subject is the flash.  As long as the flash duration is fast, your moving subject should be sharp.  But what if you don’t want to underexpose the daylight 2-3 stops?  Of what if you want to shoot at a wide open aperture like F2.8 on a sunny day and use strobe.  Your shutter speed would be much faster than the standard 1/250 most cameras allow as their fastest sync speed.  Now everything has changed.  Using Pocket Wizard Hypersync technology, shutter sync speeds of 1/2000 and faster are possible using studio flashes.

Travel lighting kit

I often get asked how I carry my lighting gear on shoots, and what gear I use.  This is a big question, with lots of answers.  The simplest way to deal with airlines and portability is use speedlights.  Today there are more accessories than ever for speedlights, and you can create some incredible images using these handy flashes.  Weighing in at a pound with AA batteries installed, speedlights are the ultimate lightweight option you can carry onto the plane with you.  But what if you want more power, more lighting modifiers (larger) and quicker recycle times for those portrait sessions?  That is where the Elinchrom Quadra does a fantastic job of finding the middle ground between speedlights and large studio strobe packs.

Figures in a Landscape

I recently returned from two weeks in Patagonia, one of my favorite shooting destinations anywhere.  Each year I go down I try to mix up my coverage from tango dancing, landscapes, wildlife and ice climbing.  This year we had some marginal weather at some key locations, but luckily the day we went onto the Viedma Glacier near Chalten the weather was overcast and slightly drizzling.  Yes, that’s right, I’d rather be shooting on glacier in overcast than bright sun.  Why?  Because you get less contrast and better color, especially the deep blue ice, when the sun isn’t out.  We hiked out to a great crevasse to photograph, but shooting the crevasse alone wasn’t that compelling.  I needed to add something for reference, and that is where a nearby ice climber came in handy.

Capture emotion.

I’m in Buenos Aires right now getting ready to head to Patagonia for a week.  Buenos Aires is one of my favorite cities; tango dancers in the cobblestone streets, colorful buildings and architecture, fantastic wine and steak (food is important for the travel photographer!).  Since this is such a vibrant city, I like to capture what I love about this city, the passion of the people.

Tilt-Shift Lenses

Landscape photography is very popular, and rightly so.  Who doesn’t want to capture the dramatic scenes from our national parks and forests?  The challenge can be finding a unique perspective or location while visiting the parks.  I’ve been in a row of a hundred people photographing the same sunrise at popular overlooks.  I don’t see this as a bad thing, nature photography is very popular and it is great to see so many people getting out and enjoying the outdoors.  To avoid getting the same image as everyone else, I just challenge myself to create an original shot.  This motivates me to climb a nearby ridge or hike down to a river to seek out a fresh perspective.  If I don’t have the time to explore, then I will consider other methods of creating an original shot.  One technique is using a tilt-shift lens.

Break the pattern.

I teach a lot of photo workshops, and one topic that is on many people’s mind is composition.  Students feel they can learn tangible topics like post production techniques and how the camera operates.  But when it comes to composition, many participants seem to think you are born with the creative gene and it is next to impossible to learn.  It’s true, some folks are hard wired to be more creative than other people.  But just like any skill, practice makes perfect.  You can learn to be ‘more creative.’  This post is the first of many looking at ways to improve your creativity.  Some posts will look at exercises to improve your creativity, and others will look at more tangible guidelines to help improve composition. 

LCD Visibility

I can’t imagine how I survived before digital.  The thought of not having my bright LCD showing my trusty histogram and composition sends chills up my spine.  I used to live in Alaska, and shooting portraits back in the film era meant I would first shoot a Polaroid to check my exposure and lighting.  Since it was generally cold out, this slowed down the develop time of the Polaroid film.  By the time I got everything right, my model and I would be hypothermic.  Instant feedback from my digital camera’s LCD solved this dilemma, but I still had one problem.  Shooting on bright snow or sand made it almost impossible to see my LCD.  Then I found the Hoodman Loupe.

Blending White Balance

Star trails and night photography used to be one of my favorite activities with film shooting.  I’d go out on a moonless night and set up a star trail image, often times leaving the shutter open for more than an hour.  Then I entered the digital age and quickly realized star trails didn’t work.  A hour long exposure on my early digital camera looked like a speckled piece of sandpaper, noise permeated the shot. But then digital cameras got better.  And better.  Now I shoot a Nikon D3s with a larger sensor, and I get results similar to shooting film. 

Nikon Coolpix P7000

I’ll admit it, I have never been a big fan of carrying a camera with me all the time.  I know I miss some shots, but I just don’t want to be burdened by carrying a big SLR everywhere I go.  Besides that, I had my D3s stolen last year on a photo shoot, so there is no way I am leaving my car packed with camera gear everywhere I go.  Point and shoot cameras are the right size, but I never felt like there was a camera with a high quality file and the advanced features I wanted in such a small camera.  That all changed when I got the Nikon Coolpix P7000.

Ring Flash

Ring flash is a special flash that circles the lens and projects right on the lens axis.  What is unique about this flash is the circle reflections and outlining shadow it produces.  This flash is often used in fashion, but it can be used anywhere.  Generally there are two styles of shooting with this flash, one using the ring flash as fill, the other using the ring flash as the main light.  We found another use experimenting the other day, using the ring flash primarily for reflections.

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