Behind-the-scenes of the rooftop pool shoot

A week or so ago posted a picture of a lady in a blue dress next to a swimming pool and in this post, I wanted to go along give some insight into the background and the behind-the-scenes of making that shot.

I had with me my Elinchrom Quadra along with my Elinchrom 100 cm x 100 cm softbox hoisted up high on a light stand. Luckily for me, I had an assistant holding the light as the wind was blowing a gale without their assistance there was no way I could use any sort of like fodder modifier like a softbox as a thing was turned into Mary Poppins and flown off the roof.

In the shop below you can see that I had softbox roughly about 3 m away from the model. The placement of the softbox was as close as I can get without having the shot and I did this on purpose to ensure that had soft as possible light. Because of the high winds, I removed both external and internal diffusers as there was a high chance they were going to blow off the roof, and I really didn’t want to go collect them. 🙂

Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot
Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot

As you can see shot was taken in full sun’s on the left side of the model without the artificial lighting that part of her body would have been incomplete shadow and to be honest would have looked like crap, so the only way to get around that is to punch a light into the shadows to reduce the contrast between the left side of her body and the right side that was in the sun.

The light itself is fired by a remote trigger that sits on top of my camera gives me about 70 m range so was able to get back a considerable way and take the shot using a 200 mm lens.

After a little bit of mucking around and getting the exposure right to rest, you could say is history.

Model by the pool
Model by the Pool

Strange Birthday Party and Birthday Party Lights.

I must say as an event photographer that gets to also travel where ever the events are, I attend all sorts of parties but yesterday was a first for me.   While it was  a party it wasn’t for anyone but for the 1st birthday of FRoC (Female Riders of Canberra).

These are a bunch of motorcycle riders that just wanted to have a club for the ladies and it was their first birthday yesterday so why not get a portrait photographer to come along and get photos of the ladies with their bikes as a way to celebrate?

So that is what I did. 🙂

This shoot was different, though.  I knew the ladies wanted to get shots with their bikes and I know they would want the best lighting possible and I knew that my largest softbox was only 90cm x 90cm that is great for single or couple shots it isn’t really big enough for things like people and bikes unless I gang a few of them together.

Having done that a heap I wanted to avoid it as it brings in its only problems and as I also want to start to photograph the larger object or using a single light source I bit the bullet and bought a new 190cm Elinchrom Litemotiv and to say it is huge is an understatement.

Elinchrom Litemotiv 190cm used to photograph multiple motorbikes in full midday sun.
Elinchrom Litemotiv 190cm used to photograph multiple motorbikes in full midday sun.

It is fair to say after using it for this shoot and the amount of light and quality that this  pushes out in full midday sun, this is now a valuable part of my portrait and event arsenal.

Throwing my assistant in to be my model while setup the lights.
Throwing my assistant in to be my model while setup the lights.

As you can see from the image above there is very little shadow and it is almost impossible to see any bright patches on the grass from the massive 190cm Octa.  Very nice I must say.

Some more playing with this new softbox is on the card in the coming weeks to see where I can push it, which I will add should be a lot of fun. 🙂