My image of Dr.Robert Lanza, one of the world’s pioneer stem cell researchers, published in Der Spiegel magazine this week.
The ”before” & “after” images:
In the ”Before” photograph, my assistant stood in for Dr. Lanza in a white walled lab. This photograph was shot using just the ambient light.
With a bit of lighting this is what you end up with. Here’s how I did it.
Begin your exposure from the element you cannot control. In this case, it is the available light in the back hood. My camera was set at ISO 200. The light reading from the available light in the back hood was shutter speed 1/5 F10, which became my camera setting. I set up 2 Dynalites: one to illuminate Dr. Lanza’s face, the second with a Rosco blue gel, set up behind the smoke to make it blue. Both Dynalites had grids and grid holders with Rosco Tuff spun. I put California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector just off frame, right side of Dr. Lanza. I placed a speedlight with Rogue grid & yellow gel inside the hood. All the strobes were triggered by Pocket Wizard Plus III.
Equipement Used:
Dynalite MP-800 power pack with 2 Dynalite heads with grids (& grid holders)
Rogue Grid with yellow gel
Rosco Blue gel
Pocket Wizard Plus III
California Sunbounce micro mini reflector
Nikon SB900 Speedlight
Nikon D800 camera
Nikon 17-35 f2.8 lens
Here is how the photograph was used in the published article.
Pocket Wizard called and asked me if we could shoot with Plus X.
My first thought was… which Plus X?
Equipment Used:
- Pocket Wizard Plus X
- Expoimaging Rogue XL Pro Lighting Kit
- Expoimaging Grid set with yellow gel
- Rosco Cinefoil
- California Sunbounce Bounce-Wall (2)
- Manfrotto: Light Stands & Justin clamp
- Backdrop:Large white form core
Set up time was less than 5 minutes. Photographs were shot with Nikon D800 with 85mm lens & 2 SB-900 strobes.
Thank you all for coming to the “Location Lighting Workshop”™ at Unique Photo!
Some of you asked for a lists of the equipment we used in the workshop. We had 3 sets with models at the workshop going on at the same time: Canon with PocketWizard TT5, Nikon Pocket Wizard TT5 and Dynalite & Pocket Wizard Plus III.
Rogue Flash bender with diffusion panel, large & small
Rogue Grid with Rogue Flash Gel
California Sunbounce, Bounce-Wall ( you can see our blog on Rick’s Bounce Wall Shoot!)
Reflector:
Californ Sunbouce Ovel Sun-Mover with PermaTense
California Sunbouce Micro mini with Flash Bracket
Transmitter:
Pocket Wizard TT5, TT1 and AC 3 (All TTL function & high speed synch): we used these with the speed light
Pocket Wizard Plus III ( we used Plus III to fire a camera remotely for our group picture)
Dynalite set up:
Dynalite Road Max MP800 (Pocket Wizard slave is built in)
2 Dynalite heads
Dynalite Grid
Dynalite Grid holder
Soft Box:
Chimera 32”x24
Chimera 9”x36” (strip light, we used it with dynalite)
Chimera Speedlight ring for speedlight
*You need either umbrella bracket or ball head to be able to change angles of the softbox
Rosco Tufspun
Rosco Cinifoil
Rosco Color gels
Lightstand:
Manfrotto
Our Rosco LitePad Loop shoot and video.
Click to Watch Rosco LitePad Loop Shoot
Video produced by Hyunah Jung
Model: Hillary Button
We recently received the new “Rogue XL Pro Lighting Kit”, so we immediately had to test it in the studio. The new Fashbender is 12” x 14”. This Flashbender comes with a white reflector, if you want more kick to your light you can add a silver reflector. There are also 2 diffusion panels: one can turn the Flashbender into a small softbox, the other, the XL Pro Strip Diffuser turns it into a strip light. ”Rogue XL Pro Lighting Kit” will be available the first week of the March.
We lit our model using the XL Pro Strip Diffuser as our main light. For the hairline light, we used a Rogue Grid with an orange gel. For the background we placed a third strobe on the floor, with a blue gel and fired it through a plant to give us the pattern on the screen. We then used a piece of foam core to bounce the light from the Flashbender back on to our model’s face.
This set up works in a really small space. The end photograph just doesn’t look like a really small space.
Equipment Used:
- 3 Nikon SB-900s
- Nikon D800 with a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 zoom
- Rogue XL Pro Lighting Kit
- Rogue Grid
- Rogue Flash gels from Rogue Grid (orange & blue)
- Pocket Wizard Plus 3
I was honored to be invited as the featured speaker for NH PPA February meeting on 2/7/13.
Over 100 people attended the meeting. Thank you for coming. Hope everyone had a great time, I did!
I have added 2 locations to my Location Lighting Workshops ™ this spring. Please come join us. If you have any questions about the workshops, please feel free to contact me! (rick@rickfriedman.com)
2/23/13 Fairfield, NJ Unique Photo,
2/26 South Florida Camera Club (guest speaker)
2/27-28 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Calumet
3/22-23 Seattle, WA Glazer’s Camera, NEW!
4/6-7 Boston, MA Rick Friedman Photography Studio NEW!
(Contact Rick for registration! rick@rickfriedman.com)
4/15-16 Chicago, IL Calumet
4/29-30 Los Angeles, CA Calumet
5/3-4 San Diego, CA Calumet
Check us out at FB: Location Lighting Workshop with Rick Friedman
I was working with California Sunbounce BounceWall at Imaging USA in Atlanta, GA last week.
California Sunbounce Bounce Wall, one of their latest products has a light weight arm that attaches to the tripod socket on your camera and supports a highly reflective bounce card. The bounce cards are available in gold, silver, silver & white zebra pattern, gold and white zebra pattern and “GalaxyGold”, which a gold spot on 1 end of the card leading into a slight gold & white zebra pattern. This one is my favorite. The photographs below where created using the Galaxy card while walking around the Imaging USA show floor. This creates beautiful light, complete freedom to move around and no need for light stands.
Here are the results:
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F4 and shutter speed 1/320
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F3.5 and shutter speed 1/160
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F3.5 and shutter speed 1/160
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F4 and shutter speed 1/125
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F4 and shutter speed 1/40
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F5 and shutter speed 1/40
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F5.6 and shutter speed 1/125
Shot with Nikon D800. ISO 200, F5.6 and shutter speed 1/125
Come join us for my upcoming Location Lighting Workshop, I will be teaching S. Florida, Fairfield NJ, Chicago , LA & San Diego this spring!
These photographs are also featured on California Sunbounce FB page.
Author Jack Gantos, photographed for The New York Times Book Review outside our South End, Boston studio.
It was a beautiful sunny day when we had this assignment a few months back. The only time Jack could do the shoot was mid day, when we had harsh shadows. We eliminated the shadows by holding a California Sunbounce Sun-Swatter over Jack’s head, then filled in the light using a single speedlight in a softbox fired by a PocketWizard Flex TT5.
The camera was set on manual, the exposure was taken off the background & speedlight was on TTL.
My assistants held the Sun-Swatter and the softbox. If they were not with me on the shoot, I would have put the softbox and the Sun-swatter on light stands.
If you are going to be at Imaging USA in Atlanta next, (January 20-22) I will be at both the Chimera booth and the California Sun Bounce booth. Please stop by and let’s talk lighting.
Next Location Lighting Workshops:
2/23/13 Unique Photo, Fairfield, NJ Register
2/27-28/13 Calumet Ft. Lauderdale register before 2/11 for early bird discount!
Fb page: Location Lighting Workshop with Rick Friedman
I had a fun shoot with Adrian Walker, a good friend and a noted journalist at The Boston Globe.
Set up time was about half hour. Lighting on Adrian’s face was created with Chimera Strip light soft box, powered by Dynalight Road Max MP8. Hair light was set up with a 20 degree grid spot on boom over his head with extension tube and Rosco tufspun (to soften the light). The hair line light was also used to illuminate the smoke coming from the cigar. We also set up the Dynalite Uni with Rosco CTO, outside the studio window to blow the light in. All lightings were triggered by Pocket Wizard Plus 3.
Key to illuminating smoke is you have to backlight the smoke. We used Dynalite’s extension tube and grid spot to control the light so that light illuminates the smoke without unwanted light spill.
Equipment used to create image:
- Dynalite Road Max MP8 power pack with 2 Dynalite heads:
1 with Chimara Strip light soft box (which I have had it for 30+ years!) to illuminate his face
1 with Dynalite with extension tube and 20 degree grid spot to illuminate his hair and light up the smoke - Dynalite Uni 400 (outside set up)
- Pocket Wizard Plus 3, to trigger Dynalite MP8 Power pack (inside) and Dynalite Uni 400 (outside)
- Rosco CTO & Tough spun
Nikon D800 with a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 zoom
Check out Location Lighting Workshop Schedule!