One of my favourite models, Helen was up from university for Xmas break and we managed to squeeze a quick shoot in. I often travel light, especially when I'm shooting on location or on the street and this shoot was no exception. One camera body, one lens and one flash (with no stand and no softbox, brolly or other modifier). Lens-wise I used the Canon 35mm f2 prime lens. Although I use zooms a lot, sometimes a prime lens is great for forcing you to "zoom with your feet" and maybe try some compositions you wouldn't normally think of using.
Although it wasn't the warmest day, there was a lovely blue sky, so it seemed a shame to waste it, so I started by framing Helen with the cool sky and warm stonework bisecting the frame on a diagonal. I'd exposed for the sky so I used hand to light Helen. This was all at 1/4000 of a second to blur the background, so the flashes High Speed Sync mode was essential. Without that I'd have had to set the aperture to f8 which would the background into sharper focus.
The next set of images where taken in one of the building's stairwells. These have light coloured walls, so are almost perfect for a bit of bounced flash. With the flash on the camera I turned the flash head around so that it was firing over my head and hitting the wall behind and above me, creating a large soft light source. For both these shots I had my back against the wall (so to speak) and really could have done with framing them a bit looser, but I still like them a lot.
That's all for now. There's another couple of images to go, and I'll talk about them in the next part.
No comments:
Post a Comment