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My Moody Blue Location Lighting FormulaWorkshop at the Ranch Hi, and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. By the time this issue is posted I will already be in Torino, Italy covering the Winter Olympics. I will not be reading or responding to any emails during the month of February...so please save your questions and emails for sometime in March...thanks. This past year I received more emails requesting additional instruction using the Nikon SB800 Speedlights than any other topic. These little giants of light have brought new life to my location portraiture and even some action assignments. I have always liked the moody lighting style that is created when a sunlit environment is under exposed by a stop and the subject is lit by strobes. I like the image even more when the White Balance is set to cool (moody blue) the under exposed sunlit environment and the strobe has a warming gel to light the subject with warm light...(Robert Seal of the Sporting News is famous for his very stylized location portraits). The hassle was not this formula for creating a stylized picture but that I have to bring a strobe with enough watts/second to over power the sun and achieve a one stop under exposed environment (ex: 1/250 sync speed of the camera with an aperture of f16 at ISO100). A normal hotshoe strobe reaches light to a subject about 3 feet away at f16 and it drains the battery too. It can also be overwhelming lugging around heavy and expensive battery packs, lightstands, soft boxes, sand bags ...etc. onto the playing field, track, velodrome, ski slope for a "quick" portrait.....and there aren't many AC outlets on the beach that I have ever seen. If only the sync speed were faster when I used a flash, like 1/2000 or 1/4000 or more!.......WOW, then I could use an aperture of f5.6 or f4 or even f2.8. No more f16 draining the life from my strobe. The Nikon SB800 Speedlights are a terrific answer. They are small, powerful, remote, have i-TTL capability and allow the photographer to sync at shutter speeds up to 1/8000 of a second. Having the ability to use a high shutter speed which then allows me to use an aperture like f2.8 or f4 for an outdoor portrait in full sunshine opens up so many possibilities. Here are some examples............... ***The camera and SB800 set up used for image #1 can be used as a general model or formula for the next three images. The settings might vary slightly depending on the amount of depth of field I want and how stylized I want the light to reveal my subject from the environment.***
The more I use these SB800 Speedlights the more I find applications for them and the more interesting the pictures I produce. This formula is not the only way to light outdoors but is to be used as a guideline to which your own lighting situations can be created. Remember.....by the time you read this Workshop at the Ranch I will already be in Italy for my 12th Olympic Games. I will not be reading or responding to any emails during the month of February ... so please hold any emails or questions you might have for sometime in March...thanks. Well.....Get ready for some Winter Olympic images next time at Workshop at the Ranch. Adios, Dave
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Image
#1 I photographed many "on the run" location portraits
this football season. This basic formula was used: I determine
the exposure for the environment and then underexposed the
image purposely by 1 stop. I set my WB at 3600K which cools
(blue) the environment (background). I must set the Nikon
D2X Flash Sync Speed Setting on Auto FP (custom setting
e1 ....this allows the camera to sync with Nikon SB800 Speedlights
at shutter speeds higher than 1/250.) I then used 2 SB800
Speedlights strapped together (tandem) creating twice the
power in a remote, handheld package. I also placed the warming
gel that comes standard with each SB800 over each of the
remote Speedlights to counter the cool WB of 3600K environment
and light my subject with warm light that resembles golden
sunset lighting. A few test shots on a sideline volunteer
helped me determine how much to dial up or down the power
output of the remote "tandem" SB800s from the
Master. The Master SB800 on the hotshoe of my Nikon D2X
is only used as a Master (set with no power output of its
own) to set the power output of my remotes, relay the i-TTL
information and trigger the tandem remotes. The result is
that my subject's face and chest area is revealed from the
under exposed cool environment with warm light from the
remote tandem SB800s creating a stylized picture while on
the run. Nikon D2X, ISO100, 1/2500 at f5, WB 3600K, Nikon
12-24mm Lens, the remote tandem SB800 Speedlights as described
in this article are set at a power output of +2.3, Lexar
4G Flash Card. 
Image #2 The classic application for this formula is generally
found in stylized sport and fashion portraiture. I will shoot
directly against the sun....why?, ... because I like the way
the clouds are illuminated...simple as that. This image illustrates
the use of 4 remote SB800 Speedlights (2 groups of 2 SB800s.)
The tandem SB800s in my assistant's right hand is designated
Group A on the Master and is aimed at the Goalie's face and
has a power out put of +3 while the tandem SB800s in his left
hand is designated Group B on the Master and is aimed at the
soccer ball and has an out put of +2. Brad is standing approximately
7 feet from our subject. Each SB800 is zoomed to 85mm to help
narrow the throw of light...(this helps create some interesting
fall off shadows on my subject for some extra mood.) I determine
the exposure for the environment (take a shot-take a look...the
sky is ISO100 1/3200 at f4), then I under expose the scene
as much or as little as I want....I choose 1 stop darker...ISO100,
1/6400 at f4 and use a WB of 3600K to cool (blue) the sky
which is my environment (background). Then I bring the subject
in and tell my assistant where to aim the Speedlights and
take a shot-take a look. Not bad for the first frame but the
my LCD screen on the D2X camera is indicating a flashing highlight
on our subjects forehead. The Group A remote tandem Speedlights
that illuminate the goalie's face have too much power output,
so I dialed the power down a little on Group A from +3 to
+2.3.
Image #3 The next frame looks better now that the Group
A remote tandem SB800s are dialed down to +2.3. I can now
recompose and shoot. The convenience of increasing or decreasing
the power output directly from the Master SB800 on the hotshoe
of the D2X keeps me working with my subject and not running
around adjusting lights and power packs. Nikon D2X, ISO100,
1/5000 at f4, WB3600K, Nikon 12-24mm Lens, the SB800 Speedlights
are as described, Lexar 4G Flash Card. In general, the same
formula as image #1 with some modifications that included
an additional remote tandem SB800 set up to light more than
just our subjects face and chest. The SB800s with warming
gels reveal about 3/4 of my subject and the soccer ball
from being silhouetted against the under exposed 3600K cool
(moody blue) environment with a warm sunset light produced
by the remote SB800 Speedlights.
Image #4 This image uses the same stylized moody blue formula
as our portrait, but thanks to the Nikon D2X FP Flash Sync
Speed custom setting allowing me to sync at faster than 1/250,
I can also freeze the action. Instead of facing into the setting
sun, (image #3) I have repositioned myself to the opposite
side of my subject. Why?....because now I liked the clouds
forming in the Northeast sky...simple as that. This change
of position took less than 1 minute whereas if I were using
power packs, softboxes, lightstands etc. it would have taken
30 minutes to set up again. The Northeast sky exposure was
1/1250 at f4 so I under exposed 1 stop to 1/2500 at f4, same
basic formula as before, same equipment, same 2 groups of
tandem Speedlights hand held by my assistant, Brad standing
to my left and about 8 feet from our subject (see Speedlights
in the upper left-hand corner of the image). My subject is
jumping on a trampoline so as to perform his bicycle kick
above the houses. The SB800 Speedlights made it much easier
for Brad to follow our jumping subject rather than having
lightstands and fixed positioned strobes, power packs, sand
bags, cords, etc. The i-TTL capability of the SB800s keeps
the subject lit consistently while flying through the air,
therefore I kept the power output the same as the portrait
with Group A set at +2.3 and Group B set at +2. We had a gusty
wind situation that normally makes outdoor location lighting
unnerving, but with the ease of the hand held Nikon SB800s
my biggest concern of the shoot was chasing the soccer ball
when it flew over the fence a few times. 