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NAXJA Member #135
- Location
- Albuquerque, NM
A couple of years ago I got a speedlight to mount in the hotshoe of my digital camera. This got a lot of use as fill light for backlit daytime photos and I was pretty happy with the results. It gave me detail in shadow areas that would otherwise be underexposed. Unfortunately, mounting a powerful flash so close to the camera lens also flattens out all textural information you would get from having those shadows. Another side effect was the bright flare from any reflectorized surfaces such as license plates and tail lamps. Simply moving the flash away from the camera lens solves all of those problems at the same time.
It turns out that the camera manufacturers had already figured out a solution to getting the flash off the camera. Nikon and Canon both have proprietary systems that allow their cameras and speed lights to communicate via infrared signals. I have a Nikon D700 and 2 SB-600 flashes that I have been experimenting with. Nikon’s manuals are of only very basic help with figuring out what is possible with the system. The world of off camera flash creativity really opened wide when I discovered the Strobist website put together by photojournalist David Hobby. He explains in detail how to use the limited power of battery powered flashes in conjunction with existing light to make beautiful images out of otherwise bland scenes.
This will be an ongoing chronicle as I learn how to apply Strobist lighting philosophy to jeepin and general outdoor photography.
My very first attempt at using the Nikon “Creative Lighting System” as their wireless flash setup is called was on a trip to a B&B in southern New Mexico. Cabin fever had set in after a couple of months without any trips so I took my wife down to the Casitas de Gila for the 3 day MLK weekend. They have several casitas, each with their own theme. We stayed in the Casita de los Pajaros, or the Little Bird House for you gueros. I wanted a photo of the front porch and the bird on the door, along with the view. I was underwhelmed with the result straight out of the camera. The door and the front yard were black holes while the surroundings were nicely exposed.
Up to this point in time I would fix the under/over exposure problems by shooting in raw format and adjusting the fill light and recovery sliders in Adobe Camera Raw. The results were much closer to what I saw when standing there with camera in hand but editing each photo this way would take at least 15 minutes.
Two SB-600 speedlights were sitting just inside that door, waiting for a good reason to use them. One flash went on the ground, just on the other side of the bench, pointing up at the shadow area of the door and the wood work of the porch. The other is “perched” on a birdhouse to camera left, pointing down at the chimenea and picnic table in the front yard. This looks much more like it did to my eye when I decided that I wanted a photo of the scene:
Best of all, it looks the way I wanted, straight out of the camera.
Now for my blundering first attempts at using Strobist lighting for jeepin photos. I went with a couple of friends to Gordy’s Hill OHV area to check out some trails. Most of them are either moderate or extreme, there is nothing in between. We turned around on this trail at an obstacle called Pucker Falls.
First a photo using the speedlight mounted on the camera.
It demonstrates a couple of the shortcomings when using on camera flash. While it does illuminate the shadow area, it flattens out the texture. Second, falloff is very apparent in this shot. Falloff is the noticeable reduction in the quantity of light on parts of the scene that are farther away from the camera. The dirt in the foreground is well lit, but the rocks and ledges get almost none of the extra light from the flash.
Pucker Falls, Take 2. I removed the speedlight from the camera and balanced it on the boulder to the right. Look carefully and you’ll see it sitting there upside down so the infrared sensor faces the camera. I wanted the light to rake across the rocks and undercut ledge to show just how nasty this obstacle is.
I was happy with the results at the time, but when I got home and viewed it on the computer screen I was bothered by the bluish color cast of the rocks illuminated by the flash as compared to the sunlit rocks across the gully. It was obvious evidence of flash illumination. To me, this is just as bad as the underexposed shadows I was trying to fix with the flash in the first place. My goal here was to have my flash enhance the existing lighting without making its use apparent.
Pucker Falls, Take 3. My buddy Adam wanted to go back to Gordy’s Hill the next weekend so I bummed a ride. He loves his Jeep and gets hundreds of photos out of the deal. I decided during the intervening week that the flash needed to be filtered to match the existing light. I had a Rosco Cinegel sample pack so I selected a #12 Straw Yellow gel, cut off a couple of pieces and taped one over each speedlight. New Mexico is known for its abundant sunshine, the one thing I didn’t expect on this day was a thin layer of clouds. The color temperature from an overcast sky is towards the blue end of the spectrum, compared with the more yellow light of the direct sunlight shining during Take 2. The ambient light zigged ,and I zagged, making the resulting disparity of color temperatures 100 times more obvious than my first take.
At least you can get an idea of exactly how much light 2 SB-600’s will put out. I used them both this day.
Take 4. Whaddaya know, with the gels removed the bare flashes balance nicely with today’s cooler ambient light.
Here’s a good example of why I originally got the flash: shooting directly into the sun.
First, with the flash mounted on the camera. It helps the underexposure of the shadow areas but it flattens out the rocks in the foreground. The license plate and taillights exhibit the flare you always get from having the flash close to the lens, even on the distant Jeep.
From the same spot, the following weekend. No flash here, the foreground rocks have better texture, thanks to the slightly overcast sky but are still underexposed.
With the flash mounted to a lightweight stand to camera right, shooting across the rocks. They do look like three dimensional rocks now, instead of a two dimensional picture of a dirt ramp or something. Now it looks just as rocky in the photo as it did from the driver’s seat.
Looking at this photo now makes me want to redo this shot with a second light on the driver’s side of the Jeep, lighting Adam. I’ll bet I could sell him that one!
Another sunny day of jeepin. This time I had much fun photographing my buddy Lawrence’s Venom R/C Crawler. I also took another stab at gelling the flash to blend with daylight. Roscosun CTO is an orange filter used to convert flash output to match ordinary tungsten filament incandescent light. I chose a ¼ CTO, which is used when a smaller amount of correction is needed, according to the Rosco Filter Facts booklet. I wish those Rosco people would help the Nikon people rewrite their manuals! The ¼ orange gel turned out to look a whole lot more natural than a bare flash head or the Straw Yellow filter on this sunny day.
Once again, this is shooting into the sun. Flash is mounted on a stand to camera left. The rock has good exposure and excellent texture! It is also pretty hard to tell that there is any light added to this photo. The only post processing done was to resize it for the web, nothing else was necessary. This is the goal I am working towards!
Same spot, without flash. The ledge looks two dimensional and boring. It lacks the contrast you get with directional light from a small source.
Here’s my entire setup: an SB-600 flash on a LumoPro light stand, using a Pocket Wizard radio slave as a trigger. The infrared signals of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System did not work reliably in broad daylight so radio triggers became an expensive but necessary addition. The whole thing weighs about the same as my camera. I can walk around shooting with the camera in one hand, holding the lightstand out like a boom with the other if I don’t have time to set it down. I haven’t gotten any photos to be proud of with that method yet, probably because the flash is still too close to the camera.
Most of my life I thought I was taking photographs of beautiful landscapes, or jeeps, or people. Usually it has been some combination of the three. Then one day a photography teacher explained to me that I am really taking pictures of light. The quality of that light, reflecting off that landscape, those jeeps or those peeps and into my camera lens directly effects the end result. Having that simple fact pointed out to me changed the whole way I think about photography. The ability to control light opens up possibilities I had never imagined before. These few days I have experimented with off camera flash have demonstrated to me that I no longer have to settle for “taking photographs”. It is now possible for me to create images.
I have a lot to learn. I am really looking forward to the process.
It turns out that the camera manufacturers had already figured out a solution to getting the flash off the camera. Nikon and Canon both have proprietary systems that allow their cameras and speed lights to communicate via infrared signals. I have a Nikon D700 and 2 SB-600 flashes that I have been experimenting with. Nikon’s manuals are of only very basic help with figuring out what is possible with the system. The world of off camera flash creativity really opened wide when I discovered the Strobist website put together by photojournalist David Hobby. He explains in detail how to use the limited power of battery powered flashes in conjunction with existing light to make beautiful images out of otherwise bland scenes.
This will be an ongoing chronicle as I learn how to apply Strobist lighting philosophy to jeepin and general outdoor photography.
My very first attempt at using the Nikon “Creative Lighting System” as their wireless flash setup is called was on a trip to a B&B in southern New Mexico. Cabin fever had set in after a couple of months without any trips so I took my wife down to the Casitas de Gila for the 3 day MLK weekend. They have several casitas, each with their own theme. We stayed in the Casita de los Pajaros, or the Little Bird House for you gueros. I wanted a photo of the front porch and the bird on the door, along with the view. I was underwhelmed with the result straight out of the camera. The door and the front yard were black holes while the surroundings were nicely exposed.
Up to this point in time I would fix the under/over exposure problems by shooting in raw format and adjusting the fill light and recovery sliders in Adobe Camera Raw. The results were much closer to what I saw when standing there with camera in hand but editing each photo this way would take at least 15 minutes.
Two SB-600 speedlights were sitting just inside that door, waiting for a good reason to use them. One flash went on the ground, just on the other side of the bench, pointing up at the shadow area of the door and the wood work of the porch. The other is “perched” on a birdhouse to camera left, pointing down at the chimenea and picnic table in the front yard. This looks much more like it did to my eye when I decided that I wanted a photo of the scene:
Best of all, it looks the way I wanted, straight out of the camera.
Now for my blundering first attempts at using Strobist lighting for jeepin photos. I went with a couple of friends to Gordy’s Hill OHV area to check out some trails. Most of them are either moderate or extreme, there is nothing in between. We turned around on this trail at an obstacle called Pucker Falls.
First a photo using the speedlight mounted on the camera.
It demonstrates a couple of the shortcomings when using on camera flash. While it does illuminate the shadow area, it flattens out the texture. Second, falloff is very apparent in this shot. Falloff is the noticeable reduction in the quantity of light on parts of the scene that are farther away from the camera. The dirt in the foreground is well lit, but the rocks and ledges get almost none of the extra light from the flash.
Pucker Falls, Take 2. I removed the speedlight from the camera and balanced it on the boulder to the right. Look carefully and you’ll see it sitting there upside down so the infrared sensor faces the camera. I wanted the light to rake across the rocks and undercut ledge to show just how nasty this obstacle is.
I was happy with the results at the time, but when I got home and viewed it on the computer screen I was bothered by the bluish color cast of the rocks illuminated by the flash as compared to the sunlit rocks across the gully. It was obvious evidence of flash illumination. To me, this is just as bad as the underexposed shadows I was trying to fix with the flash in the first place. My goal here was to have my flash enhance the existing lighting without making its use apparent.
Pucker Falls, Take 3. My buddy Adam wanted to go back to Gordy’s Hill the next weekend so I bummed a ride. He loves his Jeep and gets hundreds of photos out of the deal. I decided during the intervening week that the flash needed to be filtered to match the existing light. I had a Rosco Cinegel sample pack so I selected a #12 Straw Yellow gel, cut off a couple of pieces and taped one over each speedlight. New Mexico is known for its abundant sunshine, the one thing I didn’t expect on this day was a thin layer of clouds. The color temperature from an overcast sky is towards the blue end of the spectrum, compared with the more yellow light of the direct sunlight shining during Take 2. The ambient light zigged ,and I zagged, making the resulting disparity of color temperatures 100 times more obvious than my first take.
At least you can get an idea of exactly how much light 2 SB-600’s will put out. I used them both this day.
Take 4. Whaddaya know, with the gels removed the bare flashes balance nicely with today’s cooler ambient light.
Here’s a good example of why I originally got the flash: shooting directly into the sun.
First, with the flash mounted on the camera. It helps the underexposure of the shadow areas but it flattens out the rocks in the foreground. The license plate and taillights exhibit the flare you always get from having the flash close to the lens, even on the distant Jeep.
From the same spot, the following weekend. No flash here, the foreground rocks have better texture, thanks to the slightly overcast sky but are still underexposed.
With the flash mounted to a lightweight stand to camera right, shooting across the rocks. They do look like three dimensional rocks now, instead of a two dimensional picture of a dirt ramp or something. Now it looks just as rocky in the photo as it did from the driver’s seat.
Looking at this photo now makes me want to redo this shot with a second light on the driver’s side of the Jeep, lighting Adam. I’ll bet I could sell him that one!
Another sunny day of jeepin. This time I had much fun photographing my buddy Lawrence’s Venom R/C Crawler. I also took another stab at gelling the flash to blend with daylight. Roscosun CTO is an orange filter used to convert flash output to match ordinary tungsten filament incandescent light. I chose a ¼ CTO, which is used when a smaller amount of correction is needed, according to the Rosco Filter Facts booklet. I wish those Rosco people would help the Nikon people rewrite their manuals! The ¼ orange gel turned out to look a whole lot more natural than a bare flash head or the Straw Yellow filter on this sunny day.
Once again, this is shooting into the sun. Flash is mounted on a stand to camera left. The rock has good exposure and excellent texture! It is also pretty hard to tell that there is any light added to this photo. The only post processing done was to resize it for the web, nothing else was necessary. This is the goal I am working towards!
Same spot, without flash. The ledge looks two dimensional and boring. It lacks the contrast you get with directional light from a small source.
Here’s my entire setup: an SB-600 flash on a LumoPro light stand, using a Pocket Wizard radio slave as a trigger. The infrared signals of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System did not work reliably in broad daylight so radio triggers became an expensive but necessary addition. The whole thing weighs about the same as my camera. I can walk around shooting with the camera in one hand, holding the lightstand out like a boom with the other if I don’t have time to set it down. I haven’t gotten any photos to be proud of with that method yet, probably because the flash is still too close to the camera.
Most of my life I thought I was taking photographs of beautiful landscapes, or jeeps, or people. Usually it has been some combination of the three. Then one day a photography teacher explained to me that I am really taking pictures of light. The quality of that light, reflecting off that landscape, those jeeps or those peeps and into my camera lens directly effects the end result. Having that simple fact pointed out to me changed the whole way I think about photography. The ability to control light opens up possibilities I had never imagined before. These few days I have experimented with off camera flash have demonstrated to me that I no longer have to settle for “taking photographs”. It is now possible for me to create images.
I have a lot to learn. I am really looking forward to the process.
