I'm a bit Overwhelmed

I would like to thank all of you that have expressed interest in hosting a Small Strobes, Big Results workshop! I can't began to tell you how overwhelmed I am from such a response. I've had requests from all over the country and around the world, it just blows my mind. Locations from Arkansas, Atlanta, Maine, California, Texas, Washington, Detroit, Canada, Austria, Middle East, Malaysia and Nova Scotia.

I would love to hold workshops at each of these locations as time permits. I'll be in contact with interested hosts as my schedule allows. There is one location in Arlington, TX that I am very interested in and it could be the next location.  Details later.

As you know, I'm still actively shooting assignments for clients and my assignment work is my first priority and my main source of income. I decided to offer lighting workshops because of the numerous request from the readers of my blog and the fact that I enjoy sharing my knowledge with young photographers. I thought I could slowly dip my feet into teaching workshops and over time eventually develop it into a full time business, when I no longer no wanted to pursue assignment work. Instead of dipping my feet in, I feel as though I have jumped off the high dive.  I love teaching, and look forward to bringing Small Strobes, Big Results workshops near you.

This has been an incredible year for me! Next week I will be honoring my father memory, his 1 year anniversary of his death. I miss him very much and wish that he could still be in my daily life to share all the wonderful things that have happened to me this year. Even though he's not here physically, I know that he shares in my joy and successes.  

Next week I'll be on vacation with family and friends in Pennsylvania.  Will be visiting Gettysburg  and the Amish county of Lancaster, PA.  If things work out the way I hope they will, I'll have an opportunity to meet Mr. Strobist,  David Hobby.   We've spoken on the phone once or twice and have exchanges several email, but have never met in person.  I hope to have that opportunity!

I have an up coming assignment that should be fun.  On July 26th, I'll be heading up to the Canadian Arctic to shoot for a new client.  I'll be on assignment until the 31st, back in time for the August 2nd "Small Strobes, Big Results" workshop. You can count on at least one post regarding this trip maybe even two!

Seeing the Possibilities

One of the hardest thing for me when I was new to lighting, was seeing the possibilities in a location.  When I first started in photography, I was lucky to have worked with a very talented photographer in Houston, TX.  Those who followed this blog my remember me mentioning his name in the past, Joe Baraban.

When I went to work for Joe, I had never been in a studio before, seen or used strobes let alone realize that you could actually make a living taking pictures.  It would just blow my mind to watch Joe walk into a drab location and absolutely transform it using light. Joe could see the possibilities in his minds eye and creating a dramatic scene which was not immediately visible me.  Developing this kind of skill takes time, practice and hard work.   

When I arrive on location, go through a process of location assessment.  What type of lighting is existing, tungsten/daylight/other.  Do I have control over those light sources, can I use any one of those or all of those lights to my advantage?  I mentally close my eyes to the existing light and imagine the scene lit differently using my light (the one's I have with me at the time) and what other light that may exist.  The amount of equipment you have on hand surly determines how far you can transform a location with light.

When I arrive in a location or space that is larger than I can possibly light with the gear on hand,  I still think BIG however I might light SMALL.  I'm going to let the existing ambient light do the heavy lifting for me, I'm going to use what ever ambient light that available as my fill.  I can than use my lights to accent the details.

I shot the above photo this morning.  I was walking through our master bedroom and thought this would be a good exercise in lighting. I'll show you the process of building this shot with the series of photos below.

Here is how the original scene looked before starting. Bedroom entrance is to the left of the frame. We have three windows pouring in light to the room. Two of those are at camera right on either side of the bed and the other directly behind me and to my right. In this shot the camera WB was set to daylight

In the photo below, I've added one SB-800 strobe on a boom zoomed to the 105 setting on the head in order to light the painting on the right.  I have also fitted the head with a foam flag to prevent the light from falling forward toward the floor and lens of the camera.
 

In this next photo, you can see that I have added another SB-800 on a boom to light the painting on the left side of the frame.  This was my first exposure with this added light and I realized that I did not put a full CTO (Color Temperature Orange) filter on the strobe. Remember that the WB on the camera is set to tungsten and any daylight (strobes) will have a cooler color temp. in the photo. 

I corrected the color of the strobe by adding a full CTO to it and repositioned it to a more pleasant position on painting on the left.  The results of those changes are shown below.

I than asked my son who was busy downstairs fighting an intense battle of Halo to sit in for a test shot.  I wanted to see what the scale of the shot would look like and how I might light a person seated in the chair.

I than grab another SB-800, put a grid on it and feathered the light just past and in front of his face.  The grid I use is one which was designed for a Novatron Snoot.  With a little gaffers tape and velco, the grid works well.  I might also add that I put a full CTO filter on this strobe as well.  The results of adding this 3rd light is shown here.

You throw a few Sterno cans in the fake fireplace and you have a real cozy environment. In short order, Chris was bored and and quickly fell asleep.  I wonder if it had anything to do to the fact that I gave him the Wall Street Journal to read?

The rest of the photos show the complete set up of lights and one showing a panel at the window at the far right.  I did so because this was a new window and we have not put blinds up yet, that's on my "honey do" list.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, look around your own home and pick a spot and practice with your lights!

Detroit Workshop

Okey, Dokey!  It looks like a Detroit, Small Strobes, Big Results workshop can now be scheduled.  I'll be in Battle Creek, MI teaching a 3 day intensive workshop for the government... September 3rd - 5th.

After which, I would like to extend my stay for a one day workshop on Saturday the 6th of September in the Detroit area.  I've been speaking with one individual that would like to host the workshop and is currently looking into a place to hold it.  I don't have any details as of yet where the workshop will be held but as soon as I know I will be posting that information here and on the Small Strobes, Big Results web site.

The workshop will be limited to 12 participants only,  if you are interested in attending please contact me in order to secure a spot for the workshop.  I'm excited to come back to Detroit, I've shot there twice this past year and have enjoyed myself each time.

Possible Detroit Workshop

There is a good chance that later this summer, sometime in September, I'll be teaching a 3 day intensive "Small Strobes, Big Results" workshop for the government in Battle Creek, MI.  I don't have exact dates just yet but I am interested in extending my stay to hold a one day workshop in the Detroit area.

If you are interested in hosting a "Small Strobes, Big Results" workshop in the Detroit area please let me know.  As host, you must provide a space large enough to accommodate 12-14 participant's.  For doing so, you'll be provide the workshop at no cost.

If you are interested in attending the workshop in Detroit, please let me know.  As you can imagine, it's very hard to plan such an event and knowing what the interest is out there is important.   As a matter of fact, if your interested in attending a workshop anywhere, let me know where you are.  If there is enough interest in your area, I'd love to visit your location.

I'll keep you posted on exact dates as they come available.  DT

A Simple Portrait

On the previous post, I mentioned that I was headed up to Scottsbluff, NE on assignment.  Well, in this short post I will share with you one of the portraits I shot while in Scottsbluff.  I shot over 2700 images for this client, a huge amount in my mind.  I've spent the last several days editing and burning images to disk for the client.

This is one of the portraits I shot for a campaign they are starting call "Call Me"  not really certain that's the name or not.  The purpose of the campaign is to recruitment new physicians to the hospital.  The headline "Call Me" adds a personal touch. In the ad, the pictured physician would provide a personal phone number so the prospective recruitment could call with questions about the hospital and life style of Scottsbluff.  It's often hard for smaller communities to recruit new doctors to the area.

The lighting for this portrait could not have been more simple.  One SB-800 on a stand and shot through a light panel.  I have several collapsible panels from Calumet that I use for this type of work.  I fired the flash using the build-in flash or (commander) on my Nikon D300.  The photo below show you the total setup.  I used a lower angle to include the glass windows as a design element to the photo.  I place the subject to the far right of the frame, allowing the copy to be placed on the left for the ad.

The way I hold the panel in position is one of two way that I use.  In this case, I place a Bogen Super Clamp on the top of a stand, and than clamp the frame of the panel to the clamp.  Another method would be to simply place an A clamp on the top of the stand and place the frame in between the two squeeze handles of the clamp.

I may as well show you another portrait while I'm at it!  This portrait was shot with available light plus the use of a reflector for the right side of the face.  There way a building just outside the windows on the left being struck with direct sunlight which filled the hallway with this beautiful light.  I shot this wide open using my newly purchased $109.00 Nikon 50mm f 1.8 lens,  WOW.  I just love this lens.  It's small, light and very sharp and for a little more than a hundred dollars, you can't go wrong. 

I might also mention that I still have space for the August 2 and 23rd lighting workshop "Small Strobes, Big Results".  If your interested in learning more about location lighting, light and compact check it out.

Making Time For Yourself

It's really important to make time for yourself to shoot and practice your craft. While heading up to Scottsbluff, NE. for an assignment to shoot some health care images for a client of mine, I decided to stop and shoot for myself. We stopped in a small town in Nebraska while driving to Scottsbluff that had this interesting porch and bench. I thought it would be fun to take 15 minutes out of your drive to make this photograph.

I thought I could use this setting to create a photograph that looked as if it had been photographed late at night. The porch was in full open shade, which allowed me to create the mood of late night. I set my camera white balance to tungsten so that I could get a slight blue bias in the shadow area's of the image that included ambient light. In this case, the ambient light would be serving as my fill light.

I placed a Nikon SB-800 on a Justin Clamp over the subject gelled with 2 full CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gels over the flash head. The reason for using 2 full CTO's is because if I had only used one, the light coming from the strobe would not have the warmth I wanted. One CTO would have rendered the light as appearing neutral or balanced for tungsten. By adding the second or additional CTO, I was able to achieve the warmth of a tungsten light overhead.

The second Nikon SB-800 strobe was placed on a stand and gridded to only illuminate the back of the bench and soda bottle. This strobe was also gelled with 2 full CTO gels for the reason stated above.

Here is the video we shot while making this photo. I have 17 other videos posted at YouTube that you might find interesting as well. My lighting workshop "Small Strobes, Big Results" are filling fast. I have a few more openings for the August 2nd and August 23rd workshop in Denver if your interested in attending.