Working the Land

It's great to get out there and work on your own projects, but it is even greater to share them with friends. Last Sunday afternoon I went to an allotment with my good friend Glyn to shoot Vince working the land. It was a perfect afternoon; not too sunny but not too cold either.
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Vince #1

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Here is the set up shot...

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Vince #1 set up

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As you can see the day was bright, so the first thing we did was kill the ambient, at least take it down to where we wanted it. Vince was then iluminated by a single SB800 shooting through a white umbnrella, the umbrella is there in the photo but has burnt out against the sky. This technique is easier to see in the following shot...

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Vince #2

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We then moved into the shed (that Vince and Glyn built) and took this shot. The first thing to do was set the ambient light level. I knew I wanted the sky to show through the window. I set the D200 to 1/250 at f5.6 at ISO 100 (this is generally my starting point).

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                                           Vince #2 (window ambient only)                                             

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I then tweak the camera setting to get the picture I want, this shot is to get the sky right. We then have to illuminate Vince. We added a single SB800 outside the shed firing through the window, set at about half power or so. The settings aren't too important; just start off at your highest camera / flash sync speed, the flash at 1/2 power and tweak from there. The single light was great on Vince's face, but the lower part of the shed needed a small burst, so we added in another SB800 to just give a little separation to the bottom of the picture and balance it up.

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Vince #2 set up

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Here is the set up shot; that's me outside the shed and the SB800 on a stand with a shoot through umbrella and triggered by pocket wizards; quick, easy, fun.

A great Sunday afternoon shoot; a big thanks to 'Vince the Hat' and Glyn too, for taking the set up shots, because I can't hold two cameras at once and take two shots from different places...quite.. You can see his pictures of the shoot here. We then retired to the warmth of a local pub for a swift pint... here's to the next shoot...