Saturday was the culmination of a long process: the first Northeastern DPC Strobists workshop. This was an event that I’d had in mind for several years, finally brought to fruition, and man was it ever a blast! Ten photographers descended on the Pocono Inn’s conference room for a full day of studio shooting. We had a full range of awesome models, shot with everything from single Speedlights to mutli-light Alien Bees rigs, and totally rocked the dumpster out back! (More on that later…)
We began the morning with models in the studio; I had my full Speedlite rig setup and we worked through several lighting variations, ending with a clamshell lighting setup that worked great with our beautiful model:
I got wrapped up in shooting and didn’t get setup shots like I should have, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the lighting ratios were – we simply changed camera settings and moved the lights until they worked. And they did work.
What I can tell you is a couple of points that quickly became clear, through working with the models and through the insight of some of the more experienced photogs present. First off, when it comes to working with models, you’ve got to keep them in motion – just get them to move in different ways, and have the camera to your eye to capture the perfect moments when they come. Give them direction, encourage them, get them to repeat poses and movements that worked. Models – especially inexperienced ones – are usually looking for some form of guidance; you’ve got to let them know what you want them to do, know that you’re engaging with them, otherwise they freeze up and get nervous.
Second, I’ve come to the conclusion that the pop-up flash on the Canon 7D is just too weak; the built-in commander mode is wonderful, but even working in my corner of the conference room, it didn’t gave the power to trigger the slaves consistently. Suck it up and buy an extra 580EX(II) and slap in on the hotshoe in Master mode and then go to town. The 580EX throws a ton of light and triggers the slaves every time. And from my understanding, the new 580EX II will talk to the 7D, giving you control over features directly from the camera.
(And there’s a rumor going ’round that Canon is about to release a new Speedlite… Something even better than the 580EX II, to counter the Nikon SB-900?)
Finally, if you really want to kick your model shots up a notch, get some motion in them. A $40 pedestal fan from Lowes got Alli’s hair blowing around and gave a whole other dimension to the photos. I scrapped the stand that came with the fan and slid part of it’s post over the top of a lightstand – fit perfectly, and gave me an adjustable height range. The two shots posted above wouldn’t be half as good if her hair was just lying there motionless.
While I was playing with Speedlites, Tony in the next room had his entire studio setup going; we’re talking a massive muslin background, several Alien Bees lights with modifiers, an iMac, everything but the kitchen sink. I didn’t tap into that setup – big strobe setups aren’t really my thing – but I did step in and shoot a few frames with one of the afternoon models, sort of over Tony’s shoulder. While he blasted away with the big guns, this is just a 580EX on-camera, bounced off the ceiling, with the 70-210mm f/4 wide open:
It’s warm from the bounce off the tan ceiling tiles, and there’s just a bit of softness that comes from using that particular lens fully zoomed, combined with the f/4 aperture. Simple, but elegant, and not at all bad for bounce light. This is the Strobist concept: you can hit a model from all angles, with multiple monoblocs, and get one look; or you can hit them with a single, bounced Speedlite and get a completely different look. One is no more valid than the other, they’re just different ways of doing the same job, and having both setups on site that day made it really easy to see the ways they differed.
We closed out the workshop shooting outside, which is a story I’ll continue in the next post.
In the meantime, I want to wrap this one up with a final impression – this Strobist workshop was the most fun I’ve had with a camera in ages. I cannot over-estimate how helpful it was to be there participating, or how fulfilling it was to coordinate the event and see it through to the end. I can say without any doubt that every single person who attended walked away with killer images, having learned something new, and having met and networked with an amazing crew of photographers & models. Everyone there interacted and helped each other – we stepped into each other’s setups and traded transmitters, we shared exposure settings & held gear, and the folks not shooting offered suggestions from the sidelines. You couldn’t have asked for a better crowd!
It’s not a question of if we’ll do this again, it’s a question of when, and we’re already starting to form some ideas there. For anyone out there who has never attended a photo get-together/workshop, I strongly suggest that you do so. Both Strobist and DPChallenge.com groups meet up all the time, all across the USA – and even internationally. If you’re serious about photography, if you’re serious about wanting to expand your skill set and get better, then it’s worth the investment to be at one of these events. And if you find that there aren’t any near you, then do what I did, and make one happen.
It is completely, without a doubt, worth it.
