robertwatcher

For this commercial photo shoot for a Golf Course, the decision was made to shoot late into the evening just after the sun had set - and then again first thing in the morning before the sun rose. As we were nearing the end of the shoot at night, I wanted to get one shot of the owner with some dramatic ambient lighting using the setting of one of his favorite greens and fairways - but soon realized that to bring the exposure up so that he would be well enough lit - - - meant that I would lose the effect of the sweet light on the overall scene. The sky in the background would be very bright. I could not rely on natural light and would have to use my portable flash.

I pulled out my light stand and placed my Nikon CLS wireless flash on top of it and had Anne move it around from about 45 to 100 degrees from me so as to get some side lighting. The on-camera popup flash of my Nikon camera would be the trigger for the main off-camera flashes built in wireless capabilities. The value of the Nikon flash system for me is that all exposure calculations can be done automatically - there is no need for manual exposure settings unless one prefers that control. Also with digital, I could just check on the LCD screen and see what I was getting. If I needed to dial in more ambient or flash compensation based on what I saw, I did . . .

. . . or if ugly shadows fell on the subject as a result of the flash being in a wrong position, I just moved it until they disappeared. I used Aperture Priority Auto Exposure with the Flash Sync set to Rear Curtain Slow Sync to allow proper ambient exposure. The flash was dialed down to get the right balance. Camera was on a tripod.

Here is one of the setup test shots showing the wireless flash on the light stand - and also giving a sense of the time of day (about 9:15PM) and level of light. After shooting this test, I realized that with my flash exposure compensation set to minus 2/3 of a stop as I initially determined - the flash was too strong for the shot we wanted, resulting in too dark of a background and outer area of the green as well as too intense a sky with the subject properly exposed (I wasn't after a night time scene with beautiful sunset).This was how the process started with the subject in place. In years past (before digital) - unless I was using my RZ67 with polaroid back (paying 2 bucks a pop), I would have been so disappointed in the results of my initial lighting setup - which wouldn't have been obvious until I had the film processed.

Even though I presumed this would be a great angle of light, providing more of a side/backlight and thus placing shadows on the ground in a more appealing place projecting out of the camera frame - I had no idea that the shadow from the flagpole was so significant and obliterating the subject - - - until I looked at the image on the screen. And so basing my light placement on what I saw on my cameras LCD screen, Anne was able to move the light into a position that was more suitable to a good image. The shadow isn't quite where I wanted it, however I actually ended up with a nice hair and rim lighting that made it look like I had more lights in place than just the one. There is intensity to the background - the green is evenly lit - the sky shows clouds but is brighter to indicate a slightly earlier time of day when people may be still be golfing.

Using my Nikkor 18-35mm at the 18mm setting, exposure for the final shot was 1/10'th second @ f8 using 400ISO. My camera controlled the Nikon CLS wireless flash by setting it to Rear Curtain Slow Sync and flash exposure compensation to minus 1-1/3 stopsThis is another shot that I took using the Nikon CLS wireless flash aimed from an extreme angle at the Club House sign. The sign was totally hidden in the shadow of the trees and would never have been seen otherwise. As well the grass and trees would have blended into a dark foreground.