I love having a camera in my hand and making photographs, any camera, whether it's my Dslr, a point & shoot compact or even my phone or iPad, if I'm creating something then Hanners is a happy bunny.
However, there is something that I love even more than creating and that's teaching. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a hotshot photographer like the brilliant Joe McNally, but I've never been one of those "precious" photographers who keeps all of their secrets, just never seen the point in that at all, I love passing on anything that I learn to those who want to learn, whether its through my Tripod & Wellies Landscape Photography Workshops, or a fun off camera flash workshop with my camera club...
We are currently having some work done on the kitchen and dining room at the house, so we had to completely empty it, now our dining room is a great space when empty, so I thought I would hastily arrange a mini off camera flash workshop for my fellow camera club members. Luckily I have a very good friend Janet, who agreed to play model for us, although not a "model" in real life, she has become my "go to model" on a number of occasions and I can't thank her enough.
Considering that it was such short notice, we managed to muscle up a decent turn out, a couple of the members were wanting to shoot while a few more were happy to observe.
I set up four Yongnuo speedlites on lightstands, one bare, one with a translucent shoot through umbrella, a third one with a reflective umbrella and finally the fourth one with a softbox, I trigger these with the Yongnuo YN 622C transceivers. I have become a huge fan of Yongnuo speedlites (they do not sponsor me, I'm a genuine fan), they're so reliable and unbelievably cheap, each one makes a different sound when you turn them on, but I don't care what they sound like as long as they work and give me light, which they do, time after time.
I set up four Yongnuo speedlites on lightstands, one bare, one with a translucent shoot through umbrella, a third one with a reflective umbrella and finally the fourth one with a softbox, I trigger these with the Yongnuo YN 622C transceivers. I have become a huge fan of Yongnuo speedlites (they do not sponsor me, I'm a genuine fan), they're so reliable and unbelievably cheap, each one makes a different sound when you turn them on, but I don't care what they sound like as long as they work and give me light, which they do, time after time.
Once we get our starting point with our settings, we start with one speedlite and build our image from there. It's amazing how you can get great images using just one light, but a bare light is a harsh light and we wanted more than this.
First we modified it with the white translucent or shoot through umbrella, this turns our harsh, hard light in to a lovely soft light, we used one silver reflector, then two to fill in the shadows. After that, we used the reflective umbrella, to compare the quality of the light to the shoot through and again added one reflector then two to fill in shadows.
First we modified it with the white translucent or shoot through umbrella, this turns our harsh, hard light in to a lovely soft light, we used one silver reflector, then two to fill in the shadows. After that, we used the reflective umbrella, to compare the quality of the light to the shoot through and again added one reflector then two to fill in shadows.
As you can see, we weren't shooting tethered to a laptop and as a result there can be a lot of chimping and a fair bit of discussion going on to see how your images are coming along.
After using the umbrellas we decided to move onto the softbox, I have to admit that I have a preference for these as the light is still beautifully soft but much more controllable, but I probably use the umbrellas just as often as it depends on the situation. We had a lot of fun with the softbox, trying it out in different positions and seeing the difference it makes to the light on your subject, which of course was our extremely patient "model" Janet.
Once we are happy with our main light on our model, we start to get a little more creative. I'm sure I've mentioned somewhere before that I have a dislike for the high key white background, it does have its use and when that use is called for I've no problem using it, however not for this shoot.
Firstly I added a speedlite behind Janet with a red gel on it so that we could colour our background, although it looked good we decided to change it to a blue background, which worked much better. Then a third speedlite was added camera left with an orange gel to kick some "sunlight" on to Janet's hair. Then to add some movement to the final image, I crouched down behind our very, very, patient model with Mrs Hanners hairdryer (of which I was clearly out of practice in using as it's been some years since I needed to use one).
Below is the lighting diagram for the final image (minus Hanners with the hairdryer)
Firstly I added a speedlite behind Janet with a red gel on it so that we could colour our background, although it looked good we decided to change it to a blue background, which worked much better. Then a third speedlite was added camera left with an orange gel to kick some "sunlight" on to Janet's hair. Then to add some movement to the final image, I crouched down behind our very, very, patient model with Mrs Hanners hairdryer (of which I was clearly out of practice in using as it's been some years since I needed to use one).
Below is the lighting diagram for the final image (minus Hanners with the hairdryer)
As I don't shoot when I'm teaching, the final images are from Andrew Meek, thanks for letting me share them Andrew, and thanks to Tom for all the BTS images. Finally a huge thanks to Janet for putting up with us and being a fabulous and extremely patient model. I think we all learned something that afternoon and we had an absolute blast, just wish I grabbed a couple of shots for myself on this one ;)