Photographers are all the time chasing recent views—however this time, I didn’t simply change my angle, I fully flipped the principles. Throughout a golf-themed shoot, I turned my gentle modifier into one thing it was by no means meant to be: the view from contained in the golf gap itself. Right here’s the story (and the shot) that got here out of it.
This final yr, I’ve been making an attempt to discover totally different gentle modifiers that I hardly ever incorporate in my lighting setups or modifiers that I’ve by no means used earlier than in any respect. It is turn into a private problem, and it is served as a method to boost the lighting. Nothing retains you in your toes greater than forcing your self to gentle with a modifier you do not connect to your strobe each single day. For this final yr, that gentle modifier has been totally different forms of onerous reflector dishes, particularly the Profoto Tele Zoom Reflector White and the Magnum Reflector White.
What Is a Reflector?
For many photographers, the simplest and most forgiving lighting fashion is mushy gentle. Tender gentle is achieved when your lighting supply seems a lot bigger than your topic and is usually replicated with flash by inserting a big softbox or octabox in your strobe. The theme for this month’s Fstoppers Contest is Tender Mild, so undoubtedly try these entries if you would like a bunch of examples of sentimental gentle.
A reflector dish creates lighting on the exact opposite facet of the spectrum. As an alternative of making mushy, overcast lighting with light shadows and highlights, the reflector dish creates a comparatively small gentle supply that produces sharp shadows and punchy highlights. Why would anybody wish to create deep shadows and glowing highlights, particularly when photographing individuals? In contrast to mushy gentle that retains all your tones and colours wanting light and subdued, the onerous gentle created by a reflector dish permits the tones and colours in your picture to be extra vivid, contrasty, and attention-grabbing.
We see this naturally with landscapes. When the solar is behind a cloud, we are able to see element all by way of the panorama in entrance of us, and the tones are all refined, mushy, and simply rendered by the human eye. Nevertheless, when the solar is unobstructed and firing instantly on the whole scene, most of the shadows go pure black whereas the brightest components of the scene turn into blinding. The colours are a lot brighter and extra saturated, and the whole panorama appears to come out at us.
What Is the Tele Zoom Reflector?
While you first begin exploring the world of onerous gentle, it may be overwhelming making an attempt to know precisely how totally different reflector dishes have an effect on your lighting. The form, measurement, and throw of a reflector dish can all have an effect on the general high quality of the sunshine, and a few have an effect on the sunshine in a refined style whereas others are fairly drastic. The lighting firm Profoto most likely makes the biggest variety of onerous gentle reflectors in the marketplace, and since I used Profoto strobes, I usually experiment with new modifiers to see how the may have an effect on my images. For over a decade, my favourite and most used reflector might be the best: the 7″ Zoom Reflector. Earlier within the yr, Profoto despatched the Fstoppers workplace their new Tele Zoom Reflector in White. In contrast to my modest 7″ Zoom Reflector, the Tele Zoom is a beast of a reflector dish. It measures a whopping 16.5″ lengthy, and as a substitute of being 7″ in diameter, the Tele Zoom is over 13″ large. Why would a reflector dish ever should be this huge? The straightforward cause is to maintain the sunshine targeted so it may illuminate a topic additional away.
I am no knowledgeable on this lighting modifier, and I am nonetheless studying precisely how I like to make use of it in my very own shoots, however the Tele Zoom was designed particularly for sports activities photographers who wish to gentle up their topics from distant whereas nonetheless sustaining the utmost quantity of usable flash in shiny lighting conditions. In case you’ve ever tried to make use of flash in a shiny noon scene, you might be most likely effectively conscious that as you progress your flash additional away out of your topic, the impact of the flash begins to decrease. In a darker scene, this is not a lot of a problem as a result of the flash is so highly effective, however when the brilliant solar is illuminating your scene, your flash usually must be very near your topic to successfully gentle them. If you end up photographing excessive athletes, nevertheless, inserting your strobe lights near the motion is not all the time sensible or acceptable. The Tele Zoom was designed to throw as a lot gentle ahead, in a concentrated beam, so you possibly can nonetheless successfully gentle your topics at a protected distance.
How I Wound Up Utilizing The Tele Zoom
A number of months in the past, I discovered myself taking pictures some golf themed photographs at our native neighborhood golf course. With Puerto Rico being a lot nearer to the equator, each the noon and late afternoon solar can usually be extraordinarily shiny, which is all the time a problem photographically. Since I knew I needed these photographs to showcase each Brittany Lorelle, the mannequin from the professional store, and Puerto Rico’s huge El Yunque rainforest within the background, utilizing a tough gentle modifier was an incredible alternative for this photoshoot. As an alternative of packing my all too acquainted 7″ Zoom Reflector, this time, I opted to make use of the Tele Zoom White which I’ve used far fewer occasions. You’ll be able to watch the whole photoshoot within the featured video above, however I will provide you with a fast rundown on this article as effectively. For the primary picture, the objective was actually to showcase as a lot of the greens as potential whereas concurrently exhibiting the unique tropical location. For the reason that solar was nonetheless pretty excessive up within the sky, the whole scene was being lit with pretty harsh gentle from the left facet of the body. With the intention to gentle my golfer in a sensible method, I needed to position my Profoto Professional-B3 strobe on the identical facet because the solar. With the Professional-B3 gentle on digital camera left, I then positioned the Tele Zoom in order that the targeted beam of sunshine would hit Brittany on the good angle.
The above photographs present how a lot of a distinction including a strobe could make to your images. The primary picture exhibits what the pure gentle alone would have achieved, whereas the second picture permits each the naturally lit background and our mannequin to be lit completely.
For the subsequent set of photographs, I needed to create just a few frames with extra of an editorial really feel. The objective was to painting the whole expertise of taking part in golf at Palmas Del Mar by showcasing the greens, the clothes, the golf golf equipment, and the enjoyment of taking part in at this elite membership. I additionally needed these photographs to attraction to a youthful demographic that could be on the lookout for different golf programs on the island.
The lighting for this set of photographs was designed with a very totally different aesthetic in thoughts. As an alternative of making an attempt to copy the identical lighting path because the setting solar, I went for a extra style or athletic lighting fashion by inserting my Professional-B3 to the appropriate facet of Brittany and letting the pure daylight gentle her from digital camera left. This cross-lighting fashion creates a hyper-realistic really feel and permits my strobe to gentle the mannequin from the other facet of the pure gentle which creates a much less real looking, however extra dramatic lighting fashion. For all of those pictures, the the only flash was modified utilizing the Tele Zoom White and positioned reverse the solar on digital camera proper.
One {photograph} I’ve all the time needed to create is that basic shot of a golfer fetching their golf ball from the opening. In getting ready for this shoot, I attempted numerous totally different strategies to make this shot come collectively, however none of them labored in addition to I appreciated. First I attempted utilizing a chunk of 6″ PVC pipe, however the small 6″ opening was just too slender to attain the underground impact I needed. I reduce a gap in a bucket that I painted white, however my paint job didn’t look nice and the lip of the bucket was additionally not completely clean.
Lastly, a loopy concept occurred to me. What if my large angle lens might match contained in the opening of the Profoto Tele Zoom reflector dish, and as a substitute of utilizing the modifier to gentle my mannequin, I used it to simulate the opening? As a result of the Tele Zoom reflector dish is so large and deep, this gave me the proper perspective and actually bought the impact. The very last thing I wanted to tug all of it collectively was an ideal 13″ gap reduce out of some synthetic turf so just a bit little bit of grass would seem to sneak into the shot. With out the Tele Zoom mounted to the Professional-B3, I used to be compelled to light up Brittany with only a barebulb flash. In an excellent world, I most likely might have lit her with one other modifier, however I feel this shot turned out higher than I ever might have imagined!
Now with my most bold picture behind me, I needed one final shot that appeared fully totally different than every part shot thus far. For this remaining picture, the objective was to create a extra fashion-oriented unfold that used all of Brittany’s golf golf equipment and the peerlessly manicured grass as the focus. As soon as once more, the lighting fashion would change fully.
This remaining shot was achieved by laying Brittany on the bottom whereas I stood on the roof of my golf cart. This top-down perspective allowed the grass to be our background, however from this angle, the daylight was not illuminating any of the scene anymore. I opted to position the Tele Zoom White reflector instantly over Brittany, firing straight down as if the flash had been mounted simply above my digital camera. In fact this setup was far too heavy to mount on the digital camera’s hotshoe, so I simply had an assistant maintain it within the good location. You’ll be able to see the onerous shadows forged round Brittany’s physique in addition to the brilliant highlights within the grass and on the golf golf equipment. This lighting impact merely wouldn’t be potential if the sunshine had been positioned in a extra conventional spot additional off to the appropriate or left.
All the time Be taught From Your Shoots
So what did I study from this entire expertise? First, the Profoto Tele Zoom White Reflector packs a critical punch! It not solely can throw gentle a lot additional than my different Zoom Reflectors, however it additionally concentrates the sunshine a lot that I can squeeze a few full cease of sunshine further out of this setup. That is extraordinarily useful when taking pictures in shiny, pure gentle environments and likewise when it is advisable place your strobes additional away out of your topic.
The second factor I realized is that typically it’s important to assume exterior the field when making an attempt to attain the picture in your head. It will have been extraordinarily straightforward to have simply given up on the “golf gap” shot and even created it fully in Photoshop, however as a substitute, I used to be capable of construct and shoot this picture fully in digital camera with minimal modifying tweaks. That is all the time an thrilling achievement, and I feel these {golfing} photographs on the Palmas Del Mar Golf Course turned out higher than I might have imagined!
