Multiple Canon Speedlights - PJ Style

Lately I've been doing most of my shooting for our church, headshots for the directory (300+ so far), concerts, etc. Saturday I documented the group we call the hospitality ministry which runs the kitchen at the church. Just supplying coffee for all the adult classes on Sunday is a huge job, but on Saturday a group of volunteers cooks a full meal for after our Saturday night service. It's good illustration of what can be done with a set of hot shoe flashes in that type of candid situation.

The photos are at http://bossa.nova.org/slideshow101/ Click the right side of each photo to go the the next.

Shooting strategy and techniques:

This is actually the type of shooting I prefer, where every shot is a new problem to solve. The kitchen is brightly lit but I opted to use my Canon 580x strobes so I could control the lighting direction and hide or reveal the background clutter selectively. None of the shots were posed, with the exception of having the subject pause and look at the camera for a few for variety. Mostly I was just working around the action and trying to stay out of the way.

Equipment consisted of a 580ex on a bracket for "Group A" fill, a second 580ex on my modified IV stand with wheels as "Group B" fill. A third flash as Group C as background lighting in many of the kitchen shots. I used a Bogen superclamp with an extension arm and mini-ball head to attach it to various places when putting it on a stand wasn't feasible. I had foam diffusers on key and fill and alternated between diffuser and the WA lens w. direct for the background light.

Flashes were used in ETTL mode with A:B ratios between 1:1 and 1:4 with background set using Group C FEC from the Master unit (how group C works with the Canon system). Camera was Canon 20D w. 10-22mm zoom.

The basic strategy for most of the shots was back rim lighting to define and separate the people from the background, with frontal lighting provided by the flash on the bracket. I controlled the background appearance via the third Group C flash. The ETTL did a very good job overall of getting the exposures right. I used the histogram and playback to adjust as needed.

All the shots were post processed. In some where I opted to balance stobe and ambient when shooting I dealt with the WB difference by keeping the WB set to custom for the strobes and reflectors and deal with it in post processing. In some cases I was dealing with stobe, fluorescent from the ceiling, and tunsten from the warming lamps on the serving table. In post processing I duped the background, set WB for the ambient lighting using the eyedropper in levels, then blended in to the strobe-lit original using a mask. It's much easier that why than messing with balancing filters. I need to go back and tweek a few to better neutralize the ambient.

Slideshow is done with javascript using open source code I found on the net and modified slightly. I am currently rebuilding my photo entire site ( http://bossa.nova.org ) chonologically using it. I'm only up to 2004 so far with my Kodak and Minolta cameras so far. You can see my earlier stuff there and find a link to the java code site at the bottom. Just the "index" link at the top of the gallery.
CG

Shots look good, especially for indoor flourscent lighting. I have trying to perfect my technique of using the flash as a fill flash, but still haven't quite figured it out yet.

Thanks for sharing.
--

http://photosbycook.smugmug.com/Portraits

Outstanding!

I loved the ones where the food preps just pop out among the reflective lighting off the pots and pans. I can only dream of doing something of this caliber for my Church.

From the album Minolta D7hi, #34, there was one that was just striking- it was the photo of the young man kneeling down in front of the Vietnam War Memorial with the reflection of the tree line on the memorial walll, and right behind him was the Washington Monument.

Dude...publish a book.

r/Mike

Port Royal Dad wrote:
From the album Minolta D7hi, #34, there was one that was just

Port Royal Dad said:

striking- it was the photo of the young man kneeling down in front
of the Vietnam War Memorial with the reflection of the tree line on
the memorial walll, and right behind him was the Washington
Monument.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments...

Story behind the Wall shots: It was a cold nasty Saturday in November 2002. I'd driven my wife to medical seminar in DC so I had some time to kill and brought the camera along. He was the only guy there at the time. Normally I wouldn't have bothered him but I'd just read a National Geographic field guide which discussed how to approach people in situations like that so I decided to interact with him and see what developed.

Turned out the guy was from Georiga on a business trip. His Dad had made it out of the war OK but most of his platoon had gotten killed on one day. The names on the wall are in chronological order, so he had found them all and was doing a rubbing at his Dad's request. There are about 6 or 8 photos in all which are part of that series which I have a separate web page for but not currently posted. Wide, med. and close-up. shots in PJ style. I wound up giving him a ride back to his hotel and send him copies on a CD to give to his Dad.

CG

Chuck, great lighting on these, as always! The light background lighting on the appliances is really nice.

Hi Chuck,

Once again many thanks for the ideas and very nice pictures.

cheers,

--
Auforte

The lighting looks great. I also like the use of the wide angle...I've always thought of the 10-22mm lens as primarily for landscapes and its nice to see a differnet perspective.
--
-Chris

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for sharing your pictures and techniques. At this moment I am working on my portrait lighting skills for our Church. See:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1025&thread=22104510

But we also have a kitchen and crew preparing meals for special occassions so I can imagine being in the same situation in future as you are now.

Your pictures will inspire me using multipe speedlights for these shots.

Regards,
Marcello

thats the right way

RG
http://www.triangulocolor.com.ar

Marcello Geerts said:

Hi Chuck,

Thank you for sharing your pictures and techniques. At this moment
I am working on my portrait lighting skills for our Church. See:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1025&thread=22104510

Click to expand...

That one looks pretty good for a guy but the ladies will need more fill. Try making one of the foam diffusers and using on your on camera flash http://super.nova.org/DPR/DIY01/

FYI - with more fill to soften the shadows and the overall appearance of the lighting there's less need for a huge umbrella on the key light.

Having worked with umbrellas with hot shoes in the past I prefer the two diffuser approach. Umbrella can create some large difficult to deal with reflections in the glasses. I just use two foam diffusers. I deal with the catchlights by spotting out the one from the flll with a black brush then switch to white and tap-tap-tap over the one created by the the key at about 25% flow to make the one at 11' O'Clock look nice and round. Takes less than a minute.

Watch the angle of the front of the face relative to the camera. In your posted example his head appears tilted back more than normal. Try shooting from at least 8ft away as it reduces near/far perspective. Have a 3-step stool or chair handy to stand on to get above tall subjects or so you can have those with turkey necks look up and tighten them up while the camera looks down at the opposite angle keeping face and camera parallel. Its a simple but effective trick of optics.

CG

Chuck,

Really nice work, thanks for sharing. Also, I wanted to ask you your opinion on using 580s with Chimera soft boxes. They make a speed ring and I thought about trying the small, or extra small soft box. I would even like to try the medium, if I knew the 580 had the power. This would be for portraits in small areas, with softboxes close to subject.
Thanks for your help.
Terry

4children said:

Chuck,
Really nice work, thanks for sharing. Also, I wanted to ask you
your opinion on using 580s with Chimera soft boxes. They make a
speed ring and I thought about trying the small, or extra small
soft box. I would even like to try the medium, if I knew the 580
had the power. This would be for portraits in small areas, with
softboxes close to subject.
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

It's a bit like asking which motorcycle trailer is best. If you need to haul a trailer, why not just drive a pick-up with the windows down?

Same thing here. The Canon gear is designed to be used as a portable system. If you are going to the trouble of hauling and setting up the stand and softbox its far more practical to just also bring along a AB or other flash head.

It's a matter of quality vs convenience. You can make a very large reflection-diffuser which will diffuse the light more than a small one.



You could also just bounce the flash backwards into a bowed white sheet of plastic / cardboard on a stand and get a similar result.

+
C =0 flash
+
+

Will either be as good as the Chimera? Probably not, but the difference may be such that the convenience of either of the other options make them the best choice overall. But since quality is a subjective thing you would really need to try both yourself and decide which works best for you.

CG

I did take your advice regarding taking pictures at a youth banquet at our church. I used a 580EX high above the camera for key and a 430EX below the camera for fill. I think they turned out great! Thanks for advice again.

Thanks, Chuck. Just curious if the 580 would work, since they make the speedrings. I realize that the 580s were not meant to be studio lights.
Regards,
Terry

quite impressive. number 7/46 in the ones you speak of is quite impressive. Almost as if there is a hairlight perfectly set up to cast nice shadows around the shoulders, making her pop from the background. The shadows found in some look nice, making what would most likely be a dull regular kitchen turn into a full on culinary photoshoot. I hope the people you shot for are impressed, because i tihnk most people here will be.

I'm also impressed with the selective lighting you've used. This is what i personally find more than one light good for, lighting whatever you want. I notice in some you highlight the oven in the back, or splash the light across a wall, etc. This is really nice, great work here...i'm only 16 years old and i hope that i can make my off camera flashwork look nice like this some day.

--
music; response.
http://hedley.zenfolio.com

Thank you Chuck, I appreciate your feeback. I will continue expirementing and will post the results here.

Chuck,

The way I understand it, using the ST-E2, you can only shoot in ETTL, is this correct. I had hoped to set two flashes to manual, use a light meter, and fire the flashes with the ST-E2. It appears that you can only do that by using the 580 as the master. I wanted to set one at full power, the other at 1/2, and fire both with the ST-E2.
Thanks,
Terry

4children said:

Chuck,
The way I understand it, using the ST-E2, you can only shoot in
ETTL, is this correct.

Click to expand...

The ST-E2 can only remotely CONTROL two groups A:B in ETTL ratio mode. I will FIRE slaves in M mode but not set their power remotely. Personally I think its a waste of money. $210 for very limited capability. Just spend $170 more for a 580ex and you will have a much more versatile system. It's only a few buck a year over their life.

Terry K1 said:

I had hoped to set two flashes to manual,
use a light meter, and fire the flashes with the ST-E2. It appears
that you can only do that by using the 580 as the master.

Click to expand...

You really can't meter with the 580ex either. Even in non-flash mode there are command pre-flashes and no way to separately fire A and B to set ratios.

No need to meter really. Set ratio by eye and adjust exposure by histogram with a white towel as a guide to correct exposure of the highlights.

Terry K1 said:

I wanted
to set one at full power, the other at 1/2, and fire both with the
ST-E2.

Click to expand...

More practical to put both on 1/2 power, key at 6ft and fill at 8ft. for a 3:1 ratio. That's what L do for headshots. Read my tutorials on using manual flash. http://super.nova.org/DPR/

CG

Chuck, thanks. I agree that the ST-E2 is not a very good investment, but I have one anyway. Sometimes it's nice to have, but another 580 is a better master. Terry

Oh, I forgot to ask, how do you set up to fire two 580s in M mode with the St-E2? I have tried and can't get it to work that way. Terry