Katherine; Sydney, Australia; 2005 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli
This is the first photograph I shot for the People of the Globe project way back in 2005. It was shot with available light on an overcast day on a Canon G5, as I was between cameras and the G5 was all I had at the time. I've been trying to shoot with Kat again ever since, but for one reason or another we haven't set a date. I'll send her a message tomorrow to see if we can catch up and organise a shoot.
Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli
Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 © Gabriel Ponzanelli
Anyway, I have another shoot with Emma planned soon. I need to get onto it quick as she'll be moving to Queensland, Australia very soon.
Danie; Sydney, Australia; 2008 © Gabriel Ponzanelli
I've been reading a book titled "The Nikon Creative Lighting System
" by Mike Hagen. I found it after searching for books that explained the use of Nikon's flashes in a better way than the original manuals. I own a SB-600 and a couple of SB-800's and have mostly learn how to use them by trial and error. The manuals are not very well written and, although they do have a lot of information (and I recommend you read them thoroughly), they are really confusing and seem to be a translation from a different language.
I'm glad I found this book. It's pretty straightforward and easy to read, although it does repeat itself quite a bit. For example, there's a complete chapter for each recent flash unit that Nikon produces and the explanations are thorough enough in each that there's a lot of duplication of content. I guess if you only own one model it won't matter and it actually makes sense. Anyway, I finally understood what all the beeping sounds my units make mean! The book fully explains the modes and operations of each speedlight, including the SB600, SB800, SB900, SU800, SB200, and even the R1C1. It goes into how these integrate with most of the Nikon cameras of the last few years and briefly touches on techniques of how to use the system.
My only complaints are that the example photographs are not really that interesting, and in some cases are just plain bad. I actually googled the author to see his photography and found his photo.net gallery. There are some pretty nice images in there, so I don't get why he didn't use better photos to illustrate the book. Also, the book focuses purely on equipment and technique, and only very briefly does it discuss the applications of multiple flashes. Still, if you own Nikon speedlights this book is definitely worth it.
The image above was shot last year using 2 speedlights. A SB-800 on camera for fill flash and a SB-600 through an umbrella on the right.
Shot from a lighting class last night. It was done using 3 lights, one big softbox from the left slightly behind the model, another one on the right at 3 stops under, and a snoot pointing to the head. The model is a fellow student and the "weapon" he's holding is a light stand.
I'm doing a lighting class at the moment. I've never really shot in a studio properly as all of my photography has been on location, so I decided it'd be a good idea to learn some things about studio lighting. It's been interesting so far, but this weekend we did an outdoor shoot in midday... yes, it was around 12pm and the sun was strong and extremely harsh. Hardly an ideal time for shooting. Anyway, the key idea was to understand how to balance the light using reflectors and how to overpower the sun using flash.
We did a few shots with a proper strobe and a beauty dish, which turned out pretty cool. But the coolest thing was when we decided to try it using my speedlights... and it worked wonderfully! The above image was shot using an SB-800 and an SB-600 fired remotely by the on camera flash in a Nikon D70s (using Nikons Creative Lighting System). Both strobes were behind a white shower curtain to soften the light a bit. The sun was coming from high above, slightly to the right of the camera as can be seen by the shadow on the bench.
What's great is that those little flashes were enough to overpower the sun and create an interesting lighting effect. Unfortunately we didn't have a beautiful model to shoot that day, so we had to do with Greg. He's the photographer who's teaching the class. Thanks Greg, it was a great day!
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