The Morning Market, Luang Prabang, Laos, its 7:20am and I’m crouching inches from this fish aiming a wideangle lens at its lifeless mouth, if only every day could commence in this fashion! Nikon D800E, Nikon 14-24m Lens at 14mm, 1/100th … Continue reading
From Vang Vieng we headed north (to set things right) to Luang Prabang. This beautiful city was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995 and I’ve got to say its one of my favourite cities in Asia, (by English standards having … Continue reading
The first of a series of posts I’ll be posting about the commissions I’ve shot this year with London musicians.
April 25th 18:00 – The shoot is on location so obviously we’re hoping for decent weather conditions but that isn’t happening – its absolutely pouring down as the makeup artist (Marina Angel) finishes her work off on Julie. We’re over on the east side of town so I haven’t got the option to move the shoot indoors to studio, and besides that wouldn’t suit the look we’re going for, so we have to work with the elements and use the bridge to shelter under. I’ve only got a couple of hours of daylight left so I’m anxious to start getting something shot, there is lighting kit in the bag but I want to some more muted natural light shots.
The brief for the location was to fit Julies music, we wanted something urban, busy, little bit dilapidated and the theme of travel and movement in there too…
1st Shot of the day – on an 85mm Nikon lens, at F2 so very little depth of field – want to knock all out the background clutter out of focus, also because its such a dark overcast day there is little light around anyway.
Now I’m further back looking to shoot whole body, this is a tricky location to work in because its 5 minutes walk from Liverpool st and at 6pm plenty of people passing through. On the Nikon 70-200mm at 2.8 now way back down the road, yelling instructions on pose to Julie!
We’ve changed spot slightly now, giving me a darker background and thats helping Julie stand out more, also changed outfit, and I’m back on the 85mm lens. I prefer to work with primes whenever I can – they are faster and lighter – that means I can get the shallower DOF and work with a faster shutter speed – increasing the odds of a sharp final image. We’re shooting a mix of poses looking to camera and some away – this is the one that goes on to make the album cover – a first for me : )
The natural light is really dying away now – its time to take a break and wait for darkness to fall..
25/04/2012 – 20:57 Twilight – if you follow my work you know I love this time of day, ambient light fades as artificial comes on. We had planned this shot earlier – have the look of Julie waiting for the taxi, sitting on one of the suitcases. By this time the road was quieter, less passer’s-by getting in the shot inadvertently. Technical bit – Nikon D700 with 85mm Nikon lens at F2.2, Manual exposure mode at 1/50th Shutter. Nikon SB600 Speedlight with Umbrella to camera right being triggered by the pop-up on camera. For a shoot like this I’d be getting my exposure set for the ambient (natural – existing) light first, then adding the flash and increasing / decreasing the power to suit.
As you can see we got a completely different look and feel to these shots at twilight with the flash to the ones a couple of hours earlier with natural light, but thats perfect when shooting for a client – gives them options, and the wet streets worked perfectly for these night shots.
Check out Julies amazing voice at http://juliehelene.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/thejuliehelene and Marina the MUA at https://www.facebook.com/marinaangelmakeup?fref=ts
All images © Ben Pipe Photography 2012
Portrait of Vi, Erg Chigaga, Sahara Desert, Morocco, Africa
Here we are – The Sahara Desert, a few months ago, the sun has just set, twilight colours enrich the sky and I’m about to give an off camera flash lighting tutorial to my workshop group. Vi is the model looking amazing on the sand dune, we’ve got David as a the fill lighting assistant (holding a Nikon SB600) and Anne holding the main flash (Nikon SB900), Phil is the stylist – his job is to throw the scarf in the air so we can get that element of motion to the image.
I love working at this time of day, twilight is an exciting time to mix in lighting with the fading ambient light. For a shot like this I had figured out where I wanted the subject beforehand, knowing the sunset was in that direction, there wouldn’t be time to get many shots as the light was fading – I wanted to retain colour and detail in the sky and you’ve only got 30-40 minutes after the sun sets to achieve this. Before everyone else has got to the location I’ve metered and worked out the approx exposure for the ambient (existing) light. Its around 1/80th at F4, ISO200, but that will have dropped by the time we’ve got the lighting all set. Next get the model (Vi) in position, then the main light, from my position this is coming from my 4 o’clock, usually I’d look to soften the light with an umbrella but its too far away and will kill too much power. I could move the flash closer but this shot was as much about the setting – The Desert, as the model so we want to keep it fairly wide.
The 2nd flash is coming from my 10 o’clock, slightly behind the model, want this one to add a rim lighting to the back of Vi’s outfit and hit the scarf. This flash is dialled with 1 stop less power than the main. With any shoot like this it takes a bit of time and experimentation to figure the right exposure, angles. To start with we had the stylist (Phil) blocking the fill flash so we had a change angles. Being able to constantly check the preview on the camera-back is a godsend for these kind of shoots, with film this would be a very tricky shoot, helps explain the prevalence of ambient – artificial lighting combo shoots in the editorial sunday supplements these days.
Anyway – with it all set and the shutter speed dropped a stop to allow for the ambient drop in light since we started, (now at 1/30th of a sec) we’re ready to shoot. Remember the shutter speed doesn’t affect the flash exposure so I was using manual exposure mode and tweaking the shutter to get the right balance between ambient and flash. If I change the aperture or ISO then they will affect both ambient and flash lighting. It takes us a few goes to get the scarf throw just right but when it works it really works – we huddle round the camera to check it out. Time for a few more exposures before the light has gone…
1/15th at F2.8, ISO200 on 24-70mm Nikon Lens
Next Morocco trip is 7-14th March 2013 – http://benpipe.com/#/Workshops/Morocco/
Credits:
Model – Vi Rowshankish
Stylist – Phil Goddard
1st Lighting Assistant – Anne Cawardine
2nd Lighting Assistant – David Austwick
Kimmeridge, Dorset, England
5 Secs at F20, iso100, 40mm on a 24-70 Nikon
Sunset at Kimmeridge in the winter months is a popular spot for Dorset’s booming populace of landscape photographers. I shot it many times when I was still based in the county but I’d never got anything of this view looking west up the coast I was satisified with.
Some free time in my hometown earlier this year gave me the opportunity to achieve the shot I’d always wanted, the weather was looking changeable – always worth heading out on these klind of days. Being a weekday and an early sunset meant I wouldn’t be battling for tripod space with hordes of other photographers, just a few surfers returning from the water for company. I set up further back from the shore than I’d usually be because I wanted to work a longer focal length and bring the distant horizon and cliffs into the frame. (Also meant the camera didn’t get its usual salt wash!), filters – easy – we’re going with a Neutral Density Graduated Lee 0.9 to hold back the sky and an 6 Stop ND to give the long exposure blurring the water. Got this frame just before the sun came under the cloud and got too strong to handle.
5 Secs at F20, iso100, 52mm on a 24-70 Nikon
The game pauses for 20 minutes while the sun moves through that gap, when it gets back to those low clouds just above the horizon we can shoot again, the clouds are blocking enough of it. Same sort of exposure and filter setup as before, this time I’m showing more of the cliffs on the right side, liking the strong cloud lineup and the diagonals from the rocks leading out into the water. With this kind of shoot the sun is moving fast and the light changing all the time – you need to know where you’re shooting from and stick with it, there isn’t time to be moving or fiddling with equipment.
The sun drops lower and I opt for a wider view, including more of the foreground rocks and shore, I don’t want to go too wide here as the rocks are so dark that they may have little interest in the final composition. However the geology close to the water is getting splashed and the reflections are picking up hints of the sunset above so they’re gonna work nicely. Same sort of filter and exposure setup, watch the highlights / histogram – just a tiny bit flashing around the sun, thats OK we can pull that back later. Job done..
Portland Bill Lighthouse at dusk, Portland, Dorset, England
Back home the other weekend on a lazy sunday afternoon and the light was looking good, headed out to a location I always enjoy shooting, its nothing spectacular but its one I found by having a wonder and I know when I go there I’ll be the only the only photographer.
Making this shot work was all about including the cliff shape on the left side of the frame, getting an interesting foreground to draw the viewer in, motion in the water and some cool colours in the sky. With these kind of sunsets you can never tell if the best colours will be at this point or if they will keep building into the twilight – on this occassion it just faded away as the sun passed the horizon, always hang around though – I’ve made the mistake of leaving a location only to look back from the car park at the incredible twilight colours behind!
Balancing the brightness of the sky with the land is a 0.9 Neutral Density Graduated filter, also used was a 6 stop ND to prolong the exposure and blur the sea, they make a 10 stop filter but I’m not ready for that yet…
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BEN PIPE PHOTOGRAPHY 