Day: June 17, 2012

Hot Shoe Flash Lighting

by Stanley LearyNikon D4 / Off Camera Flash
Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 200, f/5.0, Nikon SB900, Nikon SB800 fired using PocketWizard Mini TT1 , PocketWizard AC3 and PocketWizard Transceiver TT5.

I enjoying using our backyard as a background. First of all I don’t have to light everything and we love the trees.

For this photo I wanted to tie our daughter playing her viola to the outdoors.

This is a wide shot to show the flashes.  They are on Manfrotto 5001B Nano Black Light Stands and the Manfrotto 175F Justin Spring Clamp with Flash Shoe to hold the flashes.

I am shooting in TTL mode and after I take a shot I am using the compensation dials on the camera and the PocketWizard AC3 to adjust my exposure.

In this photo of the PocketWizard AC3 A is set to a +1, B is set to +2 and C is set to a +3 compensation.
The PocketWizard AC3 sits on top of the PocketWizard Mini TT1 in it’s hot shoe.  You can also use the Nikon SU-800 to do the same thing.

In the first photo I have the camera at -1 compensation and the flash on her face at 0 Compensation and the hair light at +2 compensation.

You really just have to play with this to get the results you want.

Here we are shooting more in the woods than in the first photo. Here the camera is -1 1/3 EV.  The flashes are at +1 EV.
She is getting some sunshine from the left and the flashes are lighting the shadow side of her face.
We moved again around the backyard to a different background.  Also changed the lighting a little here as well. The camera is set at -3 EV and the flashes are on the right set at +2 EV and the one on her left at +1 EV.
This is the actual lighting setup for the photo just above it.
I am using an -1 EV so as to not loose the background but just tone it down a bit. The flash to the right is +1 EV and the hair light flash is +2 to help separate her from the background.

The lighting setup for the above photo.

The idea with the two hot shoe flashes was to use them to compliment the lighting outside.  I used one light to help separate the viola player from the background by putting the flash up high and using it as a hair light would be used in the studio.  I am using the other flash as the main light and using the natural light to control the background.

Because I am outside I am using the PocketWizard radio remote system to be sure the signal is reaching the flashes. 

Once you master the use of the one off camera hot shoe flash and you are ready to expand try this exercise yourself. See what results you come up with using your camera and flashes.

Father’s Day in Photos

by Stanley LearyPhotography
This is my Great Grandfather Henry Leary on the far right with his family. My Grandfather James Stanley Leary is in the middle. I am named after him.

Today is Father’s Day and you are seeing many people honor their father’s this year in ways that haven’t been able to do many years ago. You are seeing people change their profile photos on Facebook to their father’s.

My wife Dorie Griggs is honoring her father on her Facebook page by making his photo her profile photo for father’s day.
This is my grandmother and grandfather (James Stanley Leary) as I remember them growing up.

Now what I am seeing as I go through our family photos is that I really like the photos where the photography was technically good, but also captured them in a way I remember them.

This is my grandfather on my mother’s side R. Knolan Benfield. I love this photo because it shows him as I remember, enjoying some down time in the family room watching golf most likely. By the way I called him Daddy B. The B was for Benfield.

While we didn’t always have professional quality photos of our family, we cherish many of the photos because they help our family remember.

My grandmother, Emma Benfield and grandfather, R. Knolan Benfield with my mother and their daughter Bonita.

On holidays like father’s day we wish our children could have known some of their relatives they never got to know. Funny thing I have noticed through the years is our families have certain characteristics that tend to be handed down. I think in a way as we live our life out for our children they are seeing parts of their relatives from the past.

My mother took this photo of my sisters with my dad and I. This is Emma, Hannah, David (my dad) and me when we were camping.

My father cherishes photos of the family and I can never remember a family gathering without him have a camera or a movie camera in his hand.

My dad doing what he loved to do, take photos to help us remember these moments.

My dad recording video of our Christmas day one year.

One of the best ways you can celebrate your father’s is to take photos to help remember them. Take photos that help capture them at their best, like a professional portrait. Also, take photos of them in everyday life.

The one thing I think most upsets families after a natural disaster destroys their home is the loss of things like their photos of the family.  After Katrina some camera clubs helped families recover their family photos by scanning the ones they found and helping restore them.

For my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary we went through and scanned photos from the years and made a slide show. We also made a copy of all the images and gave them to all the kids.

Take time today and find some of the old photos of your families fathers and reminisce. Then be sure and take some photos to help preserve the memories of today for generations to come.