Haley Newbold, the team member at Chick-fil-A Roswell Corners FSU, expedites an order to a customer in the drive-thru. The Dining Rooms are shut down during the Coronavirus outbreak. Paul Joubert’s restaurant Roswell Corners FSU is closed on its third day in the dining room. [NIKON Z 6, 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/60, ƒ/5.3, (35mm = 98)]
I have enjoyed working with the Flashpoint XPlor 600 HSS TTL to help with some tricky lighting situations.
Using the transmitter to change the settings on the flashes allows me not to have to stop shooting where I am standing and go and adjust each flash and then do more test shots. As they say, I can shoot and make the adjustments on the fly.
The canopy had a white ceiling that I bounced off to get an even light to shoot these photos you see here.
Behind the guy’s head is one of the lights. The other is near the passenger door of this SUV bouncing as well.
On the other side of the building was the window to the restaurant for delivering food. I didn’t have the same size canopy and used a more direct flash that caught a slight overhang to bounce down.
They didn’t have the canopy at another drive-thru at a different restaurant. I just had my assistant man the off-camera flash and stay about 45º from the camera angle. That usually meant I was on one side of the car shooting, and the flash was on the other.
I was shooting wide open at ƒ/1.4 with my 35mm and ƒ/1.8 with my 85mm. Since the flash is TTL, it also is HSS. That stands for High-Speed Sync.
I shot most all the photos on an overcast day with the strobes at shutter speeds of 1/400 up to 1/2000 with the flash.
Using Nikon’s software, I could see how the camera was focusing. It was on eye-tracking. Here I zoomed in so you can see the focus point.
I love shooting at ƒ/1.4, but few images were as sharp as they are now with the Nikon Z6 mirrorless that has eye-tracking.
While shooting with the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8 lets me blur the background, which helps me make the subject pop. Using the flash helps get a catchlight in the eyes on an overcast day. It also helps increase the dynamic range.
TIPS:
- Use fill-flash
- Use wide aperture like ƒ/1.4 or ƒ/1.8
- Use eye-tracking to get that precise focus on the eyes
- Use Dehaze Slider in Lightroom – Helps bring back detail in hazy BOKEH