Studio portraits on location and portable flash

Saturday sale event at Dillards had an extra added value for shoppers. If you bought a dress The make up artist at Clinique would do your make up for FREE and I would take a FREE portrait of you with your new dress and make up. Wow, what a terrific deal this was. Ultimately you would receive a FREE 8x10 photo. What a great deal for all the Dillards clientele.
Doing studio portraits on location means that you have to tear down your lights, backdrop, stands, cameras, etc. and pack them in your car. When you get to the location all that equipment has to be assembled and the process has to be repeated when your done. Having portable studio lights makes life easier.

I do have 4 regular studio strobes. The power packs are self contained so they are heavy which requires heavy duty stands. I love them in the studio but not to pack them up and transport them. For ease of transport I have Novatron lights. Novatrons like Speedotron, and Dyna-lite are portable flash units that are made for location photography. They are compact and made for travel. There are other brands but these are the ones that I am familiar with. They are powerful and durable. I bought them over 20 years ago and they are still going strong. A complete kit that has four lights, a main power pack, umbrellas, stands, and carrying case to put everything in goes for about $1,400 to $1,500 dollars. Some cases have wheels to make your day sweat free. All for less than the camera you own and they never get outdated like your camera. They are the best investment you could make.

I use them for location portraits and commercial jobs. You can also purchase soft boxes and other attachments separately.

Being able to take your studio photography on location is a big plus.
The quality of your images remains constant.

If you do on location studio work portable studio flashes are something you should try and invest in. They can make life a litlle bit easier.

Jacksonville Photography Seminar

A great photography class in Jacksonville !

Our Jacksonville photo class was very exciting. We had a terrific model and great weather. We got in a good amount of photos in between the lectures.

The question and answer period at the end was very interesting as everyone asked really good questions. Everyone got so involved that some stayed as much as 45 minutes after the seminar had ended to ask questions .
We have one seminar left this year in Orlando on December 13. Although we are a month away we already have the same mount of people that signed up for Jacksonville. Orlando is going to be a whopper!

How to use more than one flash

I had to take some photos of the Coral Room at the Rusty Pelican. Using the flash on the camera just wasn't enough because of the size of the room.

When we look at a room like this our eyes are constantly adjusting for differences in brightness. They adjust so quickly we are not even aware of it. This ability allows us to see detail everywhere regardless of how bright or dim the area is lit.
A photo can only be taken at one setting. If you set your camera for the outside light your inside will turn out dark. If you set your camera for the inside light the outdoor view will be pure white because it is much brighter. You must bring the different brightness levels within the same setting so there will be detail everywhere.

In order to do this you have to use multiple flash units. In the very top photo I used three flashes.

Here is what to do. First find the correct exposure for the outside. In this case it was 1/125 of a second at f/5.6. This will be the exposure setting for the photo. The reason for this is you cannot change the intensity of existing light. You can change the power setting of the flash.

Next, I placed a flash on a stand on the left to light that side of the room.
Then I took my flash on the camera and bounced it off the ceiling. That lit the table in the forground. I bounced the flash instead of straight on because I was too close to the table. Lastly I put another flash on floor behind the table on the right. This was aimed at the right side of the room where the cutains are. All flashes were on auto and set to f/5.6.

All together I have two lights on the background and one light on the food tables in the foreground.

The flashes were connected electronically with Radio Slaves so there were no wires. The end result is that you see detail outside the windows and the food on the table as well as the curtains in the background.