Stobist Bootcamp Assignment 1
I have been following a new site called strobist that deals with techniques for using off-camera flashes to light a subject. The site started up a bootcamp as a means of getting readers to go out and try the techniques listed on the site. Most of my photography in China has either been spur of the moment, in the studio, or outdoors using solely sunlight and reflectors to reflect sunlight. I thus thought that it would be a good idea for me to participate in the bootcamp.
Here is the photo that I submitted. If it or any of the photos on this post don’t come up, leave a comment and I will fix the links. I am linking directly to the flickr photos so there might be problems:
I made a big long post on flickr about the process I went through to get the final picture, and figured I would share it here too for all those interested. Scroll down for all the gory details….
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I had wanted to participate in the strobist boot camp for a while, but had a nasty sinus infection which kept me at home. As the deadline approached, I finally decided that I would just do a self portrait, something I hadn’t ever done, and I decided to try and do it alone as to not infect anyone else with my germs.
I didn’t have an umbrella and wanted the two main lights to be soft, so I decided to bounce them off the white walls in my room. I had also wanted to try and put a flash behind me as seen in this strobist article.
These two shots should give you a basic idea of the setup in my room:
I then tried a test shot without any flash. I set the camera to auto (boring) and fired away. What I hadn’t realized is that the camera wouldn’t focus when the timer expired, but focused when I pushed the shutter release to start the timer. This meant that I would have to manually focus the shot….no big deal….until I quickly realized that my head wasn’t in exactly the same spot each time. I tried my best to put it in the right spot, but had to throw out 80% of the photos because they weren’t in focus. I could have upped the f-stop to get a larger DOF (Depth of Field), but I wanted to shoot at f/2.8 to have the background, an ugly closet, out of focus.
Here is the first photo taken with the camera in auto mode, 173mm, f/2.8, 1/6s, ISO 400. The room was pitch black (no lights) except for the mid-noon daylight that made it through two sets of curtains:
I then turned on the shoe-mounted Canon ST-E2 Wireless flash transmitter, and the Canon 580EX set to slave at camera right. I set the shutter speed to 1/200, the Canon 5D’s Maximum Flash Sync Speed, the aperture to f/2.8, and was at 173mm. I set the ISO to 50 to try and keep the background as dark as possible. This ultimately proved to be quite difficult as bouncing the strobes off the walls threw light everywhere. Not sure how I might solve this in the future……SUGGESTIONS WELCOME:
I then turned on the second Canon 580EX at camera left to fill in the shadows, again triggered with the Canon ST-E2. I had both flashes on the same Chanel and both set to the same Slave ID “A”. At each flash, I adjusted the flash compensation manually to get the desired ratio. 173mm, f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO 50:
I then turned on the 3rd light, placed directly behind me, pointed right at the back of my head. This finally gave me the desired effect. 173mm, f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO 50:
Here are a few of the other shots from the shoot. Let me know if you like them better, or think they would be better entries in the strobist bootcamp:
Comments and feedback are definitely welcome…..sorry for the long comment, but I figured that since this was bootcamp, a little explanation of the process might help others. Technical Details:
- Camera: Canon EOS 5D Digital
- Lens: Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS
- Memory Card: Ritek Pro-2 8GB
- Wireless Transmitter: Canon ST-E2
- Flash(x3): Canon Speedlite 580EX in slave mode
- All images except no-flash image shot in RAW
- Used Adobe Camera RAW to convert to JPG
- Images of the room were taken with a Canon Powershot S2-IS
July 6th, 2006 at 8:09 am
You scare me sometimes with your capacity for setting a goal, meeting that challenge, and producing good stuff. I kknow I[m prejudiced in your favor, but it[s hard not to be. Each picture had a different story to tell. The one you submitted was excellent, I thought, but I somehow loved the 7th down from the explanation. I could almost feel yu thnking of yur next goal. I also loved the smile in 5, a smile I haven’t sen for a while. I should also like to have you photograph me when you come home. What you’re doing with light is fascinating and makes a simpole picture an art piece. How Joyful. Love you, Grammy
July 9th, 2006 at 1:16 am
Grammy…..thanks. I am glad you liked it, even if you are biased. I would be more than happy to take you picture anytime
July 11th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Grandpa Marv would be proud. He loved photography and had a photo lab set up in what used to be Sara bathroom on Hi Point street in L.A. I am sure he is watching with joy from heaven. love Terry J
July 11th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Terry…..wow….I didn’t know that! Interesting……thanks for letting me know
July 15th, 2006 at 8:43 am
AJ – I’m always impressed when you tackle a new topic, but I am surprised at how developed your interest in photography has become. I think I followed a lot of what you were doing – the pictures of your setup really helped illustrate what you were doing. As an aside, if it is possible now to post pictures to the web, can we get more photos of your day to day life?? Anyway, congratulations on your success in learning the intricacies of photography.
Love,
Dad
July 15th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Dad…..The photos are actually not part of my web page. They are linked to another site. I hate to do this, and will probably not be doing it in the future. The only reason I did it this time was because I had already made the post to the other site, and thought it might be nice to repost it on my own personal site
July 20th, 2006 at 3:05 am
[...] Here is my entry for the second strobist bootcamp assignment. You can read about my entry for the 1st assignment here. I was not as pleased with the results this time around, but I was so close to the deadline that I didn’t have a chance to reshoot it. The shot’s story from my flicker post to the strobist group can be found at the bottom: [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
[...] Here is my entry for the third strobist bootcamp assignment. You can read about my entry for the 1st assignment here, and for the 2nd assignment here. I was quite pleased with the results. The shot’s story from my flicker post to the strobist group can be found at the bottom: [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
[...] Here is my entry for the fourth strobist bootcamp assignment. You can read about my entry for the 1st assignment here, for the 2nd assignment here, and for the 3rd assignment here. I was quite pleased with the results this time around. The shot’s story from my flicker post to the strobist group can be found at the bottom: [...]
August 29th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
[...] Here is my entry for the fifth strobist bootcamp assignment. You can read about my entry for the 1st assignment here, for the 2nd assignment here, for the 3rd assignment here, and for the fourth assignment here. I was quite pleased with the results this time around. The shot’s story from my flicker post to the strobist group can be found at the bottom: [...]