Eric Hamilton – Celebrity / DJ / Nightlife Photographer

Posts Tagged ‘strobist’

Get Your Flash off Your Camera

There are many ways to do that. For the basics, head over to the Strobist.com. Nikon shooters can use Nikon CLS. You’ll need SB-600, 800, 900 flashes and a D80 or better. Check your manual for “commander mode”.

Canon and other shooters, there are a range of external solutions, ranging from Cactus V2 triggers to PocketWizards. Each solution really needs its own tutorial, so I won’t go into setup details here.

Shoot With An Assistant

Many wedding photographers employ assistants who do everything from help keep track of important guests to holding reflectors for posed portraits. Why shouldn’t you have an assistant at a nightlife event? I am very grateful for the dedicated help of Tania on this shoot. She held the second flash, which let me capture multiple light angles. Most of the edge highlights above were lit by Tania, standing behind and to one side of the subject. In some cases, she provided the off-axis key light that helped me light part of the subject’s face, instead of even all-over lighting you get from the camera angle. The band photos are good examples of that technique. Tania lit most of those from camera left while I shot from the right side of the stage.

Use Multiple Light Sources

In most of these shots, I used two flashes – a key light (a flash that I held in my left hand), and a second flash held by an assistant (see above). In several shots, the ambient light also contributed in some ways to the subject exposure. You can see hints of that in some of the blurrier photos. I was using long shutter speeds to let some of the ambient light into the exposure. Employing multiple light angles serves to create more three dimensional images, which is why these photos tend to pop a little more than the average point-and-shoot shot. Multiple light angles sculpt and define curves, angles, and dimensions, adding loads of depth to a photograph.

When you drag the shutter long enough to create a color wash in the background, you can even flatten the background while your flashes sculpt the image in the foreground. This creates separation by placing your 3d-looking subject on a flat-looking backdrop. Talk about POP…

Drag the Shutter

I’ve said it many times before – when you’re out in a club, it’s fun to capture the colored lighting all around you. In these shots, the washes of red, orange, yellow, and blue are only visible because of the slow shutter speeds, ranging anywhere from 1/25th to a full second in length. This technique is called dragging the shutter. When you’re shooting with flash, think of the flash as the key light – your primary exposure. You control that with the flash power and aperture. Your background exposure comes from ambient light, and you control that with shutter speed.

With really long shutter speeds, you can even create light paintings by dragging the shutter and moving the camera while there are light sources in the frame. See the light streaks in a few of the DJ photos here for examples.

The guys over at Radio Poppers have been busy. In case you don’t know, Radio Poppers combine the advantages of radio wireless systems like Pocket Wizards with the advantages of proprietary infra-red systems that allow you to transmit flash power and TTL data right from your camera. I’ve seen these units perform, and they look great, but I was holding out for the new models before I dove in and purchased my own set.

It looks like that wait is almost over! Yesterday I noticed two new announcements on the Radio Poppers blog: “P8′s and Jr. Canceled … Sort of.”, and Second Generation P1/P8 and Jr.

The short story is that the originally planned multi-channel P8 and Jr models (originally slated for August release) have been scratched, because the Radio Poppers team realized that they could make their planned next-generation 2010 launch this year… In other words, they’ve leapfrogged a whole generation of product development, and are now on the cusp of unveiling the second generation flagship Radio Popper unit (no name revealed, as of yet), along with a budget version that is targeted to compete with the cheap Cactus V2 triggers. There’s a lot more detail on the Radio Poppers blog, but it’s a bit much to wade through. I’ll keep you posted on the specs as they become available.

[Update: Pixsylated.com got a sneak peak at the new units. After reading, I'm even more excited about the announcement coming December 12!]

I get a lot of questions about which photography gear I personally use or recommend, so I decided to answer the questions once and for all. I put together the main products I like at NikonStrobist.com. Amazon.com handles fulfillment and customer service. It covers just about everything you need to get up and running, including flashes and triggers, light modifiers, stands and clamps, cameras, lenses, software, and even some recommended reading. Enjoy!