Michael Sewell
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- Name
- Michael A. Sewell
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This is an image that seemed to have all the right ingredients but just fell flat on the light test. The background was just far too dark to have any kind of detail in the hedges or bushes. If I opened it up for the bushes, the sky instantly blew out, and I lost any kind of atmosphere from the setting sun.
A quick change of direction as Wayne headed off to round up the bride and groom.
I put the camera on a tripod with a remote release, and decided we would get the initial image as well as we could, and then light paint each bush and feature in the background on separate frames, and then merge them all into the final image.
Yes, it would be quite a bit of work, but I think the final image is worth the effort. And besides, I would be asking Wayne to walk around the bushes with a speedlight, while I dutifully pressed the remote.
Working left to right across the frame, the key light is a Lencarta Safari II 600Ws. This was on a lightstand at a maximum height of 2.7m and firing through a gridded 150cm folding Octa. This was mainly to provide the overall light to the couple, with very little light going anywhere else. My intention was to light everything else via light painting later.
The light output for the key light was set to ½ power.
The rim light that is seen on Lee's jacket (right shoulder), is coming from a Lencarta Atom 360Ws firing at ½ power through the dedicated gridded beauty dish. I had originally intended to place it in line with the tree trunk so as to hide it, but I found the foliage actually obscured far too much of the light from that angle. Consequently, I moved the lightstand effectively halfway between the tree and Lee, although further back, obviously. You can see it in the foliage of the BTS image below.
A third Atom 360Ws is firing through an 80x80 quickfold softbox, and mounted on an extending paint pole, held aloft by Wayne. Surprisingly, he doesn't complain about holding equipment aloft for some time, but I do find I tend to get coffee without sugar for a week if I overtax him!
The third light was set to ¼ output and was mainly used to pick out the detail and texture on Nicola's dress and flowers.
There is a fourth Atom 360Ws firing through another dedicated gridded beauty dish frame right, again at about 1/2 power. You can see the light impact on Wayne's head and shoulders in the BTS image below. This was aimed fairly high, to give some accent to Nicola's arm, shoulders and hair.
Nikon D4 1/200th sec ISO100 24-70mm f2.8 @f5.6 & 29mm
Once the keeper was in the bag, and the bride and groom went back to their guests, Wayne then took the same 80x80 softbox and Atom, lighting each bush individually, along with the hedge, trees trunks etc. The output was set to about 1/8th, although it did vary depending on how close he was to each element.
All the frames were combined in post, with each lit element brushed through to the main image.
Yes, it was a lot of work for a single image, but the time for the bride and groom was kept to an absolute minimum, and they weren't required for the light painting part.
The below image was a “pull back”, before getting the final user image. You can see the Octa top left corner and the beauty dish beyond the foliage. The light and stand were removed in post.
Yep, that's Wayne.
