Outdoor studio shoot

surfg1mp

surfg1mp

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I have been doing some volunteer work for a local animal rehoming centre and getting some good results.

They would like some studio style portraits of some of the cats and dogs. If I could do them in my studio it wouldn't be a problem. This isn't possible so we are going to try and do them outside with a huge seamless background.

I can see many issues with doing this but I'm going to give it a go.

How would be the best way to go about this? I'm hoping for an overcast day.

The kit I have at my disposal will be.

Nikon d700

2x sb600
1x sb800
1x sb26

3x phottix strato

2x soft boxes
1x shoot through brolly
1x bounce brolly
Various grids and snoots

I was going to keep it simple and just use one or two flashes off camera and not light the background :shrug:

Would really like some help as this is un chartered territory.

I think the main thing that's bothering me is there not being any shade and battling with the power of the sun. I have used flash outdoors in shade with good results. But this is different.
 
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Hotshoe flashguns can add light, but can't compete with the sun, so unless you can shoot on a dull day you will need to control the light in another way.

The obvious answer would be something like the Lencarta Safari Li-on, but I appreciate that this would be over budget.

Another professional approach would be a scrim, which is basically a sheet of black woven material that's full of holes. This dramatically reduces the amount of light passing through it and turns bright sunlight into an overcast day. A "Poor man's alternative" would be a silk, you could use a plain white shower curtain, again suspended overhead. This will diffuse the light and take away the hardness.

Do you really need a "studio background" for this? I would have thought that a natural background would look better and would be easier anyway...
 
Hotshoe lights would be awesome for this.

1/8,000s sync will cut down the working distance a lot but would make even Californian days dark. In the UK they will be great.

The freedom to control them from camera position and shoot at any sync speed without mucking about with any 3rd party kit would be nice.

But really I personally wouldn't use more than one light and maybe a brolly. Stay simple, work on using available as main light and flash as fill. I also wouldn't use a huge seamless b/g outdoors. 20% of kids freak out on those - let alone rescue animals. Wouldn't it be nicer with a bit of the centre in the b/g?

BTW I think one of the moderators here knows a lot about this.......
 
Thank you Garry and Jonathan. Some good advice there. I have done a lot of environment portraits for them already which turned out pretty good, they have chosen 5 of them to produce post cards which will hopefully raise money for the centre.

I like the idea of a scrim but I'm on a tight budget and don't own one, I don't really have time or the resources to make one either. Definetely worth remembering as that will come in handy for future projects I'm sure. Not really into the whole flash head thing either, much prefer to use speedlights.

I like your idea Jonathan, about ditching the seamless and using the sun as key and a speedlight as fill. Chuck a speed light on a stand or monopod with brolly and get an assistant to hold it. That way it can be easily moved. This does seem the best way as the animals are very unruly. And simple is going to be better in this case.

Another quick question. When using nikons cls system to fire the flash. Is it possible to fire multiple shots like you can shooting in manual with triggers, or do you always have to wait for the flash to recharge.?
 
surfg1mp said:
Another quick question. When using nikons cls system to fire the flash. Is it possible to fire multiple shots like you can shooting in manual with triggers, or do you always have to wait for the flash to recharge.?
Click to expand...

Depends on how much output the flash is asked to make. At low power with decent batteries you can get almost instant recycle. There's a chart in the back of the flash gun manual that shows recycle times at different powers with different kinds of batteries.

However, the CLS uses some of the flash power to communicate info back to the camera. Generally not a huge amount but some so it's going to be a little worse than the table suggests.
 
Well, it all become academic. At low power, you will have nowhere near enough power to influence, let alone dominate, bright sunlight, so you'll be limited to using highest power with slow recycling, complete with a risk of overheating.

Basically, to get any useful contribution from hotshoe flashes you'll need to use them very close to your subject and avoid modifiers such as softboxes, which spread the light over too large an area.
 
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