I just found this forum and thought I'd pull a question from the unmoderated forum over here for your eyes to look over.

I have been skimming over location portraiture literature for some good rules of thumb when setting up a model for a portrait while on my trip to Spain. It is an interesting problem, because I can count on high, harsh sun during those times of day when we aren't supposed to shoot :) .

Here's what I've come up with for my Canon FD rig (T90 and AE1P).

1. Fuji S-Reala 100

2. Shoe mount Vivitar 383 for on camera fill or off camera with tripod adaptor (and 20ft of pc cord).

3. Photoflex XTC II mini-softbox (about 8x6" bath toy) for softening with flash off camera and 6ft to Subject.

4. Rosco #09 pale amber gold gel for flash

5. 100mm f/2.8

The most appealing (and probably ambitious) style that I have taken a liking to is the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. For professional and personal reasons I have been disecting each shot trying to figure out how they did it (with 3 assistants and a truck full of gear), and then trying to figure out how I can come close to replicating it with a single flash setup . From what I gather, I can either use the sun as the main light and flash for fill, or use flash for main light and sun for hair highlights/slight modeling light.

Are you laughing yet?

The reason I like the SI swimsuit shoot is that they are shooting in tropical regions with similar lighting issues to the ones I face. Here is what I've found so far.

Technique #1: Shoot at sunrise and sunset. Perhaps use the flash for some fill or modeling??? Use warming filter gel on flash to match sunlight?

Technique #2: Shoot subject in shaded area. Since I'm shooting neg film I don't have to worry about blue cast??? Flash becomes main light with no fill or hairlight? If so, on or off camera?

Technique #3: Shoot subject in daylight, but with the back of body or face to the sun, thus puting the subject in a shadow that I can brighten with flash. In this case, I gather, the flash is considered the "main" light and the sun is the hairlight. So I shoot flash at full power, or stopped down 1.5 notches for fill? On camera or off?

I know these are very subjective questions (read "answer will vary"), but I would like to know if anyone has any tips for composing outdoor portraiture with such limited gear? If the model's face is in the sun, is it normally good to position her so that the line between light and shadow falls down the center of her face, or perhaps off around 45 degrees?

Also, has anyone found a particular color gel that works good for warming skintones, particularly during sunsets/rises?

Shooting from the hip, I picked up a Rosco #09 pale amber gold gel from B&H. Here's a link with a rough image:

https://secure03.bhphotovideo.com/default.sph/FrameWork.class? FNC=ProductActivator__Aattributelist_html___43705___RO09S___REG___SID= E6B224EA922

Any thoughts on best color? will this work?

Sorry for the long string. Thanks for taking the time to read it!

Best, Don

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 16, 2001

Answers

Most of my people photography is done on location and often outdoors. My #1 lighting accessory is an assistant with a big reflector (my #2 lighting accessory would be a second assistant with another big reflector or diffusion panel). The ugly truth is that there is simply no way to make a small, portable flash mimic the kind of light you get from a large, diffuse source. I've used the kind of "mini softbox" you mentioned--the improvement in the quality of light was marginal at best; if traveling, I wouldn't even bother with it.

The good news is that there's plenty of great lighting in the world out there that doesn't require any modification by you--you just have to look for it and utilize it. Light-colored cement or sand provides great fill. A newspaper works, too.

The best general advice that I can think of is to stop thinking about the accessories you have and other technical issues and start trying to see the possibilities in the available light.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), May 16, 2001.

Personally, I don't like using negative film for portraits (especially of fashion type stuff). Why?

1) staring at chromes on a light table captures a lot more of the "feeling" of the lighting at the time the shot was taken than looking at some cheese Type-R print.

2) I feel often that the small exposure latitude of slide film makes the pictures stand out more - when I want shadows, they are black, when I want highlights they are white - when I want skin it is the right brightness and if I do everything right, it stays even.

Second: Copying "Sport Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" photography is difficult if not impossible. Why? Because there are so many different styles of photography in play. Look at these images and you'll see what I mean:

None of these are even remotely the same in terms of the lighting conditions and techniques. Each shot is different. So what effect do you want, exactly? Do you have a sample that you can put up that you're trying to copy? From one amateur to another I must urge you: choose ONE example to copy and not a whole host of examples. Otherwise you will fail.

-- edward kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), May 16, 2001.

Ed,

You offer sound advice, particularly on focusing on one style. Given that I only have 2 arms and one back to cary gear, I will probably have to rule out the use of a reflector. On camera fill, or off camera tripod mounted flash (at 6ft or less to give my mini-soft box a chance at working) will probably have to suffice.

I will try to attach a couple of examples, one from SI, the other one off of a practice shoot I just finished doing. Both have their backs to the sun (easy hair light), thus making the shadows more controllable. My shot had the flash off camera at a 45 degree angle to the model at about 6ft. Lets see if I can post them.

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 16, 2001.

Here's the SI pic

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 16, 2001.

I'm not sure what the question is. You have identified how most swimsuit-type shots are made. Though in number two, you don't necessarily need any additional light. You might use a flash or reflector for fill if you aren't getting enough naturally. You might also need to shade directly above the model to provide more directional light.

Swimsuit shots are extremely simple since they are designed solely to showcase the model's physical attributes while making some minor reference to an exotic locale. Without a model like that you'll end up with something more akin to a bad P&S snapshot (which is why an SI photographer can get away with using one).

But first, are you trying to do a portrait or a swimsuit shot? Swimsuit techniques aren't designed for what most people call portraiture. That doesn't mean, of course, you can't use them, but what kind of look are you hoping to achieve?

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), May 16, 2001.

By the way, I do want to mention that you can, of course, use similar techniques to good effect for contemporary portraiture. Phil Borges often uses a single flash with umbrella to shoot his shaded subjects. (And a Hasselblad to allow flash synch with shutter speeds high enough to render the background correctly exposed.)

http://www.philborges.com/enduringspirit/esphoto13.html

http://www.philborges.com/tibetanportrait/portrait10.html

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), May 16, 2001.

Sorry bout the size. only one I had convenient. Scan is awefull, JPG artifacts are worse, but this it my off camera shot. This should be considered a portrait depicting how enthusiastic my girlfriend is about my photography hobby :)

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 16, 2001.

oops...lets try that again.

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 16, 2001.

Anything is portable if you have enough porters :-)

The last time I was in Madrid I came across a fashion shoot at midday outside the Opera House. Two of their seven assistants were controlling the massive stand for the fifteen foot square diffuser they had suspended over the model's head.

Some ideas for replicating this on the cheap:

1) get one of those collapsing light panels with a semi-rigid frame. At a pinch, you could hold it yourself and trip the shutter release remotely.

2) Spanish cafes and restaurants almost invariably have their outside seating shaded by large umbrellas or awnings. Borrow one, or buy your model an iced water and find a table at the edge where you can shoot outwards towards the view.

3) A lot of the old towns in Spain have a maze of narrow, twisty passages, which are photogenic, but which never have much in the way of direct sun anyway.

4) Go to Galicia, or the Picos de Europa, or the Pyrenees, where overcast skies are more common. Gibraltar also has a useful cloud that covers the whole town when the wind blows from the East. The Guggenheim have also kindly erected a set of huge reflectors in Bilbao.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), May 17, 2001.

Great thoughts Struan!

I like the idea of using those narrow spanish streets. Finding natural deflectors and diffusers will probably be my best bet, and your observations about the prevelence of umbrellas made me think of the pueblo blanca's that we'll be in. Couldn't ask for a better bounce than that, me thinks. I don't think I'll have room for a collapsable frame, so anything that lets me take advantage of natural "assistants" is of great help.

Thanks again! Don

-- Don Leonard (don_leonard@student.uml.edu), May 17, 2001.

Carrying one of those Quixotic windmills might be ligher than toting a whole village around with you :-)

Wasn't "Un chein Andalou" shot in broad sunlight? Be brave! Break the mould!

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), May 17, 2001.

don,

a few tips:

1) shoot in broad daylight, harsh sun. 2) choose a spot with a much more consistent color scheme (in your photograph, you have grass, then water, then more grass, denoting a depth of field that you're dealing with in terms of a few feet to infinity). Choose a location that doesn't leave the viewer staring out into infinity. You never want to distract from the model too much. Also, pick a background color scheme with bright, saturated hues. You want this color photograph to jump out at you. 3) use a white sheet as a diffuser for the harsh sun. put it a few feet over your subject and hold it via two assistants. 4) use two gold reflectors to warm the subject. 5) use an on-camera flash to put some sparkle in your subject's eyes. 6) step back from the model and use your 100mm lens like a 180mm one.

and then study your model incessantly and figure out some good positions and expressions for her to wear. I think she would carry more impact with her mouth closed than with that "conked on head" look :)

jon, do you know what power flash borges uses? He uses a single flash, but I'm betting it's out of some portable ultra-WS flash pack :)

-- edward kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), May 19, 2001.

It's just a 400WS Lumedyne in a softbox - very close.

http://www.philborges.com/fieldnotes/

-- jak267 (jkantor@mindspring.com), May 19, 2001.