Kenny Townsend, named "best bartender of the year" by Inside Columbia Magazine this month, watches for a patron's order on Monday, Mar. 9. at McNally's Irish Pub at 7 N. Sixth Street, Columbia, Mo.

This week I went downtown to McNally’s Irish Pub to photograph Kenny Townsend, the bartender that Inside Columbia magazine just rated as the best in Columbia, Mo. I started off using direct flash (it’s for class, and I had to use both direct and bounce). Naturally, I used my new Panera-straw grid for the direct flash.

I used the grid to make him stand out from the dark bar, but without lighting up the entire place in a way that would be unnatural, especially for a tight shot. For a wider composition, I felt I had to bounce the flash off of the ceiling (below). But this gridded spotlight also made clear that the focus wasn’t just the bar, but the bartender himself.

Kenny Townsend, named "best bartender of the year" by Inside Columbia Magazine this month, pours a gin and tonic on Monday, Mar. 9. at McNally's Irish Pub at 7 N. Sixth Street, Columbia, Mo.

Of course, the composition also leaves something to be desired. So I switched to a broader view, and was much happier with the result.

Here, he’s pouring a gin and tonic for a customer. (More after the jump…)

The light is bounced off of the (surprisingly dark) ceiling, which had a tendency to eat about two stops of light–and I was calculating the exposure based on the guide number and the distance up to the ceiling and back down to the subject, and was consistently off by two stops. Fortunately, even though it’s a dark ceiling, it doesn’t seem to contribute a color cast to the image!

I was much happier with the result of this photo. However, the best moment came a few frames later, but it was lacking technically. For this particular class, toning is not permissible (the idea being to perfect the technique in camera to get the best possible original prior to toning, but not to use toning to cover up technical flaws.

However, just because I cannot do it for class, doesn’t mean I can’t share the moment here:

Kenny Townsend carries a fistful of dollars back to the cash register.

Finally, to get a sense of what I was doing, I’ve included the lighting diagrams for the first two images. The final photograph’s lighting setup is roughly identical to the second image.

Content © 2009 David Kennedy | View Original Post | Comment | Filed under J7558, Updates | Tags: Advanced Techniques, bounce, grids, light, lighting, lit, strobe

My Panera-Straw Grid on 550EX

I’m at the point in a lighting class at MU, Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism, where it is time to leave the studio and venture forth into the world with one (or two, if Canon ever repairs my other 550EX), small speedlight.  I have become enamored with hard light sources in the studio; softboxes have their place, but I thought that grids, snoots, and barndoors were my favorite to work with.  I remembered reading at Strobist a couple of years ago about making a grid out of black straws (easily sourced from your local Panera…).

Mine is not pretty: in fact, I’m already planning on making a second one with a more refined technique of stacking and gluing rather than lining up in a row and sandwiching with gaffer’s tape.  For now I’m attaching it with gaff tape, but will make a little cardboard housing for it soon so that it can be slid into place on the head of the strobe.

But what its present incarnation lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in performance.  I will admit that I have not perfected the art of aiming the speedlight with this grid, but I love the effect.  It makes for a very circular, “spotlight” effect, and the light fall-off is rapid and dramatic.

Portrait of Meg Wiegand, Heidelberg Restaurant, Columbia, Mo.

How dramatic?  I took the flash with me to a get-together of friends at a bar last week and did some experiments with it.  I only brought my TTL cord; next time I’ll just take the wireless transmitter, as its far less cumbersome.  (Nothing scares your friends more than a zipline of TTL cord randomly roaming a table with the potential to knock over their beer.) More after the jump…

I’ve done some testing on a light stand to see how effective the grid really is, and how it shapes the light, and my result was this animation.

Grid spot vs. Bare Flash - Click Photo for Animation

Without question, the grid gives the light a circular shape.  It is also far more concentrated–all of the photos have the zoom head at 105mm, its maximum.  At lesser zoom settings, the grid eats about 1 stop of light (if you are at 1/8 power, it would be wise to go up to 1/4 power).  At 105mm, the grid seems to consume only about half a stop (or even less).

I also compared the result to cardboard snoots (rectangular ones made to fold flat) and the shape produced by the grid remains far more pleasing, and the effect much more dramatic.  I have seen people using cardboard tubes for snoots before, but I cannot compare the two.  Either way, the grid is much smaller and lighter to carry around.  It does, however, need to be placed fairly close to the subject for the maximum benefit.  From two to five feet from the subject, the light is great.  Beyond that, its effect is much more muted.

I’ll finish this post with one other portrait that has a feel I don’t think I could produce any other way with a tiny speedlight.

Geoff George, Heidelberg Restaurant, Columbia, Mo.

Content © 2009 David Kennedy | View Original Post | Comment | Filed under J7558, Updates | Tags: DIY, grids, light, light modifiers, lighting, lit