Katlyn - 11/8/09

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of shooting with the lovely and talented Katlyn.  I’ve shot with her before and it was such a joy that we wanted to do it again.  This I picked a wooded location that I haven’t shot at in a very long time.  In many ways it was like seeing an old friend again.  There were some changes to the location here and there but it felt good to be among the trees again.

Katlyn - 11/8/09

We started first with my favorite banyan tree.  I love this tree because each model who shoots with it sees it a little bit differently. and poses with it in different ways.  Because the ground was still wet from freshly fallen rain we kept shooting at the banyan tree very light and stuck to only one side of it.  I would have liked to shoot more with the tree but I had other plans for her that morning that involved an old buidling in the woods nearby.

Our second location was an old stone structure off in the woods.  The reason why I love this place is that the light tends to come from above in a diffused pattern.  Everytime I have come here I have never seen direct sunlight hitting the structure or the trees.  The last time I shot here was with Jillian and that now feels like ages ago even though it was just 7 or 8 months ago.  This time we stuck mainly with the back side of the building shooting in a crumbling doorway.  we later moved inside the building and shot with the other 2 doorways.

Katlyn - 11/8/09

The main thing I wanted to test out on this shoot was using my sb600 speedlight in conjunction with natural light.  Seeing how I might mix the sunlight with this artifcial light to make my images a little more interesting.  perhaps picking up details that normally would have been lost.  What I found is that because I am triggering the speedlight with my camera’s on board flash I got highlights in the eyes without the flash regeistering on the model or the rest of the scene.  I liked that because the eye detail is better than if I had just shot with natural light.  Also I found the extra bump in light level made it easier to shoot in the darkness of the tropical jungle environment.  all of the light we had that morning came from and filtered through the canopy above us.  so the speedlight gave us the much needed sidelight to get more details from our scene and the model.

One thing I realized after we finished shooting was that I could’ve probably shot the speedlight through a diffusion panel and gotten the light to be a little softer looking.  Then I might’ve been able to use the flash as my main light and the sun as fill light.  Now I want to start playing with that idea and see where it leads… maybe I’ll need to buy a softbox?

One of the things I want to try on this shoot is adding in an off-camera flash.  I’ll probably spend about 30 minutes playing with this idea and see what I get out of it.  If it looks good… I might just shoot that way for the whole shoot.

The flash I’m using is the Nikon SB-600 that I bought recently.  I got a chance to use it on the shared shoot I did with My friend Eve.  I loved how it looked and just how it made the model, Sera, really pop in the images.  So why not try it on some nudes?  I shall report back soon as to how it went…

Katlyn Processing Idea - Original

Katlyn Processing Idea - Faded

I’m not totally sold on the look of the image on the right just yet but I do like it!

I don’t want to be the kind of photographer who can’t shoot witout supplemental lighting.  However, I’ve been getting requests lately that I’ve had to turn down or that I take and know that having supplemental lighting would make a lot easier.  In the past I’ve used 1000 watt halogen worklights as shooting lights.  those shots came out very well but the heat that those lights generate is amazing!  Recently I bought a new flash for my Nikon D80 that will work as an off-camera slave flash.  That turned out to really make some great shots look even better!

Quite recently I shared a shoot with a friend of mine who brought along an Alien Bees strobe light and a battery and I love the shots she got and now I’m debating getting the same rig.  My only concern is plopping down $800 to buy the light, portable battery pack and wireless transmitter for firing the strobe.  It feels like a lot of money especially in this economy.  I’m still not sold on it just yet.  I like the portability of the slave flash I already have and I can spend another $250 and get 2 more slave flashes that will give me just as good results as the Alien Bees rig. The only drawback to that is that I will have less control over how much light comes out of the slaves.

So I’m still not sold on any of it just yet.  I like Alien Bees products.  I’ve borrowed their lights from friends in the past and really enjoyed working with them indoors.  So I can see buying a light to be used for indoor shooting or shooting when I have access to power.  It happens from time to time and it’s happening more and more now.  Buying the battery pack would allow me to bring the light with me outdoors where I do most of my shooting.

I’m so confused.  I will continue to think about all of this and see what happens.

P.S. If I did buy a light from Alien Bees it would be the B800!

We fully intended to shoot nudes but the beach I picked got crowded unexpectedly.  We did shoot a few topless shots but we mainly stuck with glamour/beauty shots of Sera.

"Having good lights won't make girls take off their tops! but you know you'll get great shots if they do!"

Eve brought an Alien Bees strobe with her while I brought my Nikon SB600.  I mainly used my light as a slave flash off the camera and got some very interesting shots.  I might start playing a lot more with it as an external light outdoors.. bt I have to make sure that I don’t rely on it too much.  I can see where I could get to a point where I would rely on it so much that I wouldn’t be able to shoot with out it. I shall make sure that I maintain my skills of shooting with available light.

One of my many favorite shots from the shoot is to the right.  This is of course the back of Eve’s light and you can see Sera in the water in the distance.  I stopped shooting to take a break and saw this shot as I sat there watching Eve shoot with Sera.  so I just had to get it!  I’m thinking about sending it to Alien Bees with the disclaimer “Having good lights won’t make girls take off their tops!  but you know you’ll get great shots if they do!”

I crack myself up!

Sun to the right, strobe to the left

Ok back to more serious stuff.  The shot to the left here is really one of my favs from the shoot.  the reason is simply the light.  There’s a lot going on lighting wise.  The sun is on the right of the frame, and my strobe is on a tripod to the model’s left.  you can see the shadows from both sources of light in the shot.  What I like about it is that the strobe really provided a nice highlight on Sera’s hair.  that in my mind, makes this image just pop!

I had never really shot with a slave strobe before so it was fun to play and explore and see what I got with it.  I will definetly be playing with the off camera strobe a little more.

Up till now I’ve been using an Olympus FL-36 flash for my olympus rig.  the flash itself fires and works with the Nikon system as you would expect in manual mode.  But I’ve found that the power has become really unreliable.  It’ll fire at full power and then jump to 1/64 then 1/4 then 1/32.  I don’t know why but it happens even when it’s put on the Olympus rig.  It may have something to do with differing voltages between the cameras or there could an ant running around in the circuitry of the unit.  who knows!

Nikon SB-600 Speedlight

So I decided it was time to get a new flash, preferably one the works with my Nikon D80.  So I picked up the Nikon SB600.  If your interested in a proper review check out Ken Rockwell’s site.  Last night when I got home I played with the flash for a bit and I have to say that I really like it so far. I almost bought the SB400 because of the price point.  After talking about the differences between to 400 and the 600 I realized that the 400 was going to be underpowered for what I needed.  So a great job in the upsell to the sales guy!

I’m actually very happy that I bought the SB600.  Last night as I played with it for a bit, I found that it does a great job as a wireless off-camera slave!  I may just end up using off camera exclusively.  I normally don’t shoot with flash because I don’t like the way it looks but up until now it’s always been a camera mounted flash.  Now I have the option to get the flash off the camera which could change my mind about additional light.

Later today I have an outdoor shoot so I’ll play around with using the off camera flash outdoors and see what I get!

P.S.  The roadside assistance guy was very cool and turned out to be a fellow photographer!  I’ll be making a spare door key for my car today as well!

I’ve only played with the grip for a little bit but already I can tell I’m gonna really like having the extra controls. the only thing now to get used to is the extra bulk is gives the camera. But I don’t see it as being a problem. It still feels nicely weighted maybe even better weighted with the grip on??? We’ll see when I get out there and start shooting again!

I can’t wait!

I’ve started looking for models for a shoot this weekend.  I’ve contacted three, I hope one will write back and want to shoot!

More news to come….

~Jason Tag

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Depths

By Photos by Jason Tag

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