Shaping Light to Fit Your Subject

Dusk was upon me before I was ready and the bright display lights at the Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green kicked on as the daylight faded. The lights were much brighter than I remembered and I was concerned they would interfere with my planned shooting for that evening. Turned out my apprehension was premature because in fact they actually helped out because they provided enough illumination so the camera could easily focus, but not so much to drown out the lighting I was planning to use. About the only issue with them was they created a florescent glow the camera wanted to interpret as a greenish cast. A simple tweak of the White Balance eliminated the threat, and I was confident the speedlights would provide enough horsepower to overcome any adverse affect they might have.

As part of the Adventure Photography series, my project for the previous two weeks was to capture the historical aircraft on display at the park. There were five beautifully restored ones all having a connection to Bowling Green and Kentucky. Capturing vintage aircraft such as these in such a way as to avoid reproducing the standard cliche images requires a bit of thought. I had to ask, then answer one question; How do I shape my light to fit my subject?

I could have taken the normal approach and simply pointed my lights at the aircraft and flooded them with light. I knew this would never fulfill my creative desire to capture them in a unique way. I also ran into the problem of having only four speedlights to work with when I actually needed six or even eight to do the job effectively. As I walked around the F-4 Phantom, a huge aircraft even though it was an air superiority fighter, I realized there was no way I was going to capture this magnificent piece of history without taking a multiple image approach, then combining two images into a new single image. The idea was to first illuminate the underside of the aircraft, then photograph the topside. These two images then would be combined to create the final photograph.

My first decision was to decide from which angle to shoot. The F-4 carries itself well from most all angles, but the most striking appeared to be from straight on. Using this angle allowed for a dramatic use of what is known in the art world as a Vanishing Point, where all straight lines tend to point toward a single converging point thus creating an illusion of three dimensions. This also created a sense of movement and speed.

The next problem to solve was how to light this enormous aircraft using just four speedlights. It was much too large to capture in a single photograph. Dramatic lighting was a requirement and to create this drama I was going to use a set of homemade red gels to cover two of the lights. The gels were made from a document protector cut to fit the dimensions of the flash units. Two other units would remain uncovered and provide a basic white light. The idea then was to indirectly light the underside of the aircraft by bouncing the light off the tarmac. Two lights each were clamped to the back edges of both wings with the lights pointing down with a slight angle forward. This lighting setup effectively illuminated the underside of the F-4, but the top part of the airframe remained relatively dark. The lights of course were fired remotely from the camera.

I placed the camera on a tripod and aligned the composition. After some test shots I settled in on an exposure of f/5.6 at 28 mm with a shutter of 1/15 and an ISO of 800, using a remote cable release. Part of the problem was to also eliminate or kill off most if not all of the ambient light spilling over from the background. Once that was confirmed as the best exposure to accomplish this, I locked the camera in place on the tripod and left it alone. The first image was captured.

I now had to capture the second image. With the underside of the airframe captured, I needed to position the lights in such a way as to throw some light across the front and top portion. To do this I used two tall light stands one each positioned just outside the wingtips and somewhat in front of the airframe angled toward the canopy. Leaving the camera setting alone effectively prevented any movement of the camera that could throw off the critical alignment of the two images when blending the final two shots into one.

Again it required several test shots and power setting adjustments to get the desired results, but once I had that accomplished, I was pretty well done for the night. All that was required from that point on was to blend the two images into a single new image and do some tweaking in Photoshop to clean up the image.

The idea of this entire exercise was to avoid simply using light to illuminate the F-4 but to use light to shape the subject. The tarmac in essence became part of the main sources of light. Drama was demanded for this aircraft, to do justice to its classic lines, its history, and to its legacy. Using speedlights to shape light so it fits the subject requires not only an understanding of composition, but of the versatility of using off camera flash. It also required stepping away from the ordinary and looking at the problem in an extraordinary way.

When the normal way of doing something falls short of your expectations, don't be afraid to shake up your approach, try something new, something unique, because only then will you be able to truly gain a comprehensive command of the photographic process. Always doing the same ole thing the same ole way can result in ordinary pictures of things. To create the extraordinary, to capture drama, requires a  unique and extraordinary approach. Shaping light to fit your subject, how better way to use the power and versatility of speedlights.