Big Sky - Big Country

As first light brightened over the horizon I realized I was once again running about fifteen minutes late, so I hurried my pace across the rough terrain to close the gap between what I was seeing and arriving at the location to capture it. There was a cool breeze whispering over the top of the prairie and the bottoms of my pants grew damp from the morning dew. A few birds were already beginning their morning songs and I stopped for a moment to absorb the moment. Could not tary long for the sun would not wait and I hurried to setup my camera before the light changed.

Photographing Oklahoma's Tallgrass Prairie requires one to arrive early and stay late. Sometimes it is difficult to separate the task at hand from just simply enjoying the moment, so sooner than I wanted, I began to snap off images as the morning colors progressed across a palet as large as the prairie itself.

The Tallgrass Prairie is one of my favorite places. Browse through this blog and you will discover a number of articles that reflect my fondness of this location. It can be a challenge to photograph sometimes because the diversity that is the prairie makes it difficult to decide what is important to capture. I often find myself second guessing my choice of locations. Once I decide on place, I wonder if maybe I should have chosen the other location. What if? That is a question that plagues my thoughts as I wait for the light. What if I were here yesterday or wait until tomorrow, or should I have setup someplace else, but no, I'm here now so take advantage of what has been offered.

There are elements I look for, things like a compelling foreground to add interest and depth to the landscape. The angle of the light, the color and quality of the light are just a few. Sometimes elements just fall into place, other times I have to search for them, and sometimes it requires taking a hike just to see what lies over the hill. Most of my scouting is done during the middle of the day when the light is flat and harsh. While scouting I look for potential, then hope the light changes as anticipated.

Photographing the prairie can be cold, hot, wet, dry, windy, overcast, and bright sun, all in one day, but it can also be one of the most rewarding and challenging of photo adventures one can pursue. The key is get off the access road, shy away from the cliche, and seek out new potential by walking into the prairie. It is there you will discover its true identity and it will reveal itself to you. Take only its portrait, but leave a part of yourself blowing with the prairie wind.

Daytime Artifical Light to Create Dramatic Portraits

I especially enjoy location shoots. They provide an almost never ending array of backdrop and light, plus it allows one to get out of the house and enjoy being outside. We recently were involved in a shoot at a new location for me. It proved to be a spectacular day with a gentle breeze, fall-like temperatures, and lots of puffy clouds.

Here is one photograph from the shoot where a combination of using onsite speedlights, a stunning model, and some simple post processing created a dramatic portrait. The shooting conditions were somewhat difficult with broken clouds accented with a bright sun. Shooting in anything except a full shade was pretty much out of the question.

The setup for this image was rather simple. It was shot in the shade of porch area using two speedlights fired remotely. On the key light was attached a 24x30 softbox and it's power setting was reduced to about 1/4 power. It was placed about 4 feet from the model at somewhere between 90 and 60 degrees inline with the head and was adjusted to just above eye level. This allowed the softbox to extend slightly above and below the models head and shoulders and to also provide some soft wrap around light. Behind the model about 10 feet away another speedlight was setup dialed down to about 1/8th power. It was a bare light raised to about head level and pointed directly and the model.

It was shot on manual set at ISO 100 at f/9 at 1/200th with the lens zoomed out to 200mm.  This setting produced a well exposed portrait with a sharp drop off of contrast and some wrap around from the key light and nice separation highlights on the hair from the second light.

Post processing included convertion to black and white using a film noir process which generated a dramatic contrast without blowing out the highlights. The midtones were dropped to darken the background and the resulting image became a stunning example of how artificial light can be used to make a natural looking, yet powerful portrait...even in daylight.

V-Slats and Artificial Lighting

As I have stated numerous times photography is all about light. It doesn't matter the source of the light. It could be natural or artificial, how you employ the qualities of that light determines to a large degree the final value of the image. I recently started exploring in more detail the use of artificial lights both studio guns and smaller speedlights. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but both can also provide a spectacular array of lighting potential. One technique I find intriguing is the use of what are known as V-Slats. They are most often employed in a studio environment and provide a wonderfully soft and compelling light.

First of all V-Slats are very simple to construct, there is nothing fancy about them. I used two sets of two 3x4 foam boards joined along one edge with tape to end up with two V-Slats. The idea is to bounce your light into the V of the folded slats facing away from your subject. The light is then bounced off a larger white wall a few feet behind them. The White wall in effect becomes your light source.

The light coming off the wall presents a huge flood of soft light that envelops your subject. Combine it with say 400 watts of constant lighting set behind and to one side, you end up with an interesting and dramatic soft light effect.

Playing with the exposure values also allows you to introduce motion into the equation without sacrificing the clarity and sharpness required for your subject.