Shooting your light at night, keep creative mind a flow

In spare time I try set a few projects to keep the mind flowing with ideas, this one was shooting at night.

 

Questions always come in, what flash should I get or what would best suit me. I'm not going to answer that you can figure that out, heaps of reviews and examples online. What I will explain is shooting in the dark. Super fun. One light, kind of interesting but the first step when you get two lights is super sick. Threes fun, seven mixed with studio lights in a forest you have to remember what's on which group ha. You get to light up what you want.

This idea didn't really have to be shot at night, more spirit of the moment. I wanted to capture a break up moment. Since she couldn't fake cry we thought how could she cry without causing too much pain... ONIONS! Had a few onions on the go, we tried peeling, cutting, squishing, letting the aromas flow but only ended with me crying ha. We finally got it, the onion's juices flung in her eye after having a peeling spaz. She then got the idea to touch the juice then her eye... ended in tears, and screams. Time after time, finally working. Taking a break to look in the mirror we found pieces of onion in her eyes then figured it may be easier with water... still funny though.

By the time we finished mucking around with the onions we didn't get too many photos to playwith lights. I didn't get the full potential and meaning behind it that I wanted so there's always another time. For the lighting I had one 580EX II with Lastolite 60cm Ezybox for diffused light in front  and 430ex II behind for a backlight for more depth.

I had this idea for the summer but got pushed further and further back down the list. It came to autumn with snow on the hills when one night I decided to make a call. Arrived at a local lake, calm night, somewhat warmish, well not really you could see your breath.. ha perfect. I wanted a ballet dancer to be one with the water and dance as droplets spiralled around with a reflection upon the water. Originally I thought it'd be pretty wack getting a tutu in the mix but sadly they're pretty pricey, that's out of the question then.
Two light setup with Canon 580EXII on either side of the dancer. Both are with the Pocketwizard flex TT5 for wireless power control and high shutter speed capabilities. Shooting in the lake I used tripods instead of light stands being a safer option, The sloping angle and sand don't mix that well. Diffusers would have been sweet to add but not ideal with the same reason I switched to tripods. Always handy to have a few spare plastic bags and tap to cover the tt5 from water damage. Although over time 'touch wood' I've become hesitant to cover them. I'm not going to dunk them in the puddle that's just silly but they have had a fair few rainstorms out in the wild for a few hours and been splashed with water. Don't quote me on that, they aint cheap, I may have just had some luck with me.

At night focusing can be a issue, pop it on a single focusing point preferably the middle and ONE SHOT on canon then pre focus. I was away from any power source so didn't have the luxury of outdoor lighting. You might find if you have the slightest light and there's a contrasting spot on the subject you can focus. If not try adding a constant light to it, the lake shot I used the car lights and the crying shot I popped a LED torch on a tripod. A problem that I came across was using the 1D IV, it sucked for focusing in low light, really bad. The torch couldn't get any closer without going in the frame and lights couldn't cut it, you may be able to flick to liveview and focus but that takes time. I resorted to using a cellphone being held near the nose then pop out a few frames with a larger DOP hoping one of the shots caught it. If your using a anything else it won't be apparent, just struck me how annoying the focus was on the 1d IV.

Anyways get out there and make something happen
Enjoy Stefan.