I recently did a photo shoot in Loudoun County, VA, a beautiful area where I must’ve passed by 20 wineries. What was originally scheduled to be an afternoon shoot had turned into an evening one, 30 minutes after sunset. Situations like these test a photographer’s ability to adapt. While my original vision for the shoot was under daylight conditions, the time came to apply my lighting skills in the pitch dark.
I planned on traveling light for this shoot so I used the following light sources & equipment–
- Canon 5D Mark II and 1D Mark IV
- Canon 85mm f/1.8 and Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lenses
- Two Impact air-cushioned light stands
- Three Pocket Wizards (for remote triggering of speedlites)
- Two Canon 580EXII speedlites inside a Westcott 28 softbox as main light source
- One Canon 580EXII speedlite with a 1/2 CTO gel for backlight and edge lighting
- Two Sylvania Silverstar Ultra High Performance halogen headlights, courtesy of my Chevy
We chose the location of a broken down truck next to a red barn where there was minimal tree cover so that some of the stars in the night sky could be seen. My model Alex did an amazing job leveraging her unique style to contrast the country-like setting on a hot and muggy night – I think keeping her comfortable and cool inside my air-conditioned truck between setups also helped! We plan on continuing this photo shoot at a later date to capture different sides of Alex’s personality so stay tuned!
Special thanks to Donna, Ryan and Laura for assisting me on this photo shoot!
softbox for the train photos.
by Armin
no comments