SUNFLOWER PHOTOS | MCKEE-BESHERS SUNFLOWER FIELD PICS | DC PHOTOGRAPHER

I’m slowly catching up on blogging more of my work, I’m so behind!  Over the weekend I did a photo shoot for Melinda in a sunflower field in western Montgomery County, MD just outside DC near the Potomac River at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area.  Despite the 90+ degree heat, bees, and other critters everywhere, we had a good shoot in the McKee-Beshers Sunflower field.

An iPhone photo of the field.

I used my Westcott Apollo 28 softbox with two Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flashes inside.  The softbox is not made for two flashes but there are several ways to mount two or more on a light stand to increase the amount of light output, especially on a bright sunny day when this photo shoot took place.  I purposely chose to shoot on a day when the sun was high and the sky was clear so the sun could provide some rim light, while the soft box would be my main light. Even with two flashes and slightly underexposing the background and ambient light, I still had to keep the main light about 3 to 4 feet close to my subject in order to achieve the right amount of coverage.

Ideally, using more powerful strobes with portable power would be the way I’d go, much like I did on a motorcycle shoot.  The downside would be weight and size for some of this gear.  Here’s a list of some that I’m looking into:

• Elinchrom Ranger Quadra (starting around $2300 it’s probably the most portable on the list)
• Profoto 900795 Acute2R 1200 (a strong but pricey kit getting close to $3500 or more)
• Alien Bees 1600 (Black) (affordable around $360, then add around $300 for their Vagabond portable battery power system. I would likely buy two or three of these so I can have main light, key light, rim light, etc.)
• White Lightning 3200 (another affordable and powerful strobe for around $550, then add the Vagabond battery for another $300. Again I’d likely buy two or more)

There are a lot more options out there to look at, and many are more expensive than what I listed.  If any photographers out there are considering these strobes listed don’t forget to budget for the variety of accessories to complete your system, including light modifiers (e.g. softboxes, umbrellas), radio/remote triggers, carrying cases, and additional power supplies.  Of course, one other way to go is the Strobist route and buy more flashes.  For example, I would guess that three Canon 580EX II’s would be the rough equivalent to the power of one Alien Bee 1600 light (just a guess, I could be a little off).  While not necessarily less expensive, the advantage of a Speedlite system is having a lightweight portable system.  Not to mention the added dimensions of creativity  with multiple lighting configurations.

My goal was to balance my lights with ambient light. The high sun brought out the vibrance in the sunflowers (hence why I wanted to shoot in this light) and I wanted to capture that contrast and detail so I underexposed it slightly, probably about 1/2 stop down. The exposure settings remained fairly consistent for all the photos at 1/200, f/16, ISO 200. One flash was set to full power (w/battery pack), the other was set to 1/2 power (no batt pack). If you set flashes at full power you sacrifice recycle time, meaning you'll have to wait a few seconds or more before your flash is ready for the next shot. Since time was mostly on my side, I didn't mind going full power with a battery pack attached. Both flashes were inside the Westcott 28 Apollo softbox.

The exposures out of the camera were great and pretty much look very close to what you see now. But a little contrast and color temperature adjustments gave it the look I wanted.

Overall I was very pleased with the results. I'm glad I got out to this field before the sunflowers wilt away.

As most professional photographers know the softbox diffuses the light (or softens it) so your subject is evenly lit. The Westcott Apollo 28" softbox is so easy to set up since it's basically like an umbrella light modifier, except it's a softbox. Some of the great things about it are affordability, ease of use, easy to set up and start shooting. Some of the not-so-great things are that it's somewhat fragile (two of the rods bent easily after taking a somewhat gentle fall, but it was easy to push it back into shape), accessing your flashes require lifting the diffuser out of the way, and the position of the zippered light stand access makes it difficult for tilting it downwards. Despite its limitations the convenience of this softbox makes it worth every penny.Image by www.fjwestcott.com.

Jordan and her cousin were with me too because they really wanted to check out the sunflowers. Naturally I got a photo of them together.

Of course I wanted to take advantage of the setting and photograph my lovely assistant and wife Denise.

Naturally Jackson made it into a photo.