While they were out on The Cool Tour with As I Lay Dying, Blessthefall, Cancer Bats, and others, I met up with metalcore heroes Underoath for a portrait session before the gig.
For this editorial shoot, we did two quick looks: one setup with the bright afternoon sun on their backs for a natural rimlight, and then setup in the shade for a slightly darker feel.
Following the shoot with As I Lay Dying, Underoath were the second portrait session of the day. I’d photographed the guys in late 2008, when I was first starting to do band portraits, so I was eager to get another shot at Underoath.
Like so many of these editorial shoots, this portrait with the band was setup and executed on a tight timeline. Total shooting time between both looks was about 15 minutes.
Camera Gear Used:
Lighting Gear Used:
For this shoot, I relied mainly on the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight, my go-to speedlight for location work like this. The SB-900 is bright enough to shoot between f/8 and f/11 with modifier for a group like this, and with the Nikon SD-9 battery packs on my three SB-900s, the recycle times are fast, even at full power.
The key light in both these shots is my 18-Inch Beauty Dish. This light was used on a monopod that was boomed over the band. I triggered the key light via a Nikon SC-28 Remote TTL Sync Cord, which freed me up to use all three of my SB-900s as off-camera flashes while still getting the benefit of on-the-fly adjustment via CLS on the commander.
In addition, I used two 45-inch Photek umbrellas on either side of the band, which provided a little simple edge lighting to help create a little pop from the background. However, in addition the bringing in light from the sides to light the edges of the guys, the umbrellas also provide some nice, directional fill as well. For these sidelights, I used one Nikon SB-900 Speedlight and one Nikon SB-600 fired into each umbrella. I ganged up these lights and shot at lower power, rather than using just one SB-900 and blasting away at 1/1.
For those curious about the ambient lighting conditions, here’s an exposure showing the scene with no flash:
This exposure at f/9, 1/250, and ISO 200 with ambient light only shows that before the addition of flash, the scene is pretty dark. By shooting in the shade, it was possible to pretty much turn night into day with the right relative exposure.
As you can see, the ambient light isn’t really contributing to the overall exposure except for providing the barest amount of fill on the guys, and even then pretty much all the light on them is being blasted away with flash.
End Notes:
Big thanks to the guys of Underoath for being super easy to shoot and work with. In case you missed it, you can check out photos from the band’s performance on The Cool Tour here:
This entry was posted on Friday, September 17th, 2010 at 8:17 am and is filed under Portrait Photography and tagged with band, Chris Dudley, Daniel Davison, Grant Brandell, James Smith, metalcore, Portrait Photography, Spencer Chamberlain Tim McTague, underoath. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Dark daylight, demi-dreads & a beauty dish – Portraits: Underoath http://bit.ly/9pY3ou
RT @toddowyoung: Dark daylight, demi-dreads & a beauty dish – Portraits: Underoath http://bit.ly/9pY3ou
Nice shots Todd. Really cool to see the ambient light without the Flash. I can’t believe you are getting enough output and coverage with hot-shoe’s and a beauty dish to shoot at f-11. Fantastic. Have you played around with the LumoPro LP160′s at all? Have heard they can’t be beat for the price. Considering grabbing a few for quicker “gorilla” style shoots where I need some portability and what not.
Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.
As far as the exposure, the shot in the open with the sun at the band’s back was shot at f/11. The shots in the shade were at f/9.
The funny thing is that the beauty dish actually eats up a lot of light (at least in my opinion), but when you use it in the right combination, there’s no problem with output whatsoever.
I haven’t used the LumoPro LP160s, but I’ve heard good things about those as well as the Yongnuo YN-560
.
If you don’t have any speedlights, I think they’re a great part of even a larger lighting kit.
Todd,
I do have one Canon hotshoe (580ex) and I use it quite a bit with my PCB White Lightnings rig. Mostly for rim lights or back light…works great, and that is why I am considering grabbing the LumoPro’s. Quite a few shoots I have had where I have wanted a few more lights but really don’t need the power of the monolights, or where I needed several lights but packing the monolights around, with a battery pack was cumbersome.
Check Todd's awesome portraits out RT @toddowyoung: Dark daylight, demi-dreads & a beauty dish – Portraits: Underoath http://bit.ly/9pY3ou
Check Todd's awesome portraits out RT @toddowyoung: Dark daylight, demi-dreads & a beauty dish – Portraits: Underoath http://bit.ly/9pY3ou
RT @toddowyoung: Dark daylight, demi-dreads & a beauty dish – Portraits: Underoath http://bit.ly/9pY3ou
Solid set Mr. Owyoung. I like the second image the best. Big fan of natural rimlighting :)
Hey Jim,
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, nothing beats a rimlight like the sun! Nice and bright, even, and plenty high up for nice coverage!
You did a great job making this look easy. With group shots like this, it’s actually more difficult than it looks. Especially with multiple “layers” of people, you have to start playing shadow management, and you did a fantastic job seamlessly including the lights! And that’s why bands continue to come to you.