Rodney Campbell's Blog

My eldest daughter and I went out one evening with an idea to take a few images at night (in a cemetery). We took one flash (a Nikon SB-900) and a shoot through umbrella (although we weren’t exactly planning to use it like a normal shoot through diffuser).

The general plan was to have her stand somewhere with some environmental interest and hold the umbrella like one would normally hold an umbrella in the rain. I’d then arrange to sort of shoot the flash into the umbrella and hopefully shroud her in light with the diffused and reflected light from the umbrella also bouncing out into the environment.

Things didn’t exactly go to plan but with this first experiment we’ve got a few ideas for next time we try something like this 🙂

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I first started with the relatively narrow aperture (f/9) and a fastish shutter (1/125) and took a number of shots which faded to darkness very quickly – I liked this simple image the best

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 70 mm, 1/125 sec at f/9, ISO 100

then I opted for a wider aperture and a long exposure (many seconds) with rear curtain flash in an attempt to drag in some ambient exposure and hopefully the flash would freeze my subject and umbrella. During the long exposure I also did a touch of quick light painting to light some of the environment on the left and right

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 70 mm, 6 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Some time ago I ordered a softbox designed for portable speedlights (as opposed to large studio strobes) for the princely sum of $35. This sounds insanely cheap and surely you couldn’t expect too much for something that costs less than a good meal for one. The softbox I have packs up into quite a small bag but once unfolded becomes a 24 inch by 24 inch (60x60cm) square softbox and included is the speedring and ballhead with cold shoe bracket for the flash – everything you need to then simply attach to the top of a lightstand.

I hadn’t used it all that much so I’ve been getting it out lately experimenting with a few things and have produced quite a few images that I’ve been quite happy with and in most cases they look good straight out of camera with little post processing required.

My first attempt was on Boxing Day when our neighbours came over, it was late afternoon so I setup a lightstand with softbox in the back yard and put my Sigma 50/1.4 on. The sky had these nice chunky clouds and I wanted them both to have this deep ominous colour so I coloured the flash with a clip on yellow tint diffuser to colour the light and since the coloured light would only fall on my subject when I corrected the final image for the strong yellow tint the white balance would hopefully shift dramatically blue/purple.

I had my subjects (the kids) stand on a chair so I could shoot more up at them so I could have more sky in the background (this isn’t ideal for a good pose but I was playing more with the gel effect than anything else). I shot at sync speed (1/250th) to start with to massively underexpose ambient and make the colours I get darker, deeper and richer.

Here is one I was very happy with – this is almost straight out of camera with the major change being the white balance correction for the subject.

The Look

NIKON D7000 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

A week later and my daughter had a friend stay over so…

In this first it’s daytime so I’ve setup the softbox in a room with a darkish wall about 3 metres behind. I shot with the 70-200 f/2.8 and shot at f/9 and sync speed (1/250th) this time to try and really kill all ambient and go to black. The softbox is close to the left and slightly above the subjects and on the right is a silver tri-grip reflector quite close (which you can see because she is holding it herself :)) for a bit of fill.

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 75 mm, 1/250 sec at f/9, ISO 100

That evening I setup the lightstand in a room with an open door to outside with a clear view to the sky (my background). It was later this time with sunset coming soon – I gelled the SB900 again but this time with those little gel things which come with the flash – a full cut of orange and set my camera to Tungsten white balance to compensate. Again with the 70-200, one of my middle daughter, softbox close on the left and slightly above subject with a single SB900, no reflector, etc

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 86 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Another day and my eldest two daughters had their haircut so they decided it was OK to pose for a few shots and allowed me to setup my lightstand, softbox and flash. For this shoot I decided to try out the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens as a portrait lens. Again I gelled the SB900 with a full cut of orange and set the camera to Tungsten white balance. It was just on sunset so the sky was still a bit light and there were puffy pink clouds in the sky. I was hoping again to have the sky go a deep blue because of the white balance shift but I’d left it too late. Shot again with us all in a room standing inside in front of an open door to outside.

I tried shooting at a slowish shutter speed (1/60) and a wideish aperture to try and drag in some ambient but it really wasn’t enough – a shot of my eldest daughter.

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/60 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200

After that I decided to just kill ambient by shooting at sync speed (1/250th) and shot at f/8 and here are my two other daughters…

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and lastly I tried a group shot with the three girls – had to move the softbox quite a way from them to fit them all in, I backed away as far as I could in the room (against the wall) and here we go. I knew I didn’t have enough depth of field to get them all in and the shots I tried at f/11 weren’t much better.

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

It was a very wet, rainy and extremely cloudy morning when I awoke before 4AM for the early trip over to Watsons Bay/Camp Cove on the South Head of Sydney Harbour for another seascape outing.

I’d not been to this location before so was thankful for some useful directions provided me on the way 🙂

I must say it wasn’t looking good – in fact it looked very grim – it was pouring rain in the city when I was driving through on the way and the sky was just one mass of heavy clouds – I really wasn’t expecting much this day other than dark grey.

As luck would have it – it wasn’t raining when I arrived at South Head and since I had packed a raincoat in my camera backpack and carried an umbrella on my walk around to the lighthouse it didn’t rain the whole time we were there and only started to rain again when we were about 100m from the car on the way back out – so that was the good news 🙂

We parked in the carpark near Camp Cove Kiosk and walked across the beach and along the path following the coastline around to Hornby Lighthouse which is at the tip of South Head.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

On the way out to the lighthouse I took this shot during twilight from the Northern end of Camp Cove looking back to the city

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 15 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100

We got a few breaks in the clouds but there wasn’t much of a show at sunrise. We stayed up on the top of the cliff rather than braving the rock shelves below (mostly because we only arrived barely in time for sunrise itself) and it was very windy up top. However we did get to look over the very interesting Red and White striped lighthouse and had a great view out to sea to watch the sun peek under the clouds on the horizon before darting back behind the thick dark mass. We got a few bursts of light and a nice almost God ray effect with the sun shining through the rain pouring down on the far horizon.

A couple views out to see just as the sun hit the horizon which I’m happy with

Dawns Fire

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

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NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

and then it was time to try and craft some images of the lighthouse whilst the suns early rays were shooting across the sea to the coast, before the sun moved higher and behind the heavy black clouds

Storms Brewin’

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Lighthouse

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Whilst at Cockatoo Island I met some skateboarders who were trying to perfect some moves and were filming their actions, I asked if I could also take some images to which they were happy. Here are a few of my shots…

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 125 mm, 1/1600 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200

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NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/1600 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200

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NIKON D7000 + 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm, 1/3200 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200

This Crane on the waters edge on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, with some great cloud action in the sky made for an ideal location for a gritty detailed HDR. I lined things up with my Ultra Wide Angle lens down low on a tripod looking up at the crane and hook with the sun in the clouds directly behind the main arm of the crane and took three bracketed images at 0, -2 and +2EV.

NIKON D7000 + @ 12 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and here is a version I’ve converted to monochrome and processed even further

NIKON D7000 + @ 12 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100