Words and Light

Let’s take a break from all the spring break roadtrip photo blog posts I’ve been putting up. Here’s my latest assignment for Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism: multiple flash.

Okay, I have to admit: I was TERRIFIED of having to use multiple flashes for this assignment.

The assignment:

Team up to assist each other in photographing an active situation using at least two strobes, one of which should be slaved or fired remotely. Just about anything can be fired using multiple flash, but good candidates for this assignment are things like sporting or cultural events, dance rehearsals, fashion shows and competitions — term projects.

Originally, my partner Matt and I were going to strobe up a practice at Hulett House (more about them in this blog post), as part of our group’s final project. But I wasn’t feeling well, and he had a paper he had to write anyway. So we ended up meeting on Monday — the night before the assignment was due, of course — and trying to figure out what to do.

After a stint at Capen Park didn’t work out and calls to other places didn’t go through, we ended up at Billiards on Broadway, where a few groups of people were playing pool. We chose to photograph Mike Smith, Chris Schulz and John Stone, who played several games. Fortunately for us, they didn’t mind being flashed with three strobes as they struck out billiard balls.

That’s right. Three strobes.

For my shots, here’s what I did:

• I had an off-camera strobe (my 580EX II) attached via my shoe cord. Set on manual mode, this usually served as my key light. If I didn’t want it to be my key light, I’d simply aim it a little higher to trigger the other two strobes, which were optically slaved.
• We had a Mini Morris, which is an optical slave whose power can’t be adjusted. Because of that, we simply sat it on nearby tables or the bar. Depending on the angle of my shot — which depended on where the players moved around the table — the Mini Morris acted as a backlight for some photos, a key for others and a side/fill for still others.
• Matt set his strobe to act as an optical slave, and he would move around the table to accommodate my lighting needs — either to fill or highlight my shots.

Here are the three runner-ups, with explanations why I didn’t choose them as my select.

While I like that we can see Mike's eye and utter concentration here, we can also see Matt's flash in the lefthand side. Combined with that and the Mini Morris, the highlights in left side of the photo are blown out.

I like this photo. It's a bit dramatic, which I really don't mind. And I don't mind that you can see the Mini Morris in the righthand side (sitting on the bar). But I don't think Rita or Catalin would appreciate it, so this one's out.

Disclaimer: I would have cropped this photo if it were my select. That said, it's not my select because the red-striped ball is blown out and the yellow-striped ball in the foreground isn't lit well enough.

So what does my select image look like? It’s not perfect, by any means, but I think it has the best combination of technique and composition.

Caption: MU student John Stone gets ready to strike the ball in a game of pool at Billiards on Broadway on April 20. Billiards on Broadway was previously located on Ninth Street. My only criticisms: You can't see John's eyes, and the highlights in the lower righthand corner are a bit blown.

Overall, I feel a lot more comfortable with using multiple flashes. At first, it was pretty hit-and-miss, but I think Matt and I did a fairly decent job by the end.