Why is it that CSI's seem to be in love with their flashlights and afraid of light switches?

Whatever the reason, their illumination-phobia was my inspiration for Strobist's Lighting 102 Ultra Hard Light/Film Noir assignment.

Crime scene tape is actually a novelty guitar strap that I bought with the intentions of turning into a strap for my camera bag (before I shifted gears and bought a Lowepro backpack instead)

For the flashlight effect on my face I fitted a 12" cardbord snoot to my SB-600 got in nice and cozy and pointed it at my face (1/16 power zoomed to 85mm) Then, to illuminate the crime scene tape, I set a Sunpak 333 at half power parallel to the tape so it skimmed along, lighting it, but not contaminating the rest of the scene.

Afterwards, I discovered a slight glint off my belt buckle, so I burned that out in photoshop. Picture was sharpened and converted to a high contrast black and white in Lightroom. Exposure was 1/500 second @ f/8. Strobes were triggered with cactus radio triggers.

Strobist Info:

Sunpak 333 Full power gelled with #368 (Winkler Blue) zoomed to 35mm - Camera Left, directed at subject and background.
SB-600 1/2 power gelled with #325 (Henna Sky) zoomed to 24mm - Inside Pumpkin

Happy Halloween Everyone!

For the final day of shooting, I went really close and low, angling up to really make Mr. O'Lantern loom over the scene. Before the shoot, I also tested about half a dozen different blue gels to try and get the right shade of dusk.

I positioned the Sunpak to camera left, and blasted it at full power to define the scarecrow's outfit and illuminate some of the background, then adjusted the shutter speed until I was happy with the ambient lighting of the scene. I went with an blue lighting scheme this time to give it a twilight vibe. I also tried a much darker red gel inside Jack's head, since on the previous nights, I noticed that when that light starts bouncing around inside the pumpkin it seems to sap all the color out and come out of his face yellow (still does, but, the darker the gel, the deeper the orange of the pumpkin) I suppose if I had masked the inside of his head with some white paper, I might have been able to capture the red a little better.

After three days of shooting, Jack's head had started going a little soft, so in order to make it sit properly on his shoulders, I had to cut it out in Photoshop, rotate it slightly, and give it a slight enlargement to cover up the rotation.

I wish we had Target up here in Canada, I would have loved to have a fog machine for this shoot.

Strobist Information:

Sunpak 333 1/2 power gelled with #324 (Gypsy Red) zoomed to 35mm
SB-600 1/4 power gelled with #3407 (CTO) and #25 (Orange Red) zoomed to 35mm
LED Flashlight gelled with #3411 (3/4 CTO) Painting body and shadow on tree

Unsatisfied with Monday's shoot I set out again to try and get my Halloween shot.

Armed with the knowledge that having the light behind him seemed to do pretty much nothing, I set the red gelled Sunpak off to camera left to blast an eerie red onto the scene.

I shot during dusk this time, instead of full blown night, so I could capture that blue ambient light, but still found myself painting his body and a couple trees with my flashlight to recapture a little bit of detail. I also lowered the angle of the camera to try and make "Mr. O' Lantern" a little more imposing in the scene.

Apparently, no matter how red you gel the strobe inside a pumpkin, once the light starts bouncing around inside there, it comes out yellow. But, it does darken the pumpkin itself.

Tune in tomorrow for the final version!

Strobist Information:

Sunpak 333 full power gelled with #324 (Gypsy Red)
SB-600 1/16 power gelled with #21 (Golden Amber)
LED Flashlight gelled with #3407 (CTO) painting body
LED Flashlight painting background

This is day one of my three day Halloween project. I shot over the course of three days last week, Evolving and modifying the concept until I got a picture I was happy with.

Night one I was out in full dark, but the light leaking from a nearby streetlight was flooding my shot with too much hideous orange light (it's been corrected in Lightroom) There was also a red tinted backlight which I discovered did basically nothing. I also learned that if your strobes are too close, the Cactus V2 triggers interfere with each other and misfire about 98% of the time.

Tune in tomorrow for Night two, and see the final version on Halloween!

I had this concept in my head for a while now, I was just waiting for the time, energy and a half-decent sunset. Tonight, I was home alone, the sunset was purpling up the clouds nicely and there was nothing good on tv (a perfect combination!)

Originally, my concept was on the rocks in front of my house, but they have a more south facing view, and the light's never quite colorful enough there, So instead, I decided to haul two strobes, three tripods (I don't have light stands) my camera and assorted cables and wireless triggers a couple hundred feet into the forest next to my house. Then, precariously set everything up on the rocks by the shore.

I used the wireless remote (in self-timer mode) to take the pictures. Snap, snap, get up, over to the camera, chimp, rinse, repeat until the sun is gone.