Experimental Off-Camera Flash Portraiture

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The other day I was experimenting with a series of portraits using my Canon EOS 5D, a 50mm f/1.4 lens, and two 580EX II speedlights (one on camera and one off-camera), triggered with PocketWizard II plus transceivers. In order to be able to focus in the dark I attached a 580EX speedlite on my camera so I could take advantage of the infrared focusing capability of the flash. I didn't want to light my subject with on camera flash, so I first attached a Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 and then mounted the speedlite on top of that. I also attached a sto-fen filter to the speedlite that was on camera and covered it with black photo tape. I turned the power on the flash all the way down to 1/128th power since I was only using that speedlite for it's infrared focusing feature. I then attached a PocketWizard II Plus to the head of the on camera flash (using a velcro strap) and plugged it into the FlexTT5 using a Paramount sync cable. I then set up another speedlite on a light stand hooked up to another PocketWizard along with a small white umbrella. I set that speedlite to 1/128th power and started to shoot. Since my subject (my son) was playing with a LED flashlight, I wanted to catch the trail of the light by dragging the shutter at 0.6 of a second, while shooting the lens wide open at f/1.4. I was able to focus quickly in complete darkness while triggering the off camera strobe with the PocketWizards. All and all I was rather happy with the results and hope to use this technique again.

southern-california-portrait

light-painting-portrait-california

experimental-portrait-photography

50mm1.4-portrait-light-trail

california-childrens-portrait

flashlight-painting-child-portrait

experimental-childrens-portrait

san-diego-experimental-portait

long-exposure-sandiego-portrait

painting-with-a-flash-light-portrait

san-diego-childrens-portraits


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Nick

Pretty darn cool, Keeney. I recall you talking about that custom function and will finally check it out, thanks to your post : )

Sunday, November 29, 2009

CK

Thanks Nick. It calls for some bells and whistles, but it gets the job done nicely.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

jr - 

dig it!!!

Monday, December 7, 2009