Urban night time photoshoot - need some tips

[siddr20]

Hi there,

So i got a photo shoot coming up that involves taking pics at night time in the city somewhere. You know those urban night time modelshots, with the city lights in the background and or car lights..

Just wanted to get some tips from you all and what i should look out for?

Firstly do i have the right equipment to carry this out?

Canon 40d,
Canon 70-200f4 Is
Tamron 17-50 f2.8

Two umbrellas (one brolly), two light stands, and reflectors.

580exii and 430exii flash.

Might be able to borrow more flash, but don't think i will need it?

If you could post examples with some explanations that would be great :)


Should i use a tripod and make her stand still for a bit to capture as much light as possible.. Or shoot handheld? Etc.. These sort of tips will surely help.

Thanks for your help.

This is why i love this forum :) So many talented photographers here.

[alessandro2009]

I think will be necessary known the Australian laws..
For example in Italy if you put something on the ground it's configured as occupation of public land ...

But if you have helpers that hold the equipment in hand, no problem ...

Note:
Why you put this question on this section?
I think is improbable that you can do glamour and nude shoot on the street (even in Australia).

[fhphoto]

Your equipments are fine and sufficient, don't worry about them too much. 2 flashes are more than enough to start out.

I would suggest start simple with your 40D and 17-50, one flash on either side of the camera and play around a bit with distance and power settings.

[aroundlsu]

Your lenses are a little slow to get good shots of city lights without bumping the iso way up. I use the 35l at f1.4 1/30th iso 400 to get the shots you describe. In throw in some flash from an off camera umbrella for the model and maybe a other strobe on something in the background. Looks great.

At 2.8 you would need to shoot at iso 1600 to get similar results. Or use a tripod and shoot at 1/8th which may work if your model is extremely still.

[siddr20]

Thanks for the help. Appreciate it!!

I might be able to borrow a 50mm f1.4 of a friend for the day so i think i might just use that lens.


Why you put this question on this section?
I think is improbable that you can do glamour and nude shoot on the street (even in Australia).

Well it will be glamour shots. So i guess this is the right section!! Plus there are so many talented photographers posting in this section, im sure someone will be able to help me out and has done something similar.


aroundlsu - Just checked out your website. Great work i must say :)

Looking at your Lina shoot - Its exactly what i wanted to do. So you just had a couple of strobes placed around her?

[aroundlsu]

The Lina shoot may not be the best example. I will post tomorrow a shoot with just one strobe at 1.4. A lot of lina was at 2.8.

[siddr20]

Thank you.. cant wait to see the pics :)

[aroundlsu]

The last two on my Model Mayhem have pretty good city lights:

http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics.php?id=666157

[siddr20]

That looks great :)

Mind telling me which lens and what lighting methods were used?

Im doing the photoshoot this thursday.

Got my hands on a 50mm f1.4. So will give it a try with this lens.

[fiveFPS]

the tarmon 17-50 would be great! but since urban areas are tight in some spots you might want to use a wider lens

canon 10-22
sigma 10-20
tokina 11-16 2.8

or even a fisheye for awesome effects

good luck and remember to post some of your photos when you are done =)

[aroundlsu]

That looks great :)

Mind telling me which lens and what lighting methods were used?

Im doing the photoshoot this thursday.

Got my hands on a 50mm f1.4. So will give it a try with this lens.

My general night time lighting method is to shoot wide open, ISO 400, with one battery powered Sunpak 120J as close to the model as I can get it shooting through an umbrella. Shooting through is key, as it seems if I bounce off the umbrella it just doesn't look natural or is too bright. Depending on how bright your city is you may be able to lower your ISO.

Here we have one umbrella just outside of frame on the right and one 550EX with a green gel in the BG, though the 550EX really wasn't necessary. Most of the light is natural. F1.4 1/40th ISO 200

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/3607222561_7b4b3f52e3_b.jpg

Here is almost the exact same deal, except the umbrella is on the left and the green 550EX is to the right.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/3608039242_8cb6c40628_b.jpg

Here is a similar deal, except F1.4 1/15 ISO 200 and just one strobe bouncing off a wall.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2619/3744519788_899ae96638_b.jpg

Compare that to one at 2.8 and almost a full second exposure:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2596/3742851305_4de6461f6e_b.jpg

It's not nearly as sharp and we have quite a bit of ghosting from the long exposure. I've given up trying to shoot models at night at 2.8 when 1.4 and 1.2 lenses are easily obtainable (either through rental or purchase).

[kenwood33]

bring a flash light to help focus

[siddr20]

bring a flash light to help focus

Wish you would have posted this earlier. Something i regret not bringing.

The 50mm f1.4 was quite temperamental at such low light shooting. A slight move from me or the model would make the image out of focus. Or maybe its just me who cant shoot properly.


But atleast i learnt a lot from this photoshoot.

Dont think the model was too happy with my lack of preparations. Im doing it for free so she should take that into consideration and i even told her that its my first time shooting at night.

Anyways here are some images from the night:


What do you think?

Yup one side of the face is too bright :(
http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss200/sidd-rishi/modelshoot/IMG_2017_resizeupload.jpg

http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss200/sidd-rishi/modelshoot/IMG_2029_resizeupload.jpg

http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss200/sidd-rishi/modelshoot/IMG_2077_resizeupload.jpg

few more can be seen here: www.sidd-rishi.com/blog

Still havnt finished processing the rest of the images tho.

[aroundlsu]

I think they look great! I don't think the face is too bright from one side. The idea about shooting at night and making it look natural is there could be natural light sources anywhere on the street which are very bright. So even extremely bright light streaks could just be part of the natural street lighting.

Great job. They look super. And yes, TFP or free models are the way to go when learning new shooting styles like this.

And yes a flashlight is a must have to focus. I didn't even think about recommending that as I always have a Surefire in my pocket 24/7. It's more important to me than my pocket knife.

[siddr20]

Thanks for the feedback.. Apprioectea it :)

I learnt a lot from this photoshoot so even tho the pictures might not technically be great, im happy that i have learnt something valuable.

Next time i will be sure to have a flash light.

Thanks for all your help. Hopefully my next one will be a lot better.

[TooManyHobbies]

More advice if you want it...
-shoot after a rain you get blacker streets with reflections of lights
-try hdr with the model in the correct exposure shot
-Have all your light come from bouncing off a reflector at a steep angle for interest, give the lighting some charater you don't need to light everything like its a studio portrait
-color gels on flashes work great in urban
-find walls, doors, windows, garage stairs, tops of garages, water, and look for some cool geometries
-try twighlight, you'll have about 10-30 mintues of interesting light combined with your flash

There are a million other things I could say, but there is a start.

[siddr20]

More advice if you want it...
-shoot after a rain you get blacker streets with reflections of lights
-try hdr with the model in the correct exposure shot
-Have all your light come from bouncing off a reflector at a steep angle for interest, give the lighting some charater you don't need to light everything like its a studio portrait
-color gels on flashes work great in urban
-find walls, doors, windows, garage stairs, tops of garages, water, and look for some cool geometries
-try twighlight, you'll have about 10-30 mintues of interesting light combined with your flash

There are a million other things I could say, but there is a start.
Thank you very much for these tips and advice :)

Will deff keep it in mind for the next shoot.

Cheers mate :)