creative lighting help??

[barefooter14]

i am looking for some creative color options for lighting in abandoned buildings and night time out door shoots in the woods.

i just need to know what other people are using what advantages are things like that. oh and where to get them.

any help would be great!

thanks in advance, Ryan

[barefooter14]

anyone? i am just looking for a place to start for looking.. thanks for any help

Ryan

[team haymaker]

your best bet would be to look through flickr maybe look for light painting or use of flash gels. theres some great examples and then its some trial and error

[barefooter14]

thank you! i am looking for what sort of lights people are using for this mainly.

[barefooter14]

anyone else got some input of what type of lights to use?

[gotglade]

I use my 430EX II with different colored gels on it. I also always bring along a 6 cell Mag light and a few other assorted flashlights when night shooting.

[barefooter14]

^ i also bring a few soft and led lighted flashlights with different color filters for them. but that is not doing what i want. i am looking into trying some glow sticks because i feel like the colors could be bright with long exposures.

i will try this weekend and post up the results.

if you have any other ideas please share.

Thanks, Ryan

[gotglade]

I find that with the strobe if you flash it more than once you can achieve a very bright result. I use dark gels so the colors don't get blown out. And depending on the situation will do anywhere from 2-20 flashes on a single subject. I like to get in the buildings and have the light coming from within.

[barefooter14]

can you post an example pic so i can see how that turns out? just trying to really figure out what i should do before i go and spend money. thanks

[gotglade]

I'm out of town until middle of next week and so won't have access to post any of my shots until then. But here's a link to something similar:

http://photogunn.wordpress.com/2007/01/12/troy-paiva-night-photography/

His name is Troy Paiva and he has a series called "Lost America" (http://www.lostamerica.com) which is done at night in many of the ghost towns of the west. The shot on that link was made with an 8 minute exposure with 8 pops of a gelled strobe which he fired from behind the front column.

I find that my 430EX II is great for covering large areas like the sides of buildings or the interiors of buildings while not having to worry about getting even coverage everywhere or creating hotspots. I like my flashlights for detail work.

[gotglade]

Oh, and as for gels, I (along with pretty much everybody else) use the Roscolux Gel Sample Swatchbook (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360203917233&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=M*S%3F&GUID=5413fe8c1150a0aad5200620ffe23deb&itemid=360203917233&ff4=263602_263622#ht_500wt_956) gels taped on the strobe. It's pretty easy to rig something with duct tape that you can easily slide on and off without having to deal with a sticky mess on your flash.

The only thing you want to watch out for is using darker colored, or lower transmission gels (<15% light transmission) with higher powered settings as this might melt your gel. I had a dark green gel almost melt to the flash using 1/2 power (yikes!). I find that using 1/8 or lower is usually okay.

[CanonHowitzer]

Go to a hunting or camping store and check out the battery powered lights they have, which tend to be relatively cheap.
They can be usefull.

Good luck.
:)

[barefooter14]

gotglade, that is what i am looking to do i prolly should have said the lost america idea before hand. i am going to be doing a little different twist but same idea.

the strobes is what i really need to make it look good it seems like but i dont have the money to do that right now. i am going to see what i can do with a cheaper strobe and put some gels over that and run it to some type of battery..

keep the ideas coming that you all for the input!