Lightning tips : Snowboard/skiing

A friend of my asked if i could do some pictures of him while he is railing.. gonna do it tomorrow and it will be pretty dark outside.
Any tips on how to set up the flashes, do some backlit shoots? give me some ideas please

What i got:

two flashes + two umbrellas with stands and wireless trigger for it ( have a snoot and some gel for the flash also ).


5D + 35L + 135L, can also borrow a 50D + 10-20mm sigma lense so i can get real close and have a wide DOF.

tomme wrote in post #12103967
A friend of my asked if i could do some pictures of him while he is railing.. gonna do it tomorrow and it will be pretty dark outside.
Any tips on how to set up the flashes, do some backlit shoots? give me some ideas please

What i got:

two flashes + two umbrellas with stands and wireless trigger for it ( have a snoot and some gel for the flash also ).


5D + 35L + 135L, can also borrow a 50D + 10-20mm sigma lense so i can get real close and have a wide DOF.

I don't think soft light is really important, so you may not want to bother with the umbrellas

If it's dark, make sure you have enough light to get the focussing right at least, especially with the 5D.

Power and short flash duration are what is needed. So you need 2-4 flashes set to half or 1/4th power to keep the power and lower the flash duration. Remember, you can bump up ISO to increase the power from the flash.

Nick

A few things to think about:
Depending on the size of the railing, you may be able to get multiple pops on the rail (though you'll likely want to focus on one). Also, weight may be a consideration, depending on how far you'll have to travel to get to the shoot. The hard light looks good on snowboarding photos usually, so umbrellas aren't really "necessary", but I'd bring them if you can.

If you have a flash that can zoom, get in close, and leave it as wide as possible. If the rail itself is kinked (bent), or is especially interesting, then you'll probably want to light it as well. I really like being able to backlight the snow if it's falling, and it can look really cool to hit your friend with a backlight a stop or two higher than the mainlight, but you run the risk of flashing back right into your photo if you mistime it. No risk, no reward

Give me one minute, I'll draw what I mean

I agree, keep the ISO up so the image is still clean (400 ISO on a 5D should be fine), and that will allow you a lower power on the speedlites, for a faster duration, and they'll last a little longer (especially in the cold).
Setups like this could work well. Also, surf flickr for a few minutes and see...people have some awesome jibbing photos online.
Below is a quick example for a possible strong backlit example.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

On a 5D, at ISO 800 1/16 power on a speedlite is going to mean the light is relatively close to the subject. The 1/4 backlight will essentially blow the highlights.

The distance scale on the back of a Speedlite shows the range of acceptable exposure given the camera settings for ISO, and f stop. Use that information to help you position the lights and the power settings.

thanks for the tips everyone! It will just be a little session in a backyard behind a grocery store. He will bring with him a rail, dont know how it looks though.. Also forgot to say i got a lightmeter so that will help alot, and the flashes are a 430exII and a YN460.

Use Anlenke's diagram as a starting point. You are going to need one light in front for illumination, and one from behind for background separation. Since they are different power lights you will have to mess around with them a bit to get a pleasing ratio.

^will start with that option, if i set the flash ( 430exII ) at 1/16 and then i use the lightmeter to meter the other flash to two stops darker then the 430exII. Should i set the zoom for wide on the 430 ? like 28-35mm ?

tomme wrote in post #12109658
^will start with that option, if i set the flash ( 430exII ) at 1/16 and then i use the lightmeter to meter the other flash to two stops darker then the 430exII. Should i set the zoom for wide on the 430 ? like 28-35mm ?

It depends on what you want illuminated. If you just want a rimlight and your timing is good you can aim it at the back of the skier and zoom in a bit more. If you want some of the snow and surrounding area lit up, or you want some extra latitude for timing zoom a bit wider.

great tip, have some ideas hope they will work ! Have been snowing ALOT today 20cm - 30cm and it still is snowing, but not that much. hope it stops soon though... 3 hours to the shooting, gonna be fun and a good experience to do this! havent done much strobist outside before

BE SURE TO POST YOUR RESULTS!

Sorry for the caps - not yelling - just emphasizing.

^Will do

The session is over .. it only lasted 30-40min because it was late and some people got angry because of the noise we made, hehe. They had to make there own speed for the rail so they did get a little tired after a while so i didn't get to many shots, but i did get some good ones ( will upload them on the mac soon and do some PP )!

My brother wasn't home so i couldn't borrow his 50D and lense, had a little problem with focusing with the 5D and the 135L so i had to manual override it sometimes.
And i missed the fast fps of the 50D BUT it was fun

Thanks for the info guys, will post the pictures as soon as im done..

here is one for ya

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR