What’s Your Preference?

gidikh · #1 (**permalink**) 11-16-2010, 04:40 PM

Had this idea for a while, finally got some time to try it out. Here's my setup:

1. Long fast lens. Sigma 150 2.8 macro lens
2. string of 50 LED christmas lights
3. SB600 shooting through an umbrella, camera left
5. Reflector / Gobo - position next to flash, to bounce light and block the flash from directly hitting the camera
6. remote trigger
7. black backdrop - dark room
8. about 30ft of space

Drape the lights over the backdrop so they hang down, tie them up so you get rough cone pattern to the lights. I was about 10ft away from the backdrop/lights and the camera was about another 15ft away from me. The distance between the subject and the lights is important. Too short and the bokeh circles will be small or you might even see details of the light cord. Too long and the lights might not be bright enough.

Flash. Position the flash directly pointing in your face and lower it so it outlines the face,next and chest. Some sort of diffuser is important, I went with an umbrella as they tend to give more of a contrasty look than softboxes. Position the reflector/ or anything you have handy to block the line of sight between the flash and the camera. You will need a remote trigger, or a really long cable. Experiment with flash power, I had mine set to 1/32. If you are loosing details in the highlights (like the face) then lower the power. If you can't make out any details, increase the power.

Focus & metering. Set the camera to manual focus. If you are doing this alone, find a prop that you can place in the spot you will have your head positioned. Focus on your head and make sure to set it to manual so the camera doesn't try to refocus at any time.
Set the camera to spot metering and have it use a point on the head, this will help keep the background black. Take some test shots to make sure everything lines up.

Camera settings. Shoot wide open, largest aperture you can (mine was 3). The larger the aperture(lower number) the better looking light circles you will get. Set your shutter speed to your highest sync speed 200 in my case. A fast shutter speed will make sure to black out all ambient light, and just expose the led's and what the flash hits. Set ISO to your lowest setting, since this is flash there is no reason to go higher than your lowest setting. This gives the lowest amount of noise.

Taking the shot. With any extra light source turned off, position yourself where your prop was. Using a remote trigger on a 2s timer, take several shots moving your head slightly after each shot to make sure at least some are lined up and in focus.

Post process. Here I bumped up the contrast a little, increased the saturation on the lights and did a bleach bypass on the face.

Hope you like it, and good luck if you attempt this.