Where we can't: I've been dying to shoot at this one particular location. It is usually really crowded so had to do it during a down time. Anyone who has seen the One Light dvd knows that someone (security) is always there to ruin/end your shoot. And of course it happened to me. I was asked to leave. But I managed to get a bunch of shooting before that. I wanted to shoot a short instruction vid for my blog but when I got to the location, it was set up for an event. I had to shoot and I had to shoot fast. Not having a voice-activated lightstand, setting up lights will catch more attention. I needed to have a separation from subject and background as it would wash out the warm ambient background I wanted.
Some shots could work knowing the inverse square law and having distance for fallout but that's not always possible.
Shoot through umbrella, camera left. Not what I wanted.
Gridded snoot, camera right. What I wanted :) But you have to watch the harsh shadow it will leave cast on the wall. So you have to plan for cropping it out or shooting it out of frame.
We went and shot at some other places in the building for variety. Couldn't have lightstands so I used my Cybersync Mod to get some off-camera lighting. Shooting with the right hand and lighting with your left doesn't allow you to have the softest lighting but with my foamie diffuser, allows for some great Guerilla-style shooting.
Where we can:
I had back to back shoots planned at the location above. Since I was asked to leave had to go somewhere that would work with a vintage wedding dress. Being a Sunday afternoon around 3, we dashed off to the Capitol building as they allow shooting. Closing at 4, we had little time to get ready/dressed. And even less time to shoot, under 20 minutes. I was working with a wardrobe/stylist so she had to step in as a voice-activated lightstand. I used a portable 15x15" softbox as I wanted to minimize spill and have controlled lighting as opposed to an umbrella. Is it the ideal choice, no. But most of my shooting is done without assistants and on location so I need portability and ease of use. I can put this on a lightstand, hold it myself, or in this case, have someone else hold it.
