Ron Shoots

Our model today was a real construction worker. When we originally scouted him, we thought about doing a more outdoors/hiking type of shoot. Then he said that he wouldn’t be available until after 5pm because of his “day” job in the construction business. So… we just changed the concept to “construction dude” at work.

Stuff happens…our first location didn’t work out. While we had permission from one supervisor, apparently we needed permission from the safety & security people as well. (Sometimes its better to change location than try to negotiate with a security guard!) With the sun dropping fast, we drove a few miles to another very simple location- basically a pile of dirt and a wood fence. Using the Hensel strobe provided the light for what turned out to be a dramatic portrait. The only styling was for Nina to add a bit of sweat (water) to the front of his shirt. All the rest of the dirt was real.

Using Strobe Outside

Here’s a before and after showing how the location strobe effect works. The placement of the light and model are shown in the previous image.

Pretty basic stuff. I put the camera on manual and shoot a couple exposures until the sky is about 1 stop darker than normal. Exposure is determined by looking at the LCD on the camera- haven’t used a light meter in many years… Then I pop an exposure with the strobe and adjust the power on the Hensel power pack to get the right amount of light. The only things to really look out for is that many digital cameras won’t synch with the strobe at shutter speeds faster than 1/250th. I was lucky today, the final setting was around 1/100th at f/8 which provided plenty of flexibility to adjust exposure either way with both the shutter speed and the aperture.