New lights, same old mediocrity0
James posted in Uncategorized on March 7th, 2009
I headed to Transgression skate park with Neil Thursday night to do a bit of shooting and see what we could produce.
First the excuses: I got some new lights, a couple of bowens heads with umbrellas (softboxes hopefully arriving today), and I just wanted to take them for a quick spin. In that sense I wasn’t really going out expecting to take anything amazing or especially well lit. I simply wanted to see what they could do and how they were to work with. This should limit my disappointment at not producing that single stunning image that I find myself pining after so often, but it never does.
It will however all be fine if I use the experience to help me take better shots next time - and if I ensure there is a next time sometime soon while I still remember what I’ve learnt. And what have I learnt? With lights, (more so the larger they are) planning is everything. If you don’t know what you trying to achieve you probably won’t achieve it. Lights take time to move and to set up where you want them and how you want them.
My plan for next time: Achieve three shots of one person. A portrait in the skatepark. A wide shot that shows of the park and rider. A close-up, in your face action shot. Maybe even double up the portrait and do one at the beginning and one at the end.
Also, I feel bad as I reckon I adversely affected most of Neil’s shots with my, comparatively, behemoth flashes triggering optically and lighting up most of the park.
Anyway, few shots below - might even get round to putting up a handful of images in a gallery. Hopefully the guys at Transgression will lets us come back and give it another go. Have to say huge thanks to Ken for letting us have pretty much free rain of the park (provided we at least tried to keep ourselves and our gear out of everyone’s way).
