Nick Turpin: Back on the Street

London-based speed-lighter Nick Turpin has brought a videographer along on another one of his snooted SB-800 street shoots.

For the shoot (done for MensHealth magazine) he simply approached appropriately dressed strangers on the street and created an instant studio around them.

Video, links and more pix after the jump.



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(If you are reading on RSS or via email, click on the post title to be able to view the movie.)

I love this look, as much for the low-impact gear aspect as for the results themselves. Just underexpose the ambient, then go in and carve in some highlights with the strobes to add depth and dimension to the scene.

In terms of needing permits for commercial shoots, the fact that Nick can work without light stands or tripods usually eliminates the need for any sort of street shooting permit.

Well, any place but London, maybe. Just carrying a camera in that city can get you in trouble.


Recent laws enacted in the UK pretty much equate just having a camera with being a terrorist. Literally, if you are taking pictures on the street in London you can be searched and/or arrested if an officer "reasonably suspects" you of, well anything.

How's that for a first-world free and open society?

Actually, Nick had a few words to say about that for iN-PUBLiC, an organization that advocates for street photographers.




I suppose they could rewrite the laws to allow only people with dinky little cell phone cameras to shoot on the street. But then, Nick just finished a worldwide ad campaign using only a cell phone camera, too.

They will probably outlaw people with photographic memories next.

Related Links:

:: Nick Turpin ::
:: iN-PUBLiC ::

That's Not a Light Stand. This is a Light Stand.

UPDATE: As usual, alternate suggestions for humongous light stands coming in via the comments. Check 'em out if you are so inclined.
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Do you ever find yourself in need of more height and stability than your, say, 5-section compact speedlight stand can offer?

Do you sometimes need area-flooding back/separation lighting?

Are you strong enough to carry something around that is ominously described as "man portable?"

Then you, my friend, may be interested in a Luksa HI-VIEW 40-foot light stand.

Full extension pic (no jokes, please) and video link, inside.
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Make Mine a Tallboy, Please

After reading about the truck-mounted, 70-foot tall remote camera mast that Luksa makes, I clicked around in the site a little to find the "normal" light stands. They call them tripods, but they are designed just like light stands.

Only way bigger.

Here are some of the specs. The two models hit 30 and 40 feet tall, respectively. The 30-foot stand collapses to 6 feet.

There are two 40-foot models -- a normal one that collapses to 8.5 feet, and a "compact" version that closes down to 6.5 feet.

These bad boys extend with a winch (or 12v motor) so all of the sections extend at an equal rate, for maximum stability. And they will hold a 30- or 35-lb payload, respectively.

Price? Oh, yeah, that.

The bad news is that they will set you back $9,200.00 or $9,450.00, respectively.


Wait -- come back!


They are working on an upcoming lighter duty model that will go up to 48 feet, which will go in the $2,000.00 range. It is planned to have a 10-pound capability, which would make is perfect for a studio-sized head.

You may laugh, but just think what you could do with a 48-foot (as in 5-fricken'-story) light stand, as far as flooding a large scene with back/top light. Seriously, you could create a whole look with a stand like this.

Why just light a basketball court when you could light a night high school football game? Two AB1600's with sport reflectors feathered up back in the opposite corners would do it. (But only in Texas...)

I'm probably gonna be sticking to my Bogen/Manfrotto super compacts for the time being. But I figure this post has now gone on long enough to where Chase Jarvis is probably on Luksa.com ordering his right now. Especially after he sees this video.

As I always say, it is better to have a friend with a pool than to have a pool...


(Via the PW Blog)

LP120, YN460 Feedback Coming In

If you are considering one of the new manual flashes on offer, make sure to see the original post on the trio of strobes. It has been updated with early user feedback -- and a scary video.

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Speedlinks: March 22, 2009

In this edition: Remote nuptials, utter normality, voyeurism, Malaysian mods, a portable office and free CLS videos -- after the jump.
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• "No, worries, ma'am. It's standard procedure to mount a G9 into any excess cleavage space in the wedding gown..." -- Forget the Final Four. Hassel Weems is using multiple remote PW'd cameras at weddings. (Via PW blog)

• 50 Sense: Photographer Kirk Tuck makes the case that normal is underrated.

• Get your voyeur on with Andrew "WTJ" Hetherington's silent, first-person POV video made during a visit to a cramped-but-cool NYC studio.

• Mod Squad: Don Giannatti has a pretty detailed open box post on the Speedlight Pro kit we mentioned a ways back.

• Top Shelf: Way OT, but something I wish I would have thought of when I was working as a PJ: This Gizmodo post slamming Brian Lam for his dress code (with which I personally have no problem, heh) also shows off a nifty mobile computing hack. Brilliant.

• Last but not least: For Nikon CLS newbs, Scott Kelby just started a three-part CLS series on his new weekly web video, DTownTV. It is unabashedly Nikon, but if you are new to CLS (i.e., if you have a pop-up camera and an SB and do not know how to marry them wirelessly) you'll wanna see this. And you can't beat the price -- it's free.
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NOTE: And to Canon (or other) users, I know I am banging the Nikon drum this week. If you see good quality venues for Canon E-TTL stuff (or other brands) give me a heads-up in the comments.

And no, that does not mean if you start a site on how to use flash with a 1972 Practika LTL-3, it is automatically gonna get featured here. Just trying to shake the trees for stuff at this level going on for other brands.

Always Remember, Clients Can Smell Fear

UPDATE #2: Someone asked in the comments about Bert's "gunslinger"-type strap. It's a R-Strap.
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UPDATE #1: Bert detailed his post-production process on the shot here.
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What is your reaction when one of your best clients asks you to do a huge group shot in a dark, 800-seat auditorium? As Bill Cosby once said, "First you say it, then you do it."

Then you take a moment to calm down and pray that the ceiling in the cavern is white.

Belgian photographer Bert Sephani stepped out of his comfort zone and made it happen recently. And it goes without saying that speedlights need not apply on this one. But to Bert's credit, he accomplished it with two battery-powered Elinchroms, which were expertly aimed for even lighting across the auditorium.

Which is kind of interesting, really, because in all of Belgium there is only one Elinchrom Ranger available for rent. So he had to buy the other one.

Luckily for us, he produced a video for his excellent photo website/podcast, Squeeze the LIME, which should definitely be on your RSS list if it is not already.
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Related: More Bert on Strobist

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Two more Notes on the LP120 Flash

I failed to mention one of the better features on the LP120:  a two-year warranty. Big ups to MPEX on that as a way to make sure any inevitable 1st-generation bugs are not ultimately borne by the consumer.

Also, WIRED's Gadget Lab blog is doing a user-directed review of sorts. Post your ideas for writer Charlie Sorrel here.

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Plug Into McNally's Brain with The Hot Shoe Diaries

Last year, Joe McNally lit a fire under the photo community's collective butt with The Moment it Clicks.

To him, it was basically a memoir. But to us, it was a glimpse of what it was like to be Joe. It was full of lighting info, too. But organizationally, it was more a conversation over beers than lighting compendium. Disguised as a photography book, it was really a coffee-table-ready blog, full of double-truck anecdotes and delivering more solid info than any photo text I had ever seen to date. Until now.

Ever wonder what it would be like if you got the whole, 50-cent tour of Joe's brain on just small-flash lighting? Hot Shoe Diaries is what it would be like...
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Warning: Contents Under Pressure

Okay, so I am thinking an editor, say, some guy named Ted Waitt, maybe, says to Joe,"Why don't you just write down everything you know about small flash?"

Seems simple enough, right? How hard could that be?

Except for Joe went for a full 320 pages before his mind pooped out and turned to mush. Then he handed the finished book to Ted and spent the next two months in a Hopi sweat lodge, chugging Ensure/Red Bull cocktails until he had recovered enough to speak coherently.


Where Moment was anecdotal, HSD is soup-to-nuts, and all on small flashes. He begins by walking you through his entire gear bag, explaining his stuff (what and why) right down to the clamps and minor doodads. He names names, and is not bound with any corporate restrictions on what he can or can't say.

Gear-wise, he has everything but the kitchen sink. And that is not an exaggeration. In fact, I am pretty sure I saw an SB-800 going off from inside the body cavity of a raw chicken in one photo. And if you think I am kidding, you have not spent much time with Joe.

Did I say you get the full tour? Yeah, except sometimes the "full tour" seems like a solitary, late-night walk through that old amusement park on the edge of town at about 1:30 a.m. with the occasional strange noise happening in the background and did I just see that clown statue move a little bit?

Just the way you'd want it. I'll give it this: It ain't cliché.


This is My Rifle. There are Many Like it, But This One is Mine.

All of that wouldn't gear talk mean squat if he didn't teach you how to use it. Which is what he does for the next 270 or so more pages.

Granted, he's nuts. But he somehow escaped the straightjacket long enough to walk you through setup after setup, technique after technique for small flash lighting. It's a cookbook, really. Kinda like one of those 500-page Julia Child books jobs. You know the type -- where every recipe starts with two full sticks of butter.

I will warn the Canon shooters straight out: You're gonna be pissed.

The book is Nikon-specific, in that it embraces all of the capabilities of the Nikon flash system. And I mean all. I am thinking there will be engineers reading translated versions of the book in Japan, going, "He did what with an SB-800?"

You Canon guys be even more pissed because the book is good enough to where you will have to get it and read it anyway. Then one night you'll find yourself drunk-dialing Chuck Westfall at 3 a.m. yelling, "Why doesn't Canon have a book like this for me, Chuck? Canya tell me that, Chuck? Huh?"

Well, they don't have one of these because they don't have a McNally. And they won't have a McNally, either. Because if he ever even mentioned switching to Canon there would be a quiet visit in the night involving a loaded syringe or something like that. I'm told Nikon has people very close inside the McNally camp.

It goes without saying that if you are a Nikon shooter, this book is a no-brainer.


And while Joe may have everything Nikon has ever made at his disposal, he understands that you may not be so lucky. Which is why he spends over a hundred pages in Part One on single-flash solutions. Yep -- a hundred pages of one-light.

Which bumps this book up in the pecking order to something I would buy before I even bought my second flash. And if you already have two flashes -- no worries. He spends the next 125 pages tutoring you on multi-flash solutions, too.


A Textbook Solution

If you are a photo teacher in college -- yeah, I am talking to you, corduroy jacket with the arm patches guy -- do your class a favor and make this one required reading. It is informative, comprehensive and totally relevant to how people are shooting at the highest levels.

If you don't use this one as a textbook, check the locker of the kid that is shooting circles around everyone else in the class. This book probably will be inside. They even crunched the dimensions of the book down a little to make it camera-bag portable. It's about 8x9 inches, which means camera-bag portable. Great thinking on the publisher's part, IMO.

Lastly, I am both honored and psyched to have been referenced in the book. Very cool, really, because the book will be around long after I am on the wrong side of the grass. I won't mention where or how I got slipped in there. But I will say on a "completely unrelated" note there is an instance of a very buff body double being craftily Photoshopped underneath someone else's head. But mind you, this is "completely unrelated."


The Reader's Digest Version:

My advice: Get it.

Read it, and keep it in your camera bag as a combination reference and inspiration source.

The bad news they are just popping into Amazon's system and you can totally expect this one to sell out of the first printing just like Moment did. If you went pre-order, like I did, you'll be on the first run. And even if you do not make the first shipment, Amazon should be re-upping pretty quickly. Especially after the supply chain issues they had with his last book.

My copy has not arrived from Amazon yet, but I got to read an advance in PDF form on my computer on a cross-country flight earlier this month. Being a long-suffering user of battery-powered Macbooks, I dropped the monitor down to where it only gave me a mild headache and made it all the way through in one sitting.

Fortunately, the SWA flight crew was pouring heavily enough that night to offset the monitor brightness levels -- and enough so that I will get to read HSD again, for the first time...
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LINKS:

• Joe McNally: The Hot Shoe Diaries (List, $39.99. Amazon, $26.39, w/free shipping with Super Saver and Prime)
• PDF Excerpt -- a BIG one -- from Hot Shoe Diaries
• Joe's upcoming Paso Robles, CA workshop (if there are any seats left)