Day 4 of tales from behind the lens- The Value In You
Welcome back. At this point you could be forgiven for thinking, “I thought this guy was a food photographer? Yet his clients seem quite varied.” Today’s shot has integrated food into a lifestyle/product shot for The Value In You and my client is a professional coach.
I first met Roxanne at a Les Brown seminar, where the room was full of new and upcoming entrepreneurs. We had kept in touch and worked together on her headshots during a trip to London. When Roxanne asked me to create some “product” shots of her The Value In You cards, I had the inside track on the vision she had.
A recent shoot of Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars for Wilde Orchard made the job of storytelling a lot sweeter for Roxanne’s photos. These were really fun to create. Putting yourself into someone else’s ideal client and creating a scene that will appeal to them. Not to mention a wee snack afterwards, just to keep my strength up, you understand 😉
It’s so nice to work with people who are making a difference and helping others reach their potential. I’ve benefited from coaching myself and understand it’s value when you’re a good match. Everyone needs help sometimes and these cards are designed to get you thinking about yourself and where you are in your life. That way you can go a long way to helping and understanding yourself.
This had a two light set up, the key light is camera right and a fill light from camera left, around 10 o’clock position.
Camera and settings
- Canon EOS 6D
- EF 24-70 L f4 IS USM at 41mm
- f8, 1/60, ISO 640
That’s all for day 4 of 12 tales from behind the camera, another coming your way tomorrow.
2 Comments on “12 tales from behind the lens #4 “The Value In You””
Hy John
About the speedlite set up.
Do you use canon transmitter?
Because i think that only with that u can reach f4 on a brigter situation.
And also, do you use them on manual or ettl? I’ve heard critics about it all. But just eanted to know what mode do you use.
Thabk you so much for all the tips.
Hi Emi,
On this shoot I used a Canon speedlite (580EX ii) on the hotshoe acting as commander to optically trigger and command the other flashes. For this kind of shoot, where the light needs to be consistent, I will use manual flash. I use ETTL when the subject is moving, when I need to shoot very quickly without having setup time and when the environment is changing quite quickly. I’ll dial in + or – flash exposure compensation to get the look I like.
Manual flash when you want consistent light power. E-TTL when the subject and/or the environment change a lot. Also E-TTL comes in handy if you switch from f8 to f2.8 because the E-TTL system compensates for the wider aperture and reduces the light accordingly. If you shoot in the same spot with the same ambient light E-TTL can have some slight variations because each time you compose the scene it will re-evaluate the light required and you may not be focused on the exact same spot.
When you ask about f4 on bright days, I think you’re talking about using high speed sync and which triggers work with that. There are a number on the market. Pocket Wizard Flex would work with my older speedlites for HSS (High Speed Sync) also Yongnuo do a replica of the Canon transmitter which will fire all the flash groups and work with HSS. The older, non radio, Canon Speedlite’s only work in optical transmissions, so I bought the Yongnuo YN-E3-RT transmitter (The Canon Copy) and I have the Yongnuo YNE3-RX E-TTL radio receivers on my Canon 580 EXii’s, making the older flash system radio capable.
I hope that all makes sense.
All the best and have a wonderful weekend
Jonathan