Martin Prihoda is Back

For those of you wondering what happened to Strobist favorite Martin Prihoda, he's back. Never really went away, actually. He just deleted his (very popular) Flickr account to focus on his core photography website.

Martin made a video of himself shooting the musical group "Delerium" in Vancouver. He is using big lights here, but don't go turning up your nose. There is some good info for many of you both for now and for later down the line. And I especially like the advice he gives at the end.

Hit the jump after the movie for a little bit on how to translate this shoot to speedlights if you have suddenly misplaced your pile of Profoto 7B's...
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Nice stuff, huh? But 1/250th at f/14? That's a little bit too pricey a light level for a set of SB's.

But before worrying about that, you'll need to mod at least one of your three strobes (the front one) to approximate Martin's wrap-light look. I'd use a shoot-thru umbrella, choked up a little so make the actual light source smaller than the full 43" size. You'll need to bring it in a little closer, too.

The rim lights, at 45 degrees, can be left bare if using SB's, but they will be a little harder edged than the 7" reflectors on the Profotos.

(IMPORTANT: Do not forget to gobo the rim lights to control flare.)

But what about the lofty shooting aperture?

It's all relative, actually. Since you cannot overpower the ambient daylight like Martin does with the big strobes, you wait until the ambient comes to you.

If you shoot after sundown in twilight, you'll have all the power you need to overpower the ambient with small flashes.

I'd be looking to aim for a target of, say, f/5.6 @ISO 400. That's easy to get even through an umbrella. Simply wait until the twilight dips below 1/250th at f/5.6, and start shooting.

Remember, you'll wanna underexpose the ambient by 1.5 - 2 stops. So just shoot at 1/250th as it gets darker, until it dips down to that nicely underexposed level at 1/250th. Then just start tracking the waning light by dropping your shutter speed (1/125th, 1/60th, etc.) as it gets darker.

Sure, maybe one day you'll have a set of Profoto 7B's, a generator and a mohawk faux-hawk. But until then, you'll just have to exercise a little patience and wait on the light.
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Related Link:

:: Martin Prihoda's Website ::