Role Model

First off, I want to apologize if you happened to be staying at the Hilton Charlotte Center City Hotel on February 6, 2009, and had a little trouble getting an elevator that night. You see, me and about 14 of my closest friends, hijacked one of the elevators for a little lighting demo. We pushed every button and rode it to the top floor and back down again. We had to cut it short on the way down after the affects of claustrophobia started to affect a few of the participants, not to mention the lack of oxygen.

My buddy Tommy "The Talent" Metthe was gracious enough to pose as my model for a lighting demo I gave at the Southern Short Course in News Photography a few weeks ago in Charlotte, NC. 

I tried to keep everything simple, from the lighting setups to the equipment I used. As a travel photographer for Journal Communications, I have to pack very light. For my lighting kit, I carry three strobes, two light stands, a couple of umbrellas, a modified ttl cord, some gels, a couple of David Honl grids and snoots, a couple of small ballheads with hotshoe adapters, a couple of umbrella adapters, three omnibounces and four pocket wizards. The umbrellas, lightstands and umbrella adapters fit snugly into a small tripod bag.

Here's a little "Monster Light" on "The Talent" in the elevator. I used a snooted strobe positioned low under Tommy's chin to light his face. I had him lean in just a little to get the light just hitting his face and not falling on his shirt. I also positioned a light behind him to light up the back of the elevator.

The hotel has some really cool high-backed chairs. I used one snooted strobe overhead to light "The Talent" and a strobe behind the chair to light the wall.

 

Here, I lit "The Talent" with an umbrella and placed a strobe behind him with an omnibounce to light the area behind him, just slightly overpowering the ambient light.

Again, we went back to the high-backed chairs and used a snooted light on "The Talent's" face and a zoomed-in strobe with a red gel to hit him from the side.