Light Modifiers

AN IMAGINARY JOURNEY
Suppose you were on a photo shoot with several
photographers—all working with the same model.
Or perhaps you’ve attended a seminar where many
people were photographing the same models at the
same time. Would your images look different than
those taken by the others? I recently put this scenario
to the test while photographing in New York
City with photographer Jeff Cable.
Jeff and I set out to photograph a couple of male
models. Jeff was armed with his Canon camera and
Canon flashes; I carried my Nikon D300 and a
couple of SB800 flashes. The following images
(photographs 5-2 through 5-7) prove that your images
do not have to look like everyone else’s photos—even
when shot at the same time, side by side.
As you look at the following examples, notice how
Jeff and I chose to light our subjects differently. No
one way is better than the other. They are just different
visions, creating a certain feeling, depth, and
style from one image to the next—each representing
our unique photographic styles.
I shot photograph 5-2 of model Scott Wormser
after Jeff found this great location. The main light
was my SB800 flash bounced off a ProFusion light
modifier (we’ll see this amazing modifier at work
later). This was powered at –1 stop for a soft fill.
An additional SB800 flash was powered at +1 stop
and placed to the model’s right side as a kicker.
Jeff created this image of Scott (photograph 5-3)
by bouncing his Canon 580EX flash off the side of
a large white van to camera right adding a nice fill
to Scott’s face. Coupled with a great composition,
this photo is distinctively different than my image.
Can you see the difference?
PHOTOGRAPH 5-2 (TOP). SUBJECT: Scott Wormser. CAM-
ERA: Nikon D300, Lexar media. SETTINGS: Shutter priority
mode, 1 /100 second, f/3.5, ISO 200.
PHOTOGRAPH 5-3 (BOTTOM). SUBJECT: Scott Wormser.
CAMERA: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Lexar media. SETTINGS:
Aperture priority mode, 1 /50 second, f/4, ISO 100.
Photograph by Jeff Cable.