Hi and welcome to the April 2016 edition of my Instructional BLOG (WATR) Your Questions and My Answers. We are returning to Your Questions and My Answers this month. 

Image #1   Scheherazade … Nikon D810, ISO500, 30 seconds exposure time at f5.6, Nikon 24-70mm lens at 70mm, WB 10,000K, Lightpainted with 3 LED Stylus penlights by: Streamlight … 1 Stylus with a white LED for her face and body, and a Red and a Blue LED Stylus penlight for the rug, pillows, and curtain backdrop, Manfrotto Tripod and 410 Gear Head, SanDisk 32G Extreme Pro Flash Card.

Q…hey mr. black, I’m a big fan of your light paintings in your creative portfolio. Can you tell me more about your light painting workshops and the models that you have for the class.

Thx. kevin

A…Hey there Kevin. Thanks for your email question.

My Lightpainting Workshops are a small class size of only 12 students with a 4-1 student-instructor ratio so that everyone will get a lot of hands-on instruction from me and the other instructors. My goal is that every attendee is capable of making their own Lightpaintings when they finish the workshop.

My Spring and Fall workshops for 2016 students will learn Lightpainting with: Still Life, LIVE models, and the Outdoor Landscape. The Summer 1 Day Intensive Lightpainting Workshop teaches Still Life and LIVE models (no outdoor landscape)

“Scheherazade” is an example Lightpainting from last year’s Fall workshop 2015. Everyone made some beautiful Lightpaintings of her and our other 2 models which were the Mad Hatter and 1940’s Fashion. We do not repeat models or the theme so that repeat students can Lightpaint new subjects.

Hope you can come join us at one of my 3 workshops this year…

Spring, Summer, and Fall workshops info:

https://daveblackphotography.com/lightpainting-workshop-with-dave-black/

My workshops are held in Loveland, Colorado which is about 1 hour drive from Denver International Airport (DIA) and only 40 minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park.

Should you have any further questions please contact the workshop director Haley Hendrickson directly:   

[email protected]

Great question Kevin…I hope to see you at one of my Lightpainting Workshops in 2016.   Adios. Dave

Image #2   Red Rythmic Ribbons …Nikon D5, ISO4000, 1/800 at f13, Nikon 24-70mm lens at 45mm, WB 6250K, 4 NEW Nikon SB-5000 Speedlights with Radio Control, Manfroto Lightstands, SanDisk 32G Flash Card.

Q…Hi, Dave !   Loved your enthusiasm during your presentation at the CES Show in Vegas this January. Can you explain where you placed speedlights for the red Rythmic Gymnastics image Nikon displayed on the wall? Oh yay, super surprised when you sang a duet with the Karaoke girl across the aisle … nice Elvis impression.

Niki from Sacramento.

A…Hi Niki.  LOL … yes, my best ELVIS impression went out to the girl in the Karaoke booth before my last CES show presentation…didn’t know anyone was actually listening. Great question, thanks for asking it.

I used 4 NEW Nikon SB-5000 Speedlights for the Red Rythmic Gymnastics Ribbons image. The main SB-5000 had a Grid to help spotlight my athlete was set to FULL power and placed high on a lightstand 15 feet away.

I placed a second SB-5000 on a small rock about 20 feet out in front of her and maybe 1 foot above the ground cover. This SB-5000 was set to 1/2 power and illuminated the foreground vegetation and some of the ends of the ribbon.

I had an assistant stand about 35 feet behind her and simply hand held 2 SB-5000 Speedlights because of the rugged-uneven terrain. These 2 Speedlights, each set to FULL power illuminated some of the vegetation behind my athlete but not the forest background.

The athlete was an Olympian …she was amazing and performed multiple leaps on the boulder despite it being a very cold morning in the Yamanashi Forest of Northern Japan.

Hope this answer is helpful. Dave

Image #3     High Riders … Nikon D810, ISO1000, 1/2500 at f10, Nikon 14-24mm lens, 3 Profoto B1 strobes in High Speed Sync each with Profoto Tele-Zoom Reflector and Clear Protection Plate, 3 C-Stands, and Articulating Boom Lift for me to shoot from, SanDisk 32G Extreme Pro Flash Card. 

Q…Hi Dave, I always checkout your 3 portfolios on your website to see what’s new. Thanks for adding new pics each month. Your sports portfolio has an insane moto shot with 1 guy flying and another guy upside-down. Can you tell me what flash was used? Hope to meet you at the sports workshop in Denver this july.

Cheers. Brandon, Louisiana.

 

A…Hi Brandon. Hope you make it out to Denver for the Summit SPORTS Photography Workshop in July: http://www.photographyatthesummit.com/

Great question, and one that several people have asked since I posted the image in my SPORTS Portfolio.

This Freestyle Motocross image of Team FMX stars Travis Willis(white) and Ed Rossi(blue) was added to my Sports Images Portfolio page on my website last month and it was quite an undertaking for myself and my #1 assistant, Julio Aguilar to accomplish.

http://www.freestylemotocrossteamfmx.com/site/500008/page/940857

I typically use my Nikon Speedlights for about 90% of my Flash work as they are small-portable and have High Speed Sync, but occasionally I need a BIGGER Blast of FLASH from a long distance to override the bright sunshine and illuminate my athletes.

And as you can read in the image camera data above I used 3 Profoto B1 strobes in High Speed Sync each with Profoto Tele-Zoom Reflector and Clear Glass Protection Plate.

These two modifications that I’ve incorporated with the B1 strobe system have helped make the factory 500ws power of a B1 illuminate my subjects more like a 1200 ws power pack. That’s a HUGE increase in illumination simply by using the Telle-Zoom Reflector and clear protection plate on each B1 unit.

I also used an Articulating Boom Lift (king size Cherry Picker) to have maximum stability and access to the same height as my athletes, about 70 feet in the air for this particular shot.

I only made a few images with both athletes lit up by my 3 Profoto B1 strobes before the trees in the background fell into total shadow. The icing on the cake was the moon in the upper right corner in front of the lead rider’s boot.

Hope this answers your question about the Flash system used for High Riders. Hope to see you at the Summit SPORTS workshop in July.

Adios, Dave

GREAT QUESTIONS !… Let’s do it again next month. Please keep sending your questions in via the Contact Dave page on the website. https://daveblackphotography.com/contact-dave/

“There’s always more to learn” … see you next month here on WATR.

Adios.  Dave