I've had a few people ask me to do a "behind the shot" post on one of my all time favorite images:
I love everything about this image, so I'm happy to share:) This image was taken at our good friends' engagement party, so I didn't bring as much gear as I usually do (since I was technically a guest), especially since we had to travel from the upper east side (I think that's where we were?) all the way to Brooklyn carrying this gear. And when I say "we" had to carry my gear, I mean Jay. There was no way I was carrying that heavy bag in 4 inch heels:) So all I brought was my 5D Mark II, my 24-70 mm 2.8 lens (since it's the widest lens I have, and I wasn't sure how close we'd be to the Brooklyn Bridge), my 580 EXII flash, and some pocket wizards (just bought the new ones with no cords, which I LOVE).
So here's where the improv comes in. We walk out onto the rooftop, and this amazing view takes my breath away. I'm all set up with my camera and flash, ready to go, when I realize....hey, it's pitch black out here. There was ZERO light on that rooftop. None whatsoever. And you know what's impossible to do when you're in the pitch dark? Focus. When I have ALL of my gear on me I usually have a flashlight that I'd have my assistant hold, shine it on the subject so I can focus, have her turn of the flash light and take the shot. Well crap, had no flashlight since I was trying to keep my gear light. So this is what my first shots looked like:
Totally out of focus. So I started to sweat a little, pretended like I was just "working on my settings", when in reality I was freaking out in my head like "SELF, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT THE FLASHLIGHT".
Meanwhile I have a husband thinking it would be funny to jump in a shot as I'm testing things out. Guess he didn't realize he was holding my only light source, so that didn't pan out in his favor (that beer he is holding may not have been his first).
Anyway, back to business. So I run over to the employee who took us to the roof, asking if he has a flashlight. No luck. Then he says "oh! but I do have the flashlight app on my iPhone!".....hey buddy, whatever works. So I have him stand over by Katie & Jerry, giving me the tiniest bit of light. It wasn't enough to allow me to focus, so things are still looking blurry at this point.
So my next option was to have him hold the light DIRECTLY next to Katie's dress, since it had a great contrast (with the red and white), allowing my camera to grab focus. YES!! Finally nailed the focus. So I planted my feet and didn't move (hence knowing they'd always be in focus), and just zoomed in and out with my lens.
For my settings I first exposed for the ambient light, and then underexposed by about 1 stop. This left me at an ISO of 640, f/2.8, and 1/15th of a second. I knew I could get away with this low of a shutter speed because 1) I asked them to stand still hah, and 2), flash freezes the subject, and that would be my main light source. So I had Jay stand to my right side, about 15 feet away from them, holding my flash which I fired with the pocket wizards. The flash was initially at 1/32nd power, but that wasn't enough light so I went up to 1/16th power. From there, I got this image:
I knew I wanted to do something just a little bit more dynamic too, so next I had Jay sit on the floor directly behind them, and told him to point the flash up at their heads. From there, I got the final image below:
Voila! And that's how it was done. Nothing like doing a little improvising along the way, right?
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