Once again I’m featuring Rekah, the gypsy young lady I met in Pushkar, India.
Like all Indian towns, Pushkar has a wealth of great old doors that provide instant backdrops for posing subjects.
Since this location provided a more controlled environment away from the crowds, I used a 24×24 inch softbox (an unnamed brand I picked up in Bangkok) with a Canon 580EX II Speedlite mounted on a light stand at camera left. My Indian assistant, Pintu, stood on a narrow ledge and secured the light stand, which was precariously perched since the stand legs couldn’t be spread out.
You’ll notice in this lighting setup photo above that the softbox was rotated a little too much toward the back wall and was causing the top left portion of the door to be over-exposed. In the final shot at the top of the page I had Pintu rotate the softbox slightly toward camera for a more even wash of light across the door and Rekah. Again, Rough Guide photographer, Tim Draper, handheld a 430EX II rigged with a LumiQuest Snoot for the rim light from camera right. This unit was powered down three stops and was used to highlight the right side of Rekah’s face and also her raised hand. I used a Ray Ring Flash on camera and powered it down about two stops for fill. All three flash units were triggered via Pocket Wizard TT5 radios with the ambient exposure set down one f/stop.
Compare the lighting differences in the two photos below. In the left image I used the 24×24 inch softbox. In the right image from my previous blog post I used the smaller 10×14 inch LumiQuest LTp Softbox. Both lights were positioned about the same distance from the subject. The larger softbox wraps more soft-edged light around Rekah’s face while the smaller LTp in the right image throws slightly more directional, intense light. In situations where I have more time to rig up strobes and light stands I’ll use the larger, more cumbersome softbox. But the LTp was much handier when strolling in between camels at the Pushkar Fair and through the narrow, crowded lanes of the city during the 10-day festival. While the light from the LTp appears a bit more punchy, that’s partly because I set the ring flash fill about one stop less than in the left-hand image. The right-hand image also had the ambient light set down two f/stops thus causing more contrast with the flash lighting ratios I chose.
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Glen Allison
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