Attree Images

Last Wednesday I took advantage of the public holiday to do a bit more experimenting using Nikon Speedlights outdoors. After having a bit of trouble securing a model, I discovered that Crisly and her friend Margit were heading to the train yard location we used last time to take some photos of their own so Tony and I joined them and Margit was kind enough to model for all of us. 

I set up 3 Nikon SB800's on a Lastolite TriFlash bracket. The flashes were then positioned behind a Lastolite Skylight with a 1.25 stop diffusion material attached. Using the Nikon CLS I triggered the 3 SB800's with an SB900 mounted on the hotshoe of my D3. 

This was a bit of an experiment for me as I wasn't sure if 3 speedlights was enough to overpower the sun but as it turned out the clouds came over pretty quickly and the sun disappeared for a while. By the time it appeared from behind the clouds, the light level had dropped considerably so the 3 SB800's coped quite easily for the rest of the afternoon.

Crisly and Tony took their turns shooting Margit using the same setup while we all got a tiny bit wet. Luckily most of the rain went around us and left an amazing rainbow in the sky behind us. Tony's daughter Ally did a fantastic job imitating a sand bag to help keep the setup from blowing over in the wind. 

We then changed location slightly to see if we could capture that amazing rainbow in the background. Unfortunately it had all but disappeared by the time we had set up again. 

This time we moved to the front of one of the train carriages and placed Margit in the shade. Exposing for the sun in the background left a very dark foreground which allowed us to highlight Margit with the flashes and pull her out of the shadows. 

Moving away from the carriages as the sun went down behind the horizon, we positioned Margit in the grass for the final setup. This time I used 2 of the SB800's aimed at Margit through the diffusion panel and then aimed the 3rd SB800 down at the grass in the foreground at one stop less power just to keep some detail and stop it from going too dark. 

And finally our crew shot at the end of the day - Tony, Crisly, Ally, Margit and me!