Točná Park

Prague 201

Taken on an epic bike ride:
Točná Park singletrack

Prague by night

Prague 2013

I wish I had brought my tripod...

You've come a long way baby...

It's been over 5 years since I was first inspired by David Hobby's blog - Strobist.com. Four years ago I took the plunge, got myself a Poverty Wizard, a Shoot-Though umbrella and began experimenting with controlled light.
Not long after, I called my friend Roi out for a photo-shoot on his BMW motorcycle, as you can probably see, my skills at the time were rudimentary.
Four years passed since that day, four years of light and learning. Roi traded in his heavy duty BMW K1200R for a sleeker Ducati 848, and I somehow became the proud owner of three strobes and two light-stands.

I can't recall the power setting for the sun...

And so, four years later, we revisited the "Motorcycle Shot". This time with a nice three-way cross lighting setup. The key was a SB-24 at half power shot through an umbrella, with a SB-26 + reflector at 1/4 power as fill to catch  the back of the motorcycle and Roi's riding jacket.
At the distance the fill light stand was positioned, you could hardly call the light "Harsh", though there was some light spillage on the asphalt which was cleaned up in post.

I had the setting sun working hard in this shot: First as shadow control, secondly as separation and lastly - for a nice "halo" effect.

You might notice that the light-stands have rocks holding them in place. Weighing down your equipment is important when there is even the POSSIBILITY of a slight gust of wind as I painfully realized when a sudden squall knocked over my key light, destroying an umbrella and nearly taking my SB-24 with it as well.

R.I.P. Trusty Shoot-Through.

I'm rather pleased with the result, though in retrospect, might have wanted to shed some more Light on Roi's face for a better skin-tone. I blame the 60D's shiny new screen, it makes shots look better than they have any right to and you'll find yourself inevitably disappointed in post. I prefer my 30D's dull and blurry display, if something looks good there, it'll look good ANYWHERE.

So there you have it, four years and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank David Hobby for introducing me to the wonderful world of off camera flash, his Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 series are better that most photography courses (not to mention cheaper!).

Israel's Speedskating team

Speedskating is a small but growing sport in Israel. This April, the country will be holding it's first ever speedskating half marathon, as part of the Tel-Aviv marathon events. Since the event is an Israeli first, the organizers had trouble finding appropriate images to advertise it. As a member of the Israeli speedskating team, I was glad to help.

First off, I set up a simple cross-lighting setup for a few "safe" shots, and the obligatory group shot. Two naked speedlights (SB-25, SB-26) on both sides of the skating path aimed straight at the group. The flashes were set to full power (in order to overpower the sun) and triggered by a pair of poverty wizards. For this shot, I asked the our video guy to click the shutter release, so we could get the whole team in the shot (myself included).

Next up, without changing the lighting, I asked the team members to skate down the path, and shot them as they passed through the speedlights.

Once I had a few "safe" shots on my hands, it was time for something a little more exciting. Speedskaters always look their best while taking turns. I set up two speedlights at knee hight, directly in front of the corner, facing the sun. Setting them on full power, and a narrow beam, I got just enough light to match the strong back-light of the noon sun.

After having some fun on one corner of the track, I moved the lighting setup to a shadier corner, in hopes of increasing the contrast between the skaters and the background

Lastly, in order to get that "Nike commercial"-esque look, some post-processing was necessary. After some color and contrast adjustments, I duplicated the each image as a new layer, applied a very strong unsharp mask plugin, and set the new layers mode as "overlay". Lastly, I set the opacity of the overlay to about 30%, you can see the diferent stages of the process here:

(click to enlarge)

I'll admit it's a bit of an over-photoshopped look for my own taste, but I decided to go for it anyhow, since it really works for these shots, and fits the style of advertisement the marathon organizers are likely to use.

Hunter

2010 Merom-Golan, Israel

Snow is rare in these parts, but this canine seemed to be in his element.