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Late summer wedding photography.  Photography session was scheduled at 2:30 but things got little delayed as usual wedding day.   I loved the inside of the academy chapel located in downtown Vancouver, Wa.   We used just one Elinchrom Quadra with an white shoot though umbrella and head was plugged in B socket.  It was plenty of power and recycle time was just immediate.

My assistant took this picture from balcony.

Father & Daughter dance and Bride & Groom dance was taken using two Nikon SB 26s set them low power and cranked my ISO way up.  5D Mark II is capable of handling high ISO and I have no fear going up 1600 or even 3600.  Since my strobes fill the shadow, there’s not much of noise there.  The crown ballroom is beautiful location but hard to light.

My assistant was holing Elinchrom Ranger Quadra and it was at very low setting.  I didn’t have any problem with recycle time.  I didn’t get the light to create cool daylight effect.

The owned of the crown ballroom is actually a photographer.  He opened up the small window and showed us cool balcony place.  Wish I had a tripod with me and wider lens since it was very very tight.  I used fish eye and lit them with Elinchrom Quadra modeling light.  The LED modeling light quite useful and I am using it more and more.

Jamie and Larry wanted to do formal portrait session at high noon. David (my assistant) and I knew that we had to bring high power strobes to overpower the bright sun. With new pocket wizard, my 5D Mark II can now sync at 1/400 sec no problem. A 1600 Alienbee strobed was powered by Vegabond. My strobe was at F16 and camera left. Stones, trees, water, railway, bridge and four good looking guys.

We found old building and it was in shade. It was a lot easier to do and I used 70-200 2.8 and shot wide open.

Group portrait was done in the shade. This time, we used an umbrella to soften the light. Umbrella is great for large groups and it’s small and inexpensive as well. I used telephoto lens to compress the background. Camera was 1D Mark III and sync speed was 1/320 sec. With 1D Mark III, I can sync at 1/500 sec.

Last couple images were shot under the gazebo. I started with natural lighting. Very soft lighting but little flat on my opinion. I added a background light behind the couple. Background light was 580 EXII and triggered by pocket wizard mini. I like to use background light for bride portrait since it lid up the veil and hair nicely. It also separates the background.

Just with natural light.  I used Nik software to brighten and darken the image.  A lot easier to do with Nik than dodge & burn technique.

I had a photo shoot around 2PM at the Tanner Springs Park. The park is located around the buildings but there’s no shade area! I had to use off camera flash to fill / overpower the sun. I like to bring 1D MK3 during sunny summer days since it can sync up to 1/300 (1/500 with new pocket wizard)

As you can tell, flash is on my Left at full power and sun is behind Xander. Xander is nice person to photograph with and I think he can be a good model in the future. Next time, I will bring a tri-grip reflector so that my flash doesn’t have to work so hard.

Here, again sun’s in subject’s behind. I like unique background

Had a photo shoot around 2 at the small park. We had little cloud and plenty of sunshine. I don’t like to use daylight as a main light source. It causes deep shadow and round the eyes are always dark. I moved the subject next to the tree so that my small flash didn’t have to work too hard. I had my trusty 1D Mark III with 24-70 and lighting gear was canon 580 EXII + pocket wizard II.  Nick wanted to have portfolio with strong muscular image. I could have used two light source with grids from behind act as a kicker light and use a beauty dish as a main light source. This will require large lighting gear + 1 assistant. In this shot, however, I used just 1 light source with shoot through umbrella just outside of the frame: soft yet directional lighting.

Another photo shot with canon 85L 1.2 wide open.