At night from a rooftop in LA

gregneil

Here's some pics of my friend I shot last night from an apartment rooftop in LA. We tried a few different lighting setups, I think they turned out pretty well. I'd love any C&C if you've got it! You can check out the whole gallery here. Thanks for looking!

These four were shot with two flashes on stands fired by pocket wizards - one from behind, and the other camera left. On the ones with softer lighting on her face (2 & 4)I bounced the flash off a large wall.

I shot these at ISO1000, mostly at f2.8 with a shutter speed between .5 and 1/6 second. Cameras was on a tripod, and I used a cable release.

1


2


3


4

Angelo

I like #1 very much.

Some might criticize the overly bright facial skin tone but I see it as a creative hi-key approach. I can see this as an ad for H&M.

I might soften some of the brighter, streaked, background lights which are a little distracting.



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Cuties02q

Love #1 very well done!!!

urbanaries

I love them all, the lighting is so effective even thought it looks like you tried different things, they all worked! I think #2 is amazing.

I do like the flare effect in #3, would you mind describing the setup? It's tricky to get that look IMO.

gregneil

Thanks for the feedback!

Angelo - that's a good idea to tone down the more distracting lights in the background. That'll be a good photoshop exercise for me. Thanks. I also like the "high-key" face in this one. I wish I had done a few more like that before I turned the flash power down...

Urbanaries - So glad you like them! I always love the stuff you post, impressing you a little bit gives me warm fuzzies. As far as the flare effect in #3, I can tell you what I did, but I won't for a second pretend I knew exactly how the flare would look. Usually when I want a flare, I put a light on, snap away, and hope for the best... In this shot, I had a bare Vivtar285HV flash on a low tripod (about 1 foot off the ground) to the model's right, and behind her by about 5 feet. It was pointing up towards her head. Another flash camera left was pointing at the model from the side, a little in front. In this shot I had the rear flash out of frame, and this is the result. In other shots, I'd have the flash in the frame and get a starburst effect. Most of the time I had it hidden behind her.