May. 26, 2016
I have been shooting on location for commercial clients for over 20 years and in that time technology has advanced tremendously. In the bad old days we carted around bulky lighting equipment that needed wieldy batteries or generators to power AC strobes. Today we have it a lot easier!
For this shoot we did for the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure campaign, we needed to photograph an executive with a bike in a business district environment. Based in Toronto, our go to business district is King and Bay, the equivalent of Wall Street for you Americans. We are fortunate in Toronto, which is a very film and photography friendly city, in that if you are shooting on city property and can shoot without a tripod or lighting on stands you don’t need a permit. So with that in mind and knowing we had to cover several set ups in a short amount of time, we rigged a 100% hand held camera and lighting set up. And to avoid a lot of busy background distractions of people or cars we shot on a Sunday morning.
The camera I chose was my trusty Nikon D3X, a full frame 24 MP pro workhorse (big and heavy enough to pound tent pegs…). I chose a Nikkor 70-210 2.8 VR to give me a desirable perspective and shallow depth of field. Lighting was a single Nikon SB900 strobe mounted on a carbon monopod that was held by my assistant. The strobe was remotely triggered using Pocket Wizard radio controls. To add a bit of warmth to the skin tone I added a quarter CT (tungsten) gel to the strobe and to soften the light slightly I used a Rogue 12 X 12 soft box.
Having the light mobile allowed us to work quickly with many different camera angles, perspectives and set changes. We did shots with the model walking, riding, up high on a bulwark and even risking life and limb crossing the busy street! For this kind of work, great communication is key to ensure everyone knows their role and supports each other. By doing so I could focus on working with the model and making sure he could give his best in challenging conditions. We had our creative director ensuring we got the right shots, the account manager herding cats and a producer who kept us on time, safe and the model comfortable, in rather cold spring conditions. And of course a great assistant who knows the gear and knows how I work is critical. I was lucky to work with my daughter Malina Kaija, a great commercial photographer in her own right.
The client was thrilled and we came away with over a dozen final images that will be used in a national US campaign. So if you are shooting on location whether that be weddings or ad campaigns, think light and fast. Keep it simple and focus on the moment with your model versus your gear.