Recently, i've been very interested to try this technique out... Imagine a totally blank canvas. Now imagine that canvas is the frame inside your 35mm DSLR. When you open the shutter to allow light through the iris, you start the magic! Now lets say you have 100% control over the amount of light that enters your frame... hey, last time I checked, I did! Ok cool, no that you understand the basic principal of starting this artistic process, turn on your flash.....50+ times... take a million photos....whatever. Follow a few rules.... 1. determine your ambient light's exposure in your frame... ex: bright sky, tungsten street lights, etc. 2. tune in your flash to control the light (manual flash mode). 3. Walk around blasting the flash aiming it all around highlighting special parts of the frame. 4. Combine each frame using tons of masking in photoshop...

I first gazed at the creative vision of fellow light master, John Michael Cooper.  I met up with John at the Vegas get together in the desert mountains where we was doing one of concept sessions. Jason Dominguez and I stood there watching him and really scratched our heads and let the creative juices start to flow.....

Thanks John for your time during this workshop! I really enjoyed watching you work!

My bud Jason Domingues was recently playing around with this technique... He told me that for some of these, he was shooting 100 frames.... he may only use 40-50 or so frames in post production.....picking and choosing the best as each frame gives another layer possibility... you can light whatever you want!

Thanks for the cool shots guys! I'm eager to go out there and try this one myself....i'm sure I'll botch it real good on my first try :)

Cheers!

matt

Every time my eyes hit Jaco Fourie's site or an image he has created, i'm drawn in. This South Africian photographer has one outside the box creative vision and I'm so happy he is willing to share here on FF. Recently, he was involved with a TTD shoot that resulted in some serious fine art. He continues to challenge the creative edge and is delivering some killer stuff. Rangfinder even contacted him and is planning on featuring his business in their February 2009 issue! Congrats Amigo!

Jaco writes:

I had a real blast shooting these images. I like to combine video light with off camera flash. It gives me the ability to be so creative when it comes to lighting up my subjects. The video light is too weak to use in direct sun light. That is where the off camera flash comes in handy.
So why is off camera flash such a big buzz word these days? It has been around like forever. I personally think it is because now we are so portable that we can create stunning images using it very quickly and in places never seen before.
The main aim of off camera flash is to model the light so that the subject in the image becomes more 3D. Well that is the reason I use it. It adds a lot of drama and makes my wedding images a lot more dramatic. If you do it correctly you have so little postproduction on the images. The images are 95% done in camera

I shot this image using only video light from the side. The pier we were under had these blue lights shining down the side and I wanted to use that in the image. Using off camera flash was too powerful and overpowered some of the blue. That is why I decided to use only video light here. The image was shot with the Nikon D3. These cameras are truly amazing. I shot this hand held in the dark. I under exposed this shot by 2 stops so the blue would be prominent. It reminds me of a Star Wars Movie
Exif Info
Iso 5000
1/100
F 5.6

We also shot at this cave like opening. I noticed the wind blowing through it. I am always looking out for spots to use a veil and decided that this would be a cool place to use it. I also wanted to add some drama to the shot, so I added some flash flavor. I had 2 SB-800 speedlights that I fired via Skyports. One pointing at the front of the model and one pointing at the roof of the cave. I under exposed the shot by 2 stops to let the ambient go dark. Remember that your shutter needs to be slower than your camera sync speed to get a proper flash exposure. I played with this image in Photoshop to make it more moody.

Exif Info.
Iso 200
1/160
F 5.6

Thanks for taking the time to submit your killer imagery. I'm very inspired here amigo!

Jaco's blog featuring more TTD's

I'm still doing a little testing and now that I have this new format, i can post bigger photos.

Are these images too big for your screen? My max size is 930 pixels wide... I figure since this blog is all about the image, then posting BIG juicy shots will have more impact.

Here is an example 930 image... Every year, Whale sharks migrate to the waters of the Riviera Maya for feeding on plankton. You can charter a tour and go swim with them. I took my underwater housing with me, fisheye equipped. Swimming my A$$ off, I snagged this shot.... this fish was 55 feet... his head was the size of a truck!

test post for FF...

Feel free to post a comment, had some trouble before with spam....

Man, IM sorry for the lame-O break that I took on FF. On the redesign, the comment system was not working as I had wished and I was getting flooded with spam. In addition, I went to Costa Rica on my honeymoon for 18 days....wow, what an adventure that was. I'll be posting the video that I shot on the trip. For once, I did not shoot any still photos! I bought a hybrid HD vid camera and shot documentary footage the entire trip..... just wait :)

Here is a shot setup that I was in the middle of a few months back. Working at 12noon is tough and usually not advised. We pull out the strobes and blast away at close proximity and at full power. Not going to win any awards for this, but thought that I'd like to show a few images from the setup... also, shooting at high noon in the Riviera Maya is a great way to pull out some hot color of the ocean...

here is my results...

The shot is kinda cliche... but when you stick an airplane in there, u usually get better results :)

cheers!
mateo