Power Lighting On Location!; Studio-Quality Lighting With Minimum Gear: Four Masters Reveal Their Secrets
By Jason Schneider • August, 2005
If there’s one thing that makes pictures shot by leading professional
photographers stand out from the pack, it’s lighting. But while it’s
relatively easy to get precisely controlled lighting effects in a well-equipped
studio, these pros have to deliver consistent studio-quality results in the
field—whether they’re shooting on location in a dark alley, a high-contrast
movie set, or a dimly lit church.
Achieving pro-caliber results with lightweight, portable equipment can be
challenging, but today’s best compact lighting equipment is more powerful
and flexible, and better than ever. Take a close look at the pictures on these
pages, and the detailed descriptions of equipment and lighting setups that accompany
them. You’ll get a clear idea of how the four resourceful pros we interviewed
for this article use simple location lighting to maximum advantage. Indeed,
we hope the wealth of information presented here will inspire you to assemble
a portable lighting outfit of your own.
Jerry Avenaim: Photographer To The Stars
Jerry Avenaim, a well-known, L.A.-based pro, has created signature images of
such household names as Halle Berry, James Caan, and Dr. Phil. His work has
graced the covers of Vogue, Newsweek, and People, and the pages of Glamour,
GQ, InStyle, Vanity Fair, and Elle. Innovative, intense, and detail-oriented,
he has a remarkable ability to get into the heads of high-powered celebrities,
and convey the true essence of their personalities.
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The morning after? Jerry Avenaim’s slyly suggestive image
of noted actor Luke Wilson in a seedy motel room was shot with
an RZ67, using a 140mm f/4.5 lens, at 1/15 sec and between f/11
and f/16, on Kodak Portra 160NC film. “I lit it with a Profoto
7b power pack with bare-head zoom reflector and bounced the light
into a corner of the ceiling behind me,” Avenaim says. “I
metered the exposure accordingly with a Sekonic L-358, and shot
Polaroids to judge the correct lighting ratio.” His tip
for great location portraits: “Expose the subject with the
aperture and balance the background with shutter. In other words,
set the aperture for the flash-lit component of the overall exposure,
and the shutter speed based on the available-light component to
achieve balanced, natural-looking lighting.”
Photos © 2005, Jerry Avenaim, All Rights Reserved
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Avenaim most often shoots on location, relying on Profoto lighting equipment,
which he’s cleverly assembled into a comprehensive kit that fits in a
single Pelican airline case. He takes his motto from the Boy Scouts: Be Prepared.
The kit (shown here) includes a Profoto Pro-7b power pack plus extra battery,
and chargers for the battery and pack, so he can charge both simultaneously.
In addition, there are speed rings for softboxes, a complete set of slide-off
plugs for almost any socket type in the world (they’re in the small black
bag), an extra sync cord (yellow), a bracket for attaching the ring flash, and,
atop the three small compartments, two Profoto Pro-7b heads. The sealed Pelican
1650 case has built-in wheels and even includes a pressure-release valve so
it can be easily opened on landing.
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Jerry Avenaim has all the necessary gear assembled in his Pelican
case, ready for on location shooting.
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Avenaim continues to experiment with digital, but still shoots most of his
celebrity images on film. He uses Mamiya RZ67s with a full complement of lenses
from 65-250mm, and a Mamiya 645 AFD with Leaf 22-megapixel digital back. His
films of choice are Kodak Portra 160VC and 160NC.
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The Girl’s Club: Shooting in Beverly Hills for The Fox Gallery,
Jerry Avenaim parked the classic convertible under a palm tree
to shade his subjects, and lit the scene with four Profoto heads
fitted with Beauty Dish soft reflectors and powered by Profoto
Pro-7b power packs. He shot through a 20x20 silk to create a softly
surreal effect, while balancing the ambient and flash components
of the exposure. (Mamiya RZ67 with 150mm lens, 1/400 sec at f/11-16,
Kodak Portra 160VC film.) “I always carry a PocketWizard
transmitter and receiver when shooting on location,” Avanaim
says. “I don’t like to be tied down if I don’t
have to—untethered is better, and being mobile gives you
greater shooting flexibility.” In fact, Avenaim has now
upgraded to the new Profoto Pro-7b2. “It has a shorter flash
duration, even faster recycle time, and best of all, the PocketWizard
is built-in!”
© 2005, Jerry Avenaim, All Rights Reserved
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Rich Schaub: Fashion Statements On The Fly
Rich Schaub, a pro for nearly 20 years, has taken his company, Superior Images,
Inc. of Freehold, New Jersey, in an exciting and profitable new direction, and
now specializes in fashion photography. His clients include such designers and
retailers as Bang Bang, Wet Seal, and Rebecca Caputo Carreras. “We shoot
on location nearly 90 percent of the time, so our lighting system must be space
efficient and super functional. In the old days, we’d stuff two big vehicles
to the gills with heavy lighting gear, but we’ve pared it down to two
Lightware Rolling Cargo 1032 cases plus two laptop carryon bags. Because we
shoot with battery packs, this gives us the ability to carry everything we need,
which includes a 1200 ws Hensel Porty with one EHT head and one ring flash head,
two 800 ws Lumedyne power packs and heads, two 8-foot stands, and one 24”
stand we’ve nicknamed R2-D2. We’re also able to squeeze in an extra
large softbox, a medium-sized softbox, and dish reflectors packed inside the
speed rings to save space, plus those inevitable necessities of the fashion
trade, assorted chargers, PocketWizards, and lots of spare AA batteries. That
is what we carry in Case #1, which weighs about 56 lbs.
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Fashionable tough guy: “This image was taken on the fly
in a tight space without a minute to spare,” Rich Schaub
notes. “I lit it with a Hensel Porty 1200J powering two
EHT 1200 heads. The main light has a 9” reflector with a
Westcott 42x42” scrim on it and is placed about 2 ft from
the subject’s face. The second light, at lower right, the
other EHT 1200 head, fitted with a 7” dish, is aimed at
the corner of the satin background. I used my gear bag as a gobo
to prevent any light spill onto the subject. This image was shot
with a Nikon D1X with 28-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor zoom. The exposure
was f/4 at 1/640 sec with the ISO set to 250. If it wasn’t
for the fact that all my lighting and camera gear fits into Lightware
1032 cases, I’d never have been able to set up so quickly
in such a small space.”
© 2005, Rich Schaub, All Rights Reserved
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“Lightware Case #2 holds our complete digital SLR camera outfit, including
two Nikon D1Xs, a Nikon D2H, and five Nikkor lenses, a 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye,
17-35mm f/2.8, 28-70mm f/2.8, 80-200mm f/2.8, and the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR zoom.
We know the focal lengths overlap, but this gives us backup in case something
breaks. We also carry two back-up Nikon SB-800 ‘candid’ flash units,
a couple of Westcott scrims, and a thin white sheet. If necessary, we also have
room to transfer the 6-lbs-worth of power pack batteries from Case #1 to Case
#2 to save the cost of an overweight bag. As an added bonus, we have the flexibility
to consolidate everything we need into one case when we’re covering less
demanding subjects, like headshots and
editorial shoots.”
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The eyes have it! “There’s a funny story behind this
shot,” Rich Schaub says with a smile. “I was down
in Orlando shooting fashion models. Everything seemed OK the night
before—we checked our lights and were good to go. The next
morning we found out that the Marriott World Center decided to
begin their construction project a couple of days early. Imagine
10 typical construction workers ogling over my shoulder directly
in the model’s line of sight! Is that wall coming down now
or do I have 15 minutes? Without great portable lighting equipment
giving me the ability to adjust on the fly, this shot would have
been impossible. For the main light I used the Hensel Porty 1200J
with a Westcott scrim—the one with a silver reflector to
make her eyes pop. To light the background, I set up two Lumedyne
800 ws units, and they kicked out great light all day—for
1500 shots. I shot this image with the Nikon D1X with the
80-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor zoom set at 80mm. The exposure was f/7.1
and 1/400 sec at ISO 200. The model hung in there for what turned
out to be a long, grueling shoot without a whimper—what
a pro!”
© 2005, Rich Schaub, All Rights Reserved
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