August 17, 2007 - Sean Akita, owner of the store Mechahawaii in Kaimuki, holds a Zegapain character in his store. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 (at 10mm), Manual, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, Daylight balance

These pictures go way back to August (I can’t write about anything that hasn’t been printed yet, and these pictures came out this week in our progress edition). The assignment was to shoot the owners of two toy stores in Kaimuki. I figured I’d do simple environmental portrait deals.

I decided to keep things as simple as possible, so I left the umbrellas and light stands behind, and went in to see what I could do with what I had.

The first store was Mechahawaii, which is filled to the gills with various Japanese toys and models. I looked around for a place that would show as much of what the store had, and found a corner lined with models. Sorry, I didn’t shoot a photo of the set-up, but it was essentially two Canon 580 EX speedlights with Stofen Omni Bounce units on them places on the shelves on either side of him. I used the Omni Bounces since I wanted light scattered around the room to show everything behind him. The light behind to the right was about a stop or two brighter than the one to left, which adds a bit dimension to the subject, while providing enough light to show the background. I had him hold a character figure “for effect.”

After that shot was done, I moved to the other store, Urban Toys, which was in the same building.

August 17, 2007 - Owners of Urban Toys in Kaimuki, Kathy Bachelott, left holds a Kid Robot Smokey figure, and Scott Nonaka holds a Kid Robot Geisha Dunny figure in their store. Exposure details: Canon EOS 20D, EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 (at 10mm), Manual, 1/200 sec at f/5, ISO 400, Daylight balance

This store wasn’t quite as packed with stuff, and things were a little more spread out, so I figured I go with a wide view of the store with the owners in the foreground. One side of the store is just large windows, but the available light wasn’t all that great, so I decided to just light it up with my two Canon 580 EXs. Again, I wanted to light the whole room, so I stuck on the Omni Bounces. I was a little torn where to put them, though. While there was one convenient shelf to the left of the photo, there wasn’t anything on the right. So I stuck the strobe on the handle of a door to the side of me.

Strobe set-up. I stood a little off to the side of where my camera is on the floor.

The strobes were set at almost even power, if I recall correctly, but since they were a little closer to the strobe on the left (which was slightly behind them) that side is a little brighter and adds some depth. For the pose, I just had them grab a couple of toys they liked for that “holding a toy effect.” The only by-product of this “naked light” is harder shadows, and you can see shadows of the subjects thrown on the wall behind them (which didn’t thrill me too much…). I also could have used a third light in the far back to the right to light more of what was behind them.

The shoots were a good exercise in getting reasonable lighting using as little as possible to achieve it. I’m always looking to improve my work, and I learn more and more everytime I try different things.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under lighting, equipment, Photo Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.