I had fun Wednesday evening photographing a band on the beach at Daymer Bay. They are young guys that are gigging throughout the summer in Cornwall. I shall post some dates when I have confirmation. I played with a new lens, the Nikon 14-24 f2.8. It creates some interesting shots. I also used off camera speed lights with radio triggers, what can I say I am a Strobist.
The young guys in the band had commissioned some photographs that depicted them in a way they were not entirely happy with so they asked me to help. They live by the beach and want to reflect their sense of attachment to the coastline. The lead Guitar player Sam lives at Daymer Bay, a truly beautiful spot on North Cornwall’s North Coast so we decided to shoot there.
The band did not have much budget but i know Sam though his Parents who are good friends of mine and so we arrange to shoot for just 1 hour, but i was determined to give the guys a good variety of shots in that time. We arranged to meet at 6.00pm and hoped that the rain that had been on and off all day would give us a break. I turned up early and scouted a couple of locations on the beach that i thought might work. The beach faces West so some back lit shots with the sea and Stepper Point would be good, that was idea one. The tide was heading out so the sand was wet and creating some reflections so i could use that, idea 2 in the bag. The dunes at the back of the beach could make a good shot if i could arrange the guys with a good backdrop, well there was three ideas,then just add some head shots of the individual members of the band and we are done. What about lighting, well i want to make the sky look moody so underexpose the ambient and highlight the band with remotely triggered SB-800′s.
In the shot above of the guys sitting in the dunes i carefully arranged the layout and helped them keep hands as relaxed as possible. It is worth taking time with this to create a casual look. I had two SB-800 speedlights set up on stands to my left. I did not use any modifiers on the lights as i wanted to keep the light directional. I took a couple of test shots without the lights to get the sky looking good. It ended up being 2 stops under. Then i switched on the flashes and gestimated 2/3rds power on both flashes, and began shooting. I like to check my histograms to gage the flash levels as i don’t use a flash meter i can just quickly dial up or down the power according to the graph. I was using my new 14-24 Nikon f2.8, i love this new lens it is set up perfectly for full frame DLSR’s. I was keen to keep the headland in the background as it is quite a famous landmark in the area, it is called Stepper Point and marks the entrance the the Camel Estuary. It’s unique shape is indeed man made. To ensure sailors keep wind in the sails as they turn into the Estuary part of the headland was removed to allow the predominant South West wind to reach into the Estuary and allow boats to safely negotiate the Doom Bar, gosh i am digressing..
The shot above and the one below were taken only moments apart. With my camera set to manual i am able to control the overall effect of different exposures. In the shot above I had the guys walk towards me as i couched down whilst walking backward myself, I underexposed the shot by 2 stops to create the silhouettes and help keep detail in the sky. In post processing i added a vignette to further enhance the mood and effect of the backlight.
In this shot i overexposed by 2 stops to create a halo effect. I was keen to position the guys to create good shadows. I shall post some of the head shots later.
