Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Buffalo Small Strobes, Big Results

What a fun time we had at the recent Small Strobes, Big Results Workshop in Buffalo, NY. I would like to extend a special thanks to our hosts, Alyssa & Rich of Nickel City Studios as well to Derek Punaro for allowing us to photograph at the historic Central Terminal Train Station.

We had two fantastic models to photograph throughout the day, thanks to Ann & Andrew for all your help and effort. The above photo of Anne was lit using the new FourSquare™ softbox with one SB-800 inside, as well as 2 SB-800 with full cuts of CTO's as kickers.

Here is photo of the set up for the above photo.

This photo (below) was shot demonstrating a bounce technique, creating a soft directional light.

The photo below, was one of the first photos we did when we arrived on location at the train station. I used a 5 foot Octa with one SB-800 and another SB-800 with a full cut CTO as a kicker from camera right. There was also another SB-800 used to put some light up at the American Flag.


In the photo below, I used 4 SB-800's to light the photo. One used with a grid for the key light on Ann's face and the other 3 where snooted to contain the light and directed to her hands and feet.

I sure had a lot of fun on this workshop, thanks to all that attended and I wish all of you great success with your future lighting.

If you would like to host a Small Strobes, Big Results Lighting workshop in your city, please let me know. I am looking for fun and interesting locations to conduct my workshops. If you think you have an interesting location and want to learn more about hosting a workshop, just email me and we'll see if we can make it work.

8 comments:

Rich said...

The whole process was incredibly smooth. I thought I had learned a lot from reading your blog extensively, but nothing could truly replicate the experience of attending the workshop and getting hands-on instruction.

I couldn't possibly recommend the workshop highly enough. Thanks for coming to Buffalo, David, and I'm really excited to start incorporating small strobes more fluidly and frequently into our location shooting.

Derek J. Punaro said...

Thanks, David. The workshop was a lot of fun and very informative! I don't think any amount of reading websites and books could replace how easy it was to absorb the lighting concepts in person during your workshop. I have a much better understanding now of ambient/strobe balancing and color correction.

You can visit the Buffalo Central Terminal website for more information on our building and efforts, and (of course) to make a donation!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful day of learning and shooting. I've posted my images from the workshop at www.peterwestphoto.ca and they are among the best shots I've ever taken. David explains his setups and creates great learning moments all day long. We shot images for five hours in the old Buffalo Central Terminal. As a photography teacher myself here in Canada, I highly recommend David's Small Strobes, Big Results workshop. Thanks David.

Bryan said...

So jealous. I just checked the website and saw the location. That complex is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Another glowing report from me! This was the best workshop I've taken hands down. I firmly believe that being able to use multiple off-camera small strobes is what will set me apart from most of the other shooters in my area and this workshop has rapidly accelerated my learning curve. Learning how to layer the lighting to create an image as if I were holding a paint brush has given me the aesthetic freedom I need to take my photography to another level entirely! Thanks to David and Eric for a great day.
Chris McCooey

My images from the shoot can be viewed at:

Lakehouse Photography

chassmid said...

Hi David,

I love your site. A lot of great info here. I was wondering what boom and stand you are using w/ your FourSquare in the set of WWII style photos you shot in the train station? I have a FourSquare and am looking for a good boom/stand to use with it.

David Tejada said...

Chassmid: You might want to look at the http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=546705&is=REG

chassmid said...

Thanks David!