Jo Dilbeck wrote:
This is predominately for outdoor fill flash work, I do virtually NIL in the way of portraiture.
If not portraits what are you lighting? How do you typically use the sun? In your face as rim lighting, or from the side as cross lighting with things half in sunny highlights and half in shade? I ask because it will affect the height of the stands you need.
Outdoors if you put the sun behind something and rim light it before you add flash the shaded side is modeled by the skylight which has two components — a dominant "key" or modeling vector from above and a subordinate wrap-around fill component.
If you add flash near the lens axis as "fill" what happens as you increase power is the flash overpowers and cancels whatever modeling the skylight was creating on the shadow side producing the same flat results seen in any indoor flash on camera shot by the time the shadows are lifted to the point the camera is recording detail. The contrast problem of the natural light is solved but the natural modeling is canceled. That's what will happen if you use short stands.
The solution in backlight from the sun is similar to using flash indoors. First add flat centered "fill" to the point you see the shadow detail you want with a centered near axis fill flash source, then add a second flash as "key" light to create the highlight pattern over the fill.
Outdoors the question of where to put the second "key" flash is best answered by observing how the skylight modeled the shaded side before flash was added. To better visualize it take a shot exposed normally for the shaded front side (it will blow the background but help you see the modeling of the skylight). For portraits I always pose the face into the skylight, having the people look up to get the skylight light past the brow and into the eyes by shooting from a ladder. So I wind up about 8ft off the ground and with the faces looking up toward the sky, with the skylight at a 45° angle to the eye line (the angle that gets it past the brow). Then to match the angle the skylight is modeling the upturned face I need the key flash higher than I'd normally use it indoors and wind up using a 12ft stand to match the flash angle with the modeling vector of the skylight.
I use an 8ft stand for fill flash and a 12ft stand for the "key" flash and shoot from a ladder when doing portraits of people with the strategy driven by the need to get the skylight into the eyes.
Even if you aren't shooting people with shaded recessed eye sockets you'll still want to consider how the natural light is modeling before adding flash and try to match the same angles with the flash if you want the two to blend seamlessly and look natural. Keep in mind that 45° is the average downward angle of natural light that forms our perceptual baseline for "looks normal" 3D modeling.
The sun is at 45° at around 10AM and 2PM but the skylight comes from a higher angle all the time (which is why you need people looking up in backlight / open shade). As you move lights further back from the subject you also need to move the source higher to maintain the natural 45° angle of the lighting. Flash becomes fake looking when the angle gets lower than 45° because natural light is only that low in early morning and just before sunset. So err on the side of the stand being too tall (it can be lowered) than finding yourself needed the light higher.
Having one 8 foot stand (for fill) and one 12 foot stand (for key light) should cover most outdoor situations.
For location lighting on assignment, the nano 5001 cannot be beat.
I don't put more than a 43" umbrella, a flash, and a trigger in them. For event photography, I can have it up in less than a minute. I can get a much better quality of light than bounce flash.
No, you won't be taller than most of your subjects with them, or using these in heavy wind, but they aren't for that.
I have two with two bogen swivels, and 2 umbrellas all of the time on me. I also keep a pair of lp160 flashes in the bag just in case my 580's puke. My assignment gear fits nicely into a gator bag for the stands, and whatever I choose to carry as my camera(s).
