Intro by Skip Cohen
There’s so much great content on the Internet if you look in the right places. I found this post and the short video in Suzette Allen’s archives. And, while it’s three years old, it’s the perfect reminder that everyday technology is bringing artists new creative tools. It’s also important to remember your most significant potential for growth as a photographer is always outside your comfort zone!
If you’ve followed Suzette, then you know she never sits still. She’s always changing her recipe for capturing great images, and while technique posts aren’t typical here on the Marathon Blog, it’s a great reminder to changing things up!
By Suzette Allen
Shooting on Location at night for video requires continuous lights, but makes it super easy to shoot in the dark! It also offers the ability to use cool or warmer lights and even flashlights for accents. In this shot of Karlee on Lowry Bridge in Minneapolis, we lit her with LED lights.
Typically we travel with a 6”x12” Dracast battery operated light for location work, but we borrowed some Yongnuo LED’s from a fellow photographer and since then purchased some for ourselves. They are small, portable, and so easy to use on location because they are battery operated. Besides the small size (6”x7”), I like the built-in barn doors to control the light and the warming filter to match the available light. LED also has a softer edge than a flash, and are much less harsh, so even without diffusion, it looks good.
While there are light models that offer color temp variation, we typically avoid them because it usually diminishes power since half the bulbs are colored and half are not. Here’s a short video from this shoot, thanks to Photodex.
Photographed with Rod Oman and Karlee Callender
