The clown
This image was taken a few years ago and was my first location shoot with the Pentax 645z Medium Format camera. I like to take chances and going to this shoot armed with a camera that I had only used once before was a risk for sure. It turned out to be also a pretty windy day and I had to tie down my 6ft octabank so it didn’t blow away!
Leading up to the shoot I saw that the Lost Carnival were coming to a location in my town. I jumped at the chance. I have always had a fascination with the circus ( not animal acts but people). The Lost Carnival re-enact the Circus as it was in the mid 1800’s with Clowns, Bearded Ladies and such like! So I dropped them a message and asked if they would be interested in some shots? It was the start of 4 shoots over a 5 year period where I would shoot different actors in different locations. As the shoots happened I tried different lighting to go with the performers - more to come in this series!
KIT LIST
Pentax 645z
Elinchrom 190cm Indirect Octa
Elinchrom Square Dish & Grid
2 - Elinchrom Ranger AS Speed Pack
Pocket Wizard Plus 2’s x 3
Various Manfrotto Stands
Lee ND Filters ( 0.6 & 0.9 )
Lee Wide Angle Hood
Lexar CF Cards
Smoke Machine & Extension Leads
I arrived at the site in a local park at around 9.30 am. It took me a while to set up and plan for the location and surroundings. It was the day before the Carnival began. Their rehearsal day and the first time I had shot any of them! So we were all a little weary of what was to come. I remember thinking that i needed the sun or natural light infront of me and to find something I could use to sit people on. As long as I can shade the lens I prefer to shoot into the light rather than have strong light effect my subject. So enclosed pockets of shadow are great. I looked around the field and found a huge steel rope wooden reel. It was part of the set but they let me use it for the shoot. It was perfect and it meant that I didn’t have to carry my lights around the entire field but could have the performers come to me.
I always as mentioned in other articles look to get my main/key light correct first. The first shoot is always the hardest and always takes the longest as you are changing the lighting as you go.
I set up one of favourite soft boxes, the 190 indirect. I have a large Manfrotto stand for this with wheels. So I took the wheels off and dug it into the ground, I think I ended up using a couple of bags also to keep it from blowing away. ( I now use rope and camping ground screws - they work great and allow me to anchor the main light down.)
I knew I wanted the light to have little fall off and to wrap around the subject so I positioned it very close to my subject. The indirect Octa especially because the light is firing away from the subject it means that the edges are where the best light is. So I feathered the box a little. Adding a second light to the scene is my go too also. I try and use the second light in the sky, this gives me a perceived direction of light or a motivation for the light. It isn’t always possible to give the light motivation ( make is make sense ) but I try and do it as often as I can.
I like using strong light and by this I mean I like to use the power the light has. So my main light is set to f9 - using a 3 stop ND filter allows me to use f5 as my aperture to give a shallower DOF. But the power of the light is actually f9. This gives me a better ‘wrap’ around the subject than a less stronger light output. I am also limited to 125th FSS so in order to keep my aperture open ( more so in brighter conditions ) I have to use the ND filters. I agree the difference is minimal but to me it does make a difference and I like to shoot this way.
I had around 10 performers to shoot taking around 20 mins with each one. I took this image in between takes as often is the case for the best images. I saw him looking down still in character and knew that this was the pose I needed. I knew I didn’t want a portrait of a smiling clown but a more of an air of melancholy around him. It worked a treat. I also shot the Clowns portrait on a 55mm lens ( medium format ) so equivalent to a 35mm lens. I wouldn’t usually use this for portraits but as it was a loose shot with more background it worked. I usually have the bottom of my key light parallel with the subjects face but I knew as they were mostly sitting that I wanted a little more light down the subjects legs etc so I pointed the box down a little more to achieve this. I was very happy with the results from this day and it just shows that if you make an effort and get out there good things will come.
I was fortunate to later have Ricoh | Pentax approach me on the strength of this image & others and ask me to be the UK/European Ambassador for the Medium Format camera which I was honoured to be. To this day this images remains one of my favourites and without a doubt re-kindled my passion for location lighting & portraiture.
SETTINGS WERE - 125TH SEC | F5.0 | ISO 200 | WB - 5200 K - THE MAIN KEY LIGHT WAS ON AROUND 3/4 POWER AND THE SIDE/REAR FILL WAS ON AROUND 1/4 POWER.
This image above is also shot on the 645z but with a 90mm lens. This is my preferred lens for portraits especially when I am looking for a closer crop portrait. it gives beautiful bokeh and and compression to the subject & background. On this scene I also had a little smoke from a smoke machine. It is very hard to control the smoke outside as it blows everywhere but it does give the light something to bounce off!
Behind the scenes
HAPPY PLACE
I love what I do and I’m a happy bunny if I’ve got someone infront of my camera. Whether a wedding or a portrait shoot. OH and a flask of coffee!!!
