Adelaide Cliff top Shooting

Dancer maker, model and arts entrepreneur Erin Fowler asked me if I would be interested in working with her on her Adelaide Fringe show. Erin and I have been working together for the last 8 years. Our working relationship has evolved as my photographic style has and this offer was the chance for us to do something far more involved than anything we’d worked together on in the past.

Erin’s show drew upon her experience as an 18-year-old model during the annual Paris fashion week. The project was a dream assignment as it incorporated fashion, dance and photography. It was also a perfect opportunity for me to get some more use out of the Siros 800 L broncolor monolights.

First up was a marketing shoot which was set in a space with no power - no problem when you have the broncolor Siros L at your disposal.

We only had a couple of hours to capture 15-20 images so we couldn’t waste time. The Siros L made this so easy as the monolights are so quick to set up and with the range of light shapers available there is a solution for any locational challenge.

The space was quite small. I opted to shoot against a black wall. I choose to use 2 Siros 800 L with an Octabox 170 for the key and an Octabox 70 for backlight/ dressing on the wall. The one great thing about using the Siros L is, apart from the quick setup time, the light quality. It’s even and soft, particularly when using the Octabox 170. The light has a really natural feel to it, very much like using tungsten continuous light. Erin was blown away with the results - even before doing any post production.

Erin, like many of the dancers I work with, likes to work quickly and so you need equipment that’s reliable and accurate. broncolor really comes into its own in these categories. In fact so often when using the broncolor lights you literally forget that you’re using them as they just keep delivering with any fuss.

Next up we decided that we would shoot some marketing/publicity images of Erin. The Adelaide Fringe runs for 4 weeks and is the second largest Fringe Festival in the world so if you want to get noticed amongst the other 1300 plus shows you need a good supply of digital content.

We decided to do a shoot on location. It would be a combination of dance and model shots. Producer Kyra and stylist Lillian Choo, joined Erin and myself onsite with Cody Porter providing a singular make up look in advance.

The location I chose was one I hadn’t shot in before. It’s a cliff top 45 minutes south of the Adelaide CBD. There’s 350 meter walk from the carpark down the cliff to the location so portability of the gear was a top consideration as the crew was quite small and I didn’t want to have to do multiple trips to get the gear to the location.

I had been keeping an eye on the sunsets in the week leading up to the shoot which was stunning so I suggested to Erin a longer shoot than normal. We knew we could capture the bulk of what we needed in the afternoon and then wait and hope for another great sunset.

Shoot day arrived and we got lucky - blue sky and wispy clouds that had the making for a great sunset. Arriving on location I was greeted by more wind but this time I had an ace up my sleeve. I had bought from Sunstudios a broncolor silver Beauty Dish. I felt after my last couple of shoots that I needed something that the wind couldn’t collapse yet wasn’t too big in profile that could become airborne but could cover a fairly large area. And I could still use to shape the light. I really like the silver inside the Beauty Dish as it produces a really natural, soft light with a kick to it that looks wonderful with digital cameras. Also when placed on a Siros 8oo L it’s easy to move about (even when using a big stand). This was important as I didn’t have an assistant for this shoot.

One of the reasons I chose this location was that by turning around and facing a different direction we could have three different settings. Again the sun was going to be in shot a lot of the time so we needed a light with the power to compensate for the sun. I chose the Siros 800 L mainly as I was going to moving the light a fair bit and the Siros 800 L is a self contained unit. I decided to use only one light for this shoot for a couple of reasons. We were literally on a cliff top and really only had room to place one light. On a couple of shots I did use a second SirosL to light the background. The second reason was getting the gear to the location. The walk back up the cliff was quite steep so I really wanted to get all of the gear to the location in two trips. The Siros travel kits are great, worn like a back pack it made getting the lights to the location quite easy.

This was the first time I had used the broncolor Beauty Dish and was keen to see what it could do. With a bit of wind around I knew I had made a good choice. The Beauty dish sat on the Siros L really well and the light quality was every thing I had hoped for, soft with a kick. I was shooting on a Nikon D800 and had the broncolor RFS 2.2 on board. This made adjusting the Siros L so easy. Once we started shooting the Siros 800 L performed without a hitch. I used it as a key light with the sun as a backlight. Shooting dance on a cliff top with a soft surface is really difficult. In this case it was made even more because for a section Erin wore pointe shoes and heels for much of the shoot. I really didn’t want to miss a shot and felt very comfortable have the Siros 800 L with me. We had a number of fantastic outfits to play with from local designers Tiff Manuel and Isabella Sykes. I decided to use a different location to accentuate each design. I really wanted to have a slightly different look or feel for each location - again with the Siros L this was easy even only using one light. The first shots were model shots and I was using the Siros L without the shower cap on it. I love using hard light in the studio and for me the Beauty Dish is a perfect blend of hard soft light. Even on the close ups in harsh sunlight it produces a beautiful look.

For the second location we moved up the cliff a bit. I noticed that if I kept low I couldn’t see the ocean and it looked like we were above the clouds on mountain top. For this location I placed the Siros 800 L on a turtle (low stand) and put on a travel reflector with diffuser over it to light Erin from below. Sometimes when shooting you need to improvise this was one such occasion. The section of the cliff was actually too steep to place a stand and the Beauty Dish was too big to be on the monolight if it was on the turtle hence the use of a travel reflector. Stylist Lillian gave Erin an umbrella to use. I really loved the look and it worked very well having the light down low as it not only lit Erin and the umbrella but by tilting the Siros 800 L up I could light the sand in the foreground as well as Erin with only one light. The great thing about broncolor Siros 800 L is the huge range of light shapers that can be used on them. I usually travel with a travel reflector and diffuser as a back up as they are small and light but I could have used a number of different light shaper options.

The third location was on a shallow sloping section of the cliff that ran away from the cliff top. For this location the sun would be a bit of a key/side light. For this set up I went back to the Beauty Dish but used it a bit more as a side key. We were looking more at a fashion than dance for this location. The location reminded me of a western setting. I thought a nighttime feel for one of the sets up might be nice. I knew it would create the night feel in post so I place the Siros L a sort of moon type key light.

When your shooting and lighting by yourself, it’s all about having the right equipment to give to the look without compromising your vision It’s tiring having to move equipment and then shoot but the Siros L really makes life easy the light quality is so good that once I place the light for a shot I really never have to move it until the next set up. When shooting towards sunset the natural light changes by the minute so you need to have great flexibility over your equipment to compensate for nature. The RFS 2.2 is a great tool to have at your disposal to aid with this as it saves running to the light every time you want to change light levels.

The final setup was the sunset. Sunsets in Adelaide tends to happen quickly. This night the clouds were in the right place for an awesome sunset. The night was starting to get cold as the sun started to sink and we were all tired from being on the cliff top without shelter for 4 hours but I had a feeling if we waited we would be rewarded. As we watched the sun move towards the horizon I got ready, changed batteries in the Siros 800 L. You can do this at speed as the batteries can be ejected and changed so easily. I decided to put the shower cap diffuser on the Beauty dish just to soften to light to match the natural light a bit better.

The natural light changes by the second in these circumstances so if you want to capture everything the first time the gear has to work as there are no second chances. As the sun started to touch the horizon the sky suddenly turned flame orange we literally had only minutes left. Erin was in pointe shoes and kept up a steady supply of different poses, the Siros 800 L didn’t miss a beat. We had one last shot and Erin leaped in the air. Everything was in place the clouds were perfect. Erin’s jump was perfect, there was no second chance.

Even after being in the hot sun and on for 5 hours straight the Siros 800 L did the job. We ended up with 70 shots in the collection and the Siros 800 L didn’t let us down once.