How to: Urban action photography

by Urs Recher

The weather conditions were harsh as we met with Adam Lachner (@adamlachner) at the head of the Wettstein Bridge in Basel. As a photo team, we struggled with rain and gusts of wind while Adam was concerned that the metal railing, he would be jumping from was as dry and non-slippery as possible.


It was very welcome that we could fully rely on our equipment: we photographed with 2 Satos power packs, both running on pure battery power – so no hassle with (extension) cords that had to be laid out in the wet environment.

To achieve short flash durations (and thus sharp images of fast movement), we used a Para 222 (1) as the main light. This light modifier is very powerful and allowed us to work with reduced flash power, a prerequisite for very short flashes. We positioned the Para somewhat protected under the stairs, and the Satos under the Para...

On the second intermediate landing of the stairs, we positioned another Satos with a Pulso L lamp (2). The attached P65 reflector with honeycomb grid accentuated the stairs and subtly illuminated the scene. Both the lamp (which was later removed from the image) and the Satos were protected from the rain with plastic bags.

We added final light accents with another Pulso L lamp (3), equipped with a narrow beam reflector P45 and a tight honeycomb grid. This illuminated not the athlete, but only the architecture.


We photographed with a mirrorless full-frame camera. At ISO 100, the shutter speed was 1/125 and the aperture was f/5.6.