Mark Goldstein

When it gets to this time of year, with the onset of the PMA and Focus on Imaging shows, I always feel it’s time for an equipment evaluation.

What works, what is still useful, what do I actually use on a regular basis, what current trends do I need to keep up with? Obviously the computer / camera update can no longer be avoided and a regular turnover of this equipment is inevitable, so on the shopping list will be a new Canon 5D Mk11 body, which in turn, needs a new Mac to meet the camera’s additional file capacity!

Every year, for the last few years, I have had a lighting debate. Years ago when I left Blackpool (you will know it was ages ago if I tell you we were shooting on film!), I sold my car and bought two R.B. 6/7′s and some Elinchrom lighting. The debate arises as they were built to last and are still going strong even though they look well used. Two x 500 monobloc head’s, barn door’s, snoot’s, spill kill’s, brollies (which seem to only get used in wet weather) and soft boxes. Then a year or so later I added two x 750 heads, giving a total of 2.5k of flash power.

It is basic but it still works, even if it looks a little brow beaten – but given that I used to assist a really talented and successful photographer who used to carry his RZ kit around in a green hold-all I can do the scruffy look!

So, do I continue to use perfectly able lights that just are not the latest, or opt for new, here lies the difficult decision!

My work is quite varied, yet always people based, so my lighting and kit bag needs to cope with a variety of shoots.

The most pressing is a children’s editorial fashion and cover for the Spring edition of Angels and Urchins Magazine. We intend to shoot kids in a very fresh (it’s Spring!) yet highly styled look which needs to flow to the lighting. Pale pastel greens on a painted pastel flat, lemon on lemon, lilac on lilac, you get the drift.

So the studio light needs to be flattering, feathering and perky. For this my existing kit is not sufficient so I will hire-in lighting: two mains packs, heads, soft boxes for side and back ground lighting and a beauty dish for the model (the children will only be only about 4 years old so a big beauty dish covers most of them! We may have a couple of sets going at once and I will take my lights in case I need to put a boom in for some back lighting.

Studio lighting.

This shoot in a hire studio is typical of how I work – it’s focused my mind. I’m going to trade in the x2500 heads for just one 1200 head – more power, 2750k, a bit less flexibility through, 3 heads not 4, but it will come with remote sync etc.. and there’s only one to buy!

I will do a bit of spring cleaning with the accessories and remove some of the well earned gaffa tape that tends to hang around. And while I’m at it, the case is due for an overhaul, I think a neat little carry bag and then at least on my seminars it will look more up to date too!!

I guess the moral of this, in the age of being environmentally friendly and getting through cameras and computers bi- annually, is that it feels good to hang onto something.

One of my much used and favourite ways to light (after daylight – later) is using a Lumedyne kit or portable flash kit. The b/w image here was shot for Men’s Health using a portable kit. I rarely use stands on location, I much prefer to use an assistant and we roam around together alongside the model, attached by an umbilical cord of electrical power. It’s such a loose and very responsive, reactionary way to work and I love it.

A portable kit would definitely be on my lighting wish list… next year.

Dockers, portable flash kit.

Shot on location using a portable flash kit with a 50cm square soft-box, the assistant was inside the laundrette with the light. )

I have used this system time and time again, it’s great for covering yourself when you are on location and not sure what to expect.

I find shooting like this is a great way to add drama, especially when you expose the subject around 1 1/2 stops over the back ground.

My on camera flash guns are useful in my camera bag and go everywhere as standard. I use them with a light sphere and as long as subjects are not close to backgrounds this is a really flexible way to work with a small amount of coverage. The sphere absorbs some power, but I can compensate for the loss of range by changing f-stops, ISO, or moving nearer to the subject. I find mixing this with daylight, bouncing off a low white ceiling or nearby wall, avoiding coloured walls and therefore casts, can give a really natural and flattering look to the image.

If I am not using the sphere because I need the extra stop I sometimes use the catch light card to push some light forward onto the subject, whilst bouncing the rest. I also have a soft box which I put onto my on camera flash guns, this was made for my Metz but it adapts well to the flash guns, it does have the same issues in reducing the range but it helps the light to be softer on the subject.

I used mainly daylight with a little fill in flash bounced off white walls and the ceiling and a gold reflector for this image of Fay Ripley for Reveal magazine. I had photographed her before and knew the look the art director was after – flattering but natural.

We shot at her home and as always, time was an issue. The daylight was not too bad but would have been better if I could have moved the windows to a south facing position! I used the on camera flash so you could barely tell it exists in the image, I was shooting with a slow shutter speed 1/60 1/50 to blow out the back grounds with ambient light and achieve a light airy feel, I shot a few frames with some movement. I used a minimal depth of field f2.8 / 3.5 to get that lifestyle look.

Fay Ripley, on-camera flash.

So power packs, mono blocks, soft boxes, beauty dishes, on camera flash, reflectors are tools I regularly use to shoot but what is my favourite?

As a student we had already experimented with various types of lighting and made some hideous jobs of it. The tutor asked us to photograph some peppers. Edward Western’s Peppers. I was inspired.

I spent days combing the little shops around Hope St looking for just the right crumpled specimen so that I could pay homage to Edward Western. I experimented with the light, watched the subtle changes, I was hooked. Natural light is awesome – always different, challenging and exciting.

But when you have been looking for a shot, planning, finding a location, arranging to meet your subject, making them (a stranger to you!) wear your Dad’s Wellies, climb a gate and read poetry in a bog – when the light graces you with its presence you know it. The moment of capture is clear!

This shot of poet Jacob Polley, commissioned by the Lake District National Park, was that moment.

Morocco, natural light.

Biography

Sandi Friend BA Hons is a well established photographer – with a wealth of experience and expertise in her field of portraits. Sandi is also a key trainer with the Annabel Williams Contemporary Photographic Training – www.annabelwilliams.com

Sandi has worked with a broad range of clients including The Independent Review and Men’s Health Magazine, Angels and Urchins, Manchester United, The Lake District National Park, Huggies, Practical Parenting magazine, Bunny London and Young England to name a few.

Her unique vision, strong ideas, energy and project management skills will ensure successful delivery of the brief/ project. As member of the prestigious Association of Photographers she has been awarded a merit for her work and is now in demand on the photographic lecture circuit.

For most of her work the emphasis is on portraits, images of real people. Shooting things like ‘Relative Values’ for the Independent Magazine, behind the scenes portraits at Manchester United, Booker long list writer Sarah Hall, the Poet Jacob Polley and most recently actors such as Fay Ripley and Dominic West of ‘The Wire’ fame.

For more information please visit Sandi’s website at www.sandifriend.co.uk

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