Carte D'or Ooooooooo Laaaaaaa La

Got to be one of the best ice creams next to ben and jerry's shear heaven and another shot for the porfolio.

These shots where taken with a Nikon D200 with a 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lense and lighting was provided using a SB800 to the right and an SB600 to the left they where triggered using Nikons CLS system. These where also shot on a blue chroma screen and the background where added during post production.

Bud Of My Life

Bud is simply one of he best beers in the world.

These shots where taken with a Nikon D200 with a 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lense and lighting was provided using a SB800 to the right and an SB600 to the left they where triggered using Nikons CLS system. These where also shot on a blue chroma screen and the background where added during post production.

Nintendo Wii Shoot

Just finished a strobist shoot with a Nintendo Wii to show highkey work for an electronics client several shots have been posted below. To find out more on how this shoot was done Click Here For A Step By Step Guide.

Nintendo Wii Strobist Shoot

Just finished a shoot with a Nintendo Wii this was to show highkey work on white products for a Electronic client. All the shots where done with a Nikon D200 with a Nikon 17-55 f2.8 DX lense lighting was from a SB800 to the right set on +1 ev and a SB600 to the left also set to +1 ev. The flash guns where triggerd using Nikon's CLS system with a onboard SB800 set to master on the camera.

The product was place in a large light cube as you can see below this also shows you how the flash guns where setup and positioned.




Also in the shot above I place a large white card sheet in the base of the cube with a clear perspex sheet over the top this was done to capture the reflections and to cut down on post production work later on.

The shot below shows the shots taken straight from the camer before any post production work had been done these images where then put into photoshop where additional sharpening was done also level adjustment and white levels where changed to create highkey effect wanted with out loosing the reflection.



And finally the shot below shows a shot after all the post production work was finished as you can now see from this step by step there is a lot of work involved in these kind of highkey shots.




If you would like to see more of these shots then take a look at our groups Flickr Group to see the rest of the shots taken on this shoot. Click on this URL link StrobistOnline Flickr Group.

Roads Get TT

Here are the final set of images from an Audio shoot back June 2008 these shots are of the new Audi TT Roadster you have to agree another stunning car from Audi. These shots where taken with a Nikon D200 with a Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 DX lense lighting was from 2 SB800 flash lights which where triggered using Nikon CLS system additional lighting control was given using a full size silver reflector.

Audi R8 Gets Sexy

These shots where part of an Audi shoot mentioned else where in this blog the Audio R8 is regarded as one of the finest sports cars ever built in our generation not to mention a Ferrari beater come look at these pictures and tell me this is not a seriously sexy car

All shots where done the same way as the Audi A4 shots.

Lets Get A4

Busy weekend this week with the Chrysler shoot but also busy doing a shoot with Audi including the Audi A4, Audi R8 and finally the Audi TT. All shots where taken with a Nikon D200 with a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lense lighting from a single Nikon SB 800 flash triggered using Nikon CLS system additional lighting control from a full size silver reflector.

Big thank you to Audio in Stockton on Tees for making me feel welcome I had a great day and result is some awesome shots.

Chrysler Shoot Thank You

Just finished a shoot for Chrysler yesterday mainly focusing on the Chrysler 300c many thanks for letting spend time with your stunning cars. The shots where all taken with a Nikon D200 with a 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lense and lighting was provided by a single SB800 triggered using Nikon's CLS system additional lighting control was provided with a full size silver reflector.

Chroma Screen What ?

Chroma screen what is it you may ask this until recently has always belonged to big budget movies studios. Chroma screen is a process where a subject is filmed or photographed again either a blue or green screen this is done so the subject at a later stage of post production can then be removed from the blue or green screen then be composited on to another backdrop or image.

Think Star Wars all the action scenes where shot on giant green screens the actors when then put into another scene with armies behind them fighting. This technique is called Chroma screen shooting.

For example the shot below is a shot of a Creative Zen Micro MP3 player shot on a blue chroma screen.

The Creative Zen Micro Player was later removed from this blue chroma screen during post production. This was done with photoshop using colour selection layers to remove the Zen Micro MP3 player onto a separate layer with out the blue background. It was then later added to a water fall as part of a design brief the finished image is below to show you just how effective this technique can be and how you are only restricted by you own creativity.

This is what Chroma Screen work is all about.

Caplio R30 Strobist Shoot

This work was done to produce a very clean high key effect for the Caplio R30 shoot this was shot inside a white light cube lighting from a single Nikon SB600 flash gun set to +2 EV and triggered with Nikon's CLS system. The image was captured with a Nikon D200 with a 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lense.

The levels where bumped up during post production to give the high key effect wanted.

Smell's Like Hugo

The shots below where taken using a blue chroma screen inside a light cube lighting was from a single SB600 flash triggered with Nikon's CLS system the flash was moved around the subject and the background was added during post production.

Sony Get Strobist

Another shoot just finished around Sony's Ericsson W350i phone this was shot on a blue chroma screen with the background being added during post production.

Lighting was from a single SB600 setup just behind and to the left of the phone setup on a Nikon flash gun foot plate and triggered using Nikon's CLS system.

Getting Creative

Just finished off a shoot based around the Creative Zen Micro MP3 player the brief was to produce an image that was one with nature and also involved water. As we all know water does not mix too well with electronics but I had to come up with some thing a little different in order to complete the brief.

Lighting was provided by a single SB600 setup on a stand to the left this was setup high and downward towards the Zen player to create natural down light this was triggered using Nikons CLS system and taken with a D200 with Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lense.

The water splashes, water drops and condensation where all added during post production.

Champagne & Bubbles

Another shot in the bag this one was again shot on a blue chroma screen to speed up post production work. This one was shot with a Nikon D200 and a SB600 setup behind and to the left of the subject. The bottle and glass where also placed on a perspex sheet so I could pick up the reflections too. The flash was triggered using a SB800 as a master remote.

The other reason why these shots where shot on chroma screen was also to allow quick and easy post production work in this case I wanted two sets of images one on a natural wood table top and another to reflect if shot on black glass by shooting with chroma screen this allowed me to do one shoot and then replicate the shots wanted later in adobe photoshop all the images above have had there backgrounds added by being hand drawn to create the effect wanted.

King Of Shaves

King Of Shaves is well know to all you young stallions out there chasing he ladies below is a product shot done using Nikon's CLS system.

The above shot was taken in a lighting cube with a blue chroma screen background more on this later. Lighting was provided by a single Nikon SB600 Flash Gun that was triggered by another SB800 Flash Gun which was mounted on a Nikon D200 set to remote mode.

Then in post production the background was then removed and the one above was then hand drawn and added with a little extra work then done on both the contrast and the lighting and shadow detail.

Strobist What ?

Strobist what is it and what's it all about?

Strobist is a method of lighting used by professional photographers as an alternative to a full blown studio lighting. Studio lighting usually uses various large lighting setup which need mains power these are big heavy setups and not very practical when on location.

This is where strobist lighting comes in this can be a mixture of smaller battery powered lighting but more commonly this is usually based around several flash head units.



Flash head units are the Flash Guns that are usually used fixed to the main camera they are made by multiple manufacturers and the list is growing the main companies are Nikon, Cannon, Sigma and Metz to name a few.

Nikon currently have the best lighting solution which utilises Nikon CLS system ( creative lighting system ). This system allows unlimited flash guns to be setup to work together and they can be triggered using an infra red communication or by using remote triggers or even Nikon own inbuilt commander mode which is build in to most of Nikon SLR camera's.



The flagship flash gun made by Nikon is the SB800 this is one of the most advanced flash guns currently available and this can control up to 3 sets of flash guns remotely with unlimited flash guns in each of the 3 sets. This also includes being able to adjust each of the flash gun sets power output from just one flash gun with out having to adjust each of individual flash guns one by one.


So there you are a you now know what a strobist is !