Shooting it: Cherry Blossoms Wedding

Intro

This time it will be a wedding photoshoot with very simple lighting setup, one I’ve been using on locations quite a lot, and still am when I am! For this shot I’m using only one shoot-through umbrella, balancing it with the ambient light I have to create some soft light on m model!

Gear

Camera is Canon 5D Mark II nothing much to say about it! The lens is Canon 135mm F/2 USM for my tight shots, and a really cheap and weird wide angle lens I’ve been using at that time – Tokina 19-35mm F/3.5-5.6, yeah to be honest at that time I was not very much into wide shots! 

Strobes – it’s a simple setup with only one Nikon SB-26 at that time they was probably my main light source, in Japan you can find them for less than 50 bucks, so I could afford to risk them at anytime! Also they have optical slave mode, which comes very handy if you don’t have enough triggers! 

Modifier – My modifier for this shoot is a Shoot-though Umbrella, that’s what I usually have with me on almost every location! 

Triggers – at that time I was using Pocket Wizard II Plus trigger!

機材

カメラは Canon 5D Mark II です！レンズはCanon 135mm F/2 USM です! そして、広角の写真にはそのときにたまに使ってた安いトキナのレンズです － トキナ19-35mm F/3.5-5.6です！かなり変わったレンズ！

当時使ってたストロボはほとんど Nikon SB-26だった、そのときは5000円以内で購入できてたし、めちゃくちゃなロケで壊れてもぜんぜんかまわないと思ってました！この撮影では1灯だけです！

アクセサリーはアンブレラーです！ロケのときはほとんど持ってる道具です！

ラジオスレーブは Pocket Wizard II Plus です、そして、オプティカル・スレーブです！

Lighting

There is not much to say about lighting here, since it is a really simple setup! We were going for the early morning when the light is beautiful and most important there are no people to care about getting in our pictures! Probably it was around 6 in the morning! When we were shooting these shots I was almost at the sync speed of my camera 1/200 at wide open aperture F/2 for my 135mm lens, and the lowest ISO that I had – 50! That was enough and actually exactly what I wanted at that time! I’m using a shoot-through umbrella for the shoot, just because I wanted some light that would be a bit softer than a softbox! It’s just one light placed right of her just outside of the frame! Well, I actually shoot with 1/250th shutter speed, and in this case that would reflect the strobe hitting the lower part of the sensor, which in this case is the ground so I would afford getting that fast! 

For the wide angle shots as I mentioned above I’m using some really tricky lens I had at that time – the Tokina 19-35mm F/3.5-5.6, and the lighting is exactly the same like the 135mm shots! I just shifted my ISO with around 1 stop, to make it ISO-100, which made some nice light on the model! I’m also at 1/250 sec! I am using a Pocket Wizard II Plus to trigger my strobe, which is the Nikon SB-26! 

ライティング

ライティングの説明です、この撮影では簡単な1ライトセットで撮ってます！よくロケで撮影してるときに使ってる、アンブレラーです！撮影時間は早朝で、そのときのやわらかい光を狙っていました！撮影してたときはだいたい開放F/2 と ISO-50では、ちょうど日中シンクロのシンクロスピードの設定でした！それで、右からアンブレラーを使って、やわらかいライトになりました！実はシャッタースピードは1/250です、そうするとフレームの一番下のストロボがあたってる部分が暗くなるんですけど、この写真ではセメントだけなので、関係なかったです！口角の写真のライティングも同じで、ただ感度はISO-100になっています！ストロボはNikonのSB-26で、ラジオスレーブはポケット・ウィザードIIプラスです！

Final Results

Here are 4 of the shots from this photoshoot! Two of hem are with 135mm and 2 are wide angle! Simply here is some example what you could do with only one light in this case it’s a shoot-through umbrella! Model in the photoshoot is Yuzuki Aizawa! And the location for it is Sakuranomiya, a spot in Osaka that is really famous with it’s cherry blossoms, which unfortunately don’t last very long! Usually it’s only around 2 weeks, and that was one of the last days for the season! 

In the end

Now, I am preparing a series of new articles on some general topics, let me know which one of them you want to see first, so I get it ready earlier! Also other ideas are welcome too! Here are some of them: Portraits at night / Lens article (I guess 135/2) / Portraits in the rain / Use of gels / Using backlight / One light setups / Shoots with just one umbrella / General shooting portraits / Can cheap lenses make good photos / Swing the camera shots / Using snoots / Shaped bokeh / … or any other idea welcome, post it in the comments, and I will see if I am able to write about it! Also stay tuned for my new blog section starting soon called “Strobist Diary” There I will talk about many of my off-camera flash techniques from basic things to some advanced stuff! 

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