Shooting it: Mayakan photoshoot

Intro

Now I will be posting an article from one of my favorite locations in Kobe area, the abandoned Maya Hotel, it is a massive construction on the mountain next to the city and I like visiting it regularly, sometimes just to test some new gear I got! For the shot I’m uploading I will be using a few strobes from one location to overpower the sun, since it was quite a bright day with the sun above! See the lighting description below for more details!

大好きなマヤカンでの撮影のライティング解説記事です！マヤカンは神戸での廃墟で、かなり面白いので、しょっちゅう行きます！記事の中にライティング設定が2つあるので、その説明は下のほうに見てくださいね！この撮影では太陽夜強い光ると作るのに、ストロボ3つボックスに入れて撮影しています！そして、ＮＤフィルターも使っています！

Gear

Camera is Canon 5D Mark II nothing much to say about it! The lens is Canon 135mm F/2 USM

Strobes – I am using 3 strobes in this shot because I had really strong daylight that I wanted to overpower, and one was not enough! I am using Nikon SB-26s at that time they was probably main 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 80×60 Gridded Softbox, one that I still have and often use on location! I like how it directs the light! 

Triggers – at that time I was using Pocket Wizard II Plus triggers! Couple of the strobes are on optical slave mode! 

機材

カメラは Canon 5D Mark II です！レンズはCanon 135mm F/2 USM です

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！まぁ、その値段での欠点もあったけど、いろいろ工夫できたらかなりいい道具でした！

アクセサリーは80×60のグリッド付ソフトボックス、私のもっとも好きなモディファイヤーのひとつです！いまだにロケでよく使っています！

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！

Location

The location as I said is the beautiful abandoned Mayakan in Kobe, an old hotel that hasn’t been used foe couple of decades, located in the middle of the mountain! I can’t say how many times I’ve been there, and soon I will upload some article dedicated to it with my photos taken there! 

この撮影のロケは「マヤカン」という廃墟、昔のホテルで、もう何十年も山奥に廃墟になっています！住んでるところからはまぁまぁ近いので、しょっちゅう行きます！もうちょっとでマヤカンの記事もあげるので、楽しみにしてくださいね！

Lighting

So here is the lighting description, as you see I have 2 different lighting setups for this article, well, I will mainly talk about the first one, since that was what I was going for this shot, and the second one is kind of what would happen if you move your light! So, the sun was very strong that day, and I needed some more power than just a strobe to overpower it! That’s why I am using 3 speedlights inside the softbox to lit the model! The softbox is 80×60 Gridded Softbox, since I wanted a little more directional light towards her! Trying to get her body lines beautifully I have placed the softbox a bid behind on the right from her !  

I wanted to shoot at wide open aperture on my 135mm F/2 lens, but even at ISO-50 the shutter speed was going at about 1/1250 sec, that’s why I needed to use ND8 filter to decrease the shutter speed to the sync limit of my camera! I prefer using ND filters than HSS! I trigger the strobes by Pocket Wizard II Plus, but since I only had one trigger, I needed to put the other strobes at Optical Slave mode to fire them, this is where the Nikon SB-26 comes handy! 

ライティング

ライティングの説明です、この記事に2つタイプのライティングの写真を載せてるけど、説明には第一タイプだけの話します、第二はちょっとライトを動かしただけです！まず、その日はかなり晴れてました！使ってた135ミリのレンズで開放F/2で撮りたかったので、ISO-50でも、シャッタースピードは1/1250ぐらいだったので、この撮影ではND8フィルターを使っています！それでシャッタースピードは1/160ぐらい下がりました！日中シンクロはNDフィルターでするのが好きです！それで、ストロボ1灯の光量はフル発光でも足りないので、ソフトボックスの中に3灯入れてます！どんなパワーに設定してたのか覚えてないけど、だいたい1/1 & 1/2 ぐらいでした！モディファイヤーはグリッド付の80ｘ60センチのソフトボックス、今でもよく使ってるアクセサリーです！第一タイプでは、斜め後ろ、第二は斜めちょっと前です！ラジオスレーブはPocket Wizard II Plus です！ただ、そのときは2つしかもっていなかったので、3灯のストロボを光らせるようには、残りの2灯はスレーブモードに設定しています！それで全部光ります！そのために、当時はよくニコンのSB-26を使っていました！

Final Results

Here are 3 of the shots from this photoshoot! One of with tie light behind, and two of the others is in front! Model in the photoshoot is Yuzuki Aizawa, The models I often shoot with, know that quite often my shoots will be at kinda messed up locations, and I want to make sure that they will be motivated to go to the edge for a good photo! Of course I need to give them a reason for that by shooting great photos, I think that how they become trusting me when I tell them my ideas!

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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