Shooting it: Portrait in the Stars of opera singer Ayako Tanaka using Profoto B1

Here is a photoshoot with the young Japanese opera singer Ayako Tanaka! We are doing some stars portraits here! She was a great model, and we did a few photoshoots! In this photoshoot I will be using some big softboxes with Profoto lights to shape the light on the model! I’ve always wanted to shoot with some Octabox but for some reason never really decided to get one and do it, so finally I found the beautiful light it creates and I’m getting addicted to it! 

メジャーデビューするオペラ歌手の田中彩子 をモデルにしました！いくつか違う記事でアップしますが、まずは星空で撮影した写真&解説アップします！この撮影ではちょっと大きいソフトボックスで撮っています、そして、プロフォトのストロボを使っています！ずっと前からOctaを撮影で使いたかったんですか、いつもソフトボックスだけにしてたけど、今回は90cmのOctaで撮影しています！

Gear

Camera for this shoot is Canon 1Dx! And my lens is Canon 24mm f/1.4!

I am using a Profoto B1 500 AirTTL strobes e 2 strobes, yeah, this time I am not with small speedlights, they have quite a lot of power! 

My modifier for this shot is a Profoto RFi 90cm Gridded Octabox (Grid)

For the B1 strobe I needed to use the Profoto Air Remote TTL-c Triggers, you can control the flash power with them!

機材

カメラは Canon 1Dx Cameraです！あと、この撮影では Canon 24mm f/1.4, レンズを使っています！

ストロボはプロフォトB1 500 AirTTLの2灯を使っています。

アクセサリーは、メインライトでプロフォト RFi 90cm ソフトボックスOcta、ソフトグリッド付 です！

ラジオスレーブはプロフォト専用のAir Remote TTL-cです！

Lighting

This is the first time I’m uploading star portraits, so here is how I lit this type of photos! One of the main things here is the long exposure, when I shoot in the stars I usually use shutter speeds longer then 10 seconds, and shooting at 30 seconds is quite normal! I’m using strobe to freeze my subject, and the important thing in this case is that I use the strobe in the end of the exposure, not in the beginning, this way your subject will be sharper, because if the strobe fire in the beginning then in the rest of the exposure the ambient light is still going to overlay on them! My light, front left side is the 90cm Octa, probably one of the best shape of lights to shoot a model, I really love how it spreads the light on my subject! It has a Profoto B1 strobe! I’m using also a grid, since I wanted to concentrate the light and kinda “wrap” it on the model! And these boxes make really beautiful light! 

Everything again is in manual mode, I had set my camera on aperture at F/2.8, the reason that I’m not shooting at open aperture F/1.4 is because I don’t really want bokeh on the stars, I did that mistake once, don’t wanna do it again!  I am at quite high ISO setting it varies between around 1000 and 1600. The Profoto strobes are at quite low power setting! 

ライティング

星空でのポートレートアップするのは初めてですね！この写真は1灯ライティングです！！前左側からOctaソフトボックスです！90CMのOcta ソフトボックスの光がめっちゃ綺麗で、ポートレートを撮るときに一番むいてると思います、ライトの形と落ち方が最高です！そして、サイズは90センチなので、かなりやわらかいです！ボックスにはグリッドがついてます、なぜなら、光をモデルさんだけに集中したいからです！プロフォトB1を使っています！

星空で撮るときのメインポイントは、長時間露光です！シャッタースピードはほとんど10秒超えることが多いけど、だいたい私が30秒とか使うことがよくあります！そして、ストロボ使うこと！ストロボはできれば、一番最後に光ります。もし最初光ったら、長時間でシャッターが閉まるまでに自然光がまた影響するので、なるべく最後に光らせます！Profotoのラジオスレーブにはその機能がついてるので、やりやすいです！じゃないと、30秒数えて、最後に自分でストロボを光らせます！絞りはF/2.8で、もっと開放にすると星がぼけるので、気をつけてください！その経験はあります 笑 カメラはCanonの１DX とレンズは24mmです！

Final Result

Here are a few shots I like most from this session, I might add some more of the photos in the post later then I have more time to review all of them! I have done some RAW processing to the image with some presets I create by myself! Model for this shot is Ayako Tanaka, she is a Vienna based Japanese Opera singer! Check out her website!

Ayako Tanaka Homepage

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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