Wedding cakes. Lots of them

Is it food or product photography? Normally, when I have a subject to photograph which sits in two or more categories, and determining the right strategic approach to the photographic style is difficult, I consider the target client rather than the paying client. Occasionally, my clients don’t always recognise the characteristics of their products that entice their clients to buy, possibly because they are too close to their own product and view it differently.

Here, I have two clients. A website design company and their client who designs and makes wedding cakes. Joanne (the cake lady) and her target market had very similar views on the subject matter to hand, wedding cakes. Yes, they had to taste right and have a variety of fillings available, but the initial impact had to be looks.

Brides are very particular regarding the aesthetics of their wedding cake. It has to have a “wow” factor, and definitely must be different to anything their friends may have had. So, similar to product photography, we would highlight the features of the cake, but it mustn’t become purely a product. It should also look good enough to eat.

Quite often with product photography, hard light is used to accent features and create texture. Now, those things are important here, but due to the context the subject is related to (weddings), the overall approach should be a little softer.

Two gridded stripboxes were used either side and further back than the cake, to create the gentle rim lighting. They were also angled down at 45 degrees so as to catch the top of the cake layers. The stripboxes were mated to Elite Pro 300 heads at ¼ power output. The key light was camera right and about head heat. An Elite Pro 600 firing through a 30” x 40” softbox, again at around a ¼ output but at a greater distance than the two stripboxes. I utilised this quite large softbox so as the key light had decent “wrap” characteristics, so as to help blend and soften the rim lighting.

To add a little interest to the background, and without distracting from the subject itself, I used an Elite Pro 300 with a standard reflector, a 20 degree grid and a sheet of purple(ish) gel. The output was set to just below a ¼ and the wash from the keylight slightly reduced the intensity of the colour.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f8

Exactly the same as you would do with products, it’s important to emphasise detail. The lighting setup remained the same, other than the stripbox camera left was increased in output by about 2/3rds of a stop to provide a little more accent.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f8

So, besides the wedding cakes, what else would the website require? I managed to talk the rather attractive business owner, Joanne, into having a headshot done for her website and social media profiles. This was more difficult than it should have been, as Joanne is extremely camera shy to say the least. She absolutely abhors having her photograph taken, and it took a fair bit of effort to coerce her into standing in front of the camera.

We moved into studio 3 which was setup already for low key, whereas studio 2 was basically white walled for the cakes. The large softbox was positioned camera left and slightly above head height. A stripbox was placed camera left and further back than Joanne to provide the rimlight, and barely out of frame to help keep it as soft as possible.

The stripbox camera right was again as close as possible for the same reasons, although in hindsight, I wish I had raised it a little more. Joanne is rather tall to say the least, and I feel I should have had a touch more light to the top of her head for separation purposes.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f9

And what of Katrina, the young lady who pushed Joanne to get suitable images for her website?

Oddly enough, Katrina didn’t exactly hesitate when asked to step up to the mark, and the smouldering look was instant. Quite the model

Same lighting setup.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f8

Katrina’s company is The Irregular Bell Design Co.

Joanne’s cakes and designs may be viewed at www.petitebelle.co.uk

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 This year’s courses are to run roughly once per month. Each day has a full itinerary starting at 0900hrs with a basic introduction to off camera flash (OCF), often referred to as strobist technique. Equipment requirements and capabilities are discussed and utilised to illustrate how to get the most from the least equipment.

The limitations of speedlights and mitigating those limitations, and how to increase the effectiveness of your strobist kit.

Why more is better. An introduction to location studio lighting

Lunch, which includes a buffet.

The afternoon is spent on location with both speedlights and location studio lighting.

1700hrs finish.

The morning is spent within the studios of Studio Sphere, allowing candidates to familiarise themselves with the equipment and theory, whereas the afternoon allows the theory to be put into practice with a model on location. The locations are not weather dependant, as there are covered venues available should the weather be particularly bad, although there are techniques that can be utilised in the rain etc.

The cost of the course is £99 per candidate, and includes lunch. To book, simply go to the course page at Studio Sphere’s site, and select the date that suits you, and then click “Buy Now”. Dates available are:

29th April 2012

26th May 2012

1st July 2012

29th July 2012

26th August 2012

29th September 2012

We can assist in locating overnight accommodation for candidates travelling from afar.

I look forward to meeting you

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One of my more interesting wedding venue brochure shoots just lately, was Park Hall near Chorley. I’ve already covered the general shoot in a previous blog entry, but this one is to do with one of my favourite features of the hotel.

Whenever I do a wedding venue brochure shoot, I always try to find the unique features of the hotel that the bride and grooms tend to fall in love with. The same features that actually market the hotel. It’s surprising how few hotels capitalise on their assets, unaware of the features that actually attract their clients.

One of the features at Park Hall is the beautiful bandstand that’s lit at night. Ok, so the standard lighting is actually the strings of leds along the roof edge and up to the top of the dome, plus the lit street lights. But all the same, it had quite a magic about it. The interior of the bandstand is actually quite dark. There isn’t any lighting within the dome, so it relies on the light spill from the street lights at each corner of the area.

To provide the required light levels I would need to show the bride and groom, I set up a single Lencarta Safari Classic head on a stand that was raised to its full height, which actually put it into the dome at the edge. If you look carefully at the above image, you can just see the lightstand and the bottom of the head almost centre in the image. It’s behind the lattice work, which helps disguise it. The head was mated to a standard reflector and fired directly up into the dome to bounce the light back down on our bride and groom. The output from the Safari was at about ½. This allowed faster recycling, but also ensured I was able to use a decent aperture at f8.

My main concern here was the ambient light, or rather the lack of it. I’d had to wait till quite late for the hotel lighting on the bandstand to kick in, and it didn’t come on till 2000hrs. Bearing in mind this was the 19^th of September, you can appreciate there wasn’t any ambient light to speak of by the time the lights came on. The manager of the hotel was doing her best to see if we could have the lights on earlier, but unfortunately, they were on a timer, and that was that!

Anyway, it just gave me another challenge, and to be honest, to combat the absolute lack of ambient, I upped the ISO to 800, and utilised a tripod with an exposure of 1 second to ensure the ambient registered sufficiently to give the image atmosphere. To ensure the bride and groom appeared crisp in the image, and negate any movement during the exposure, I used 2^nd curtain synchronisation, or as some would call it, “dragging the shutter”.

One other thing about the above exposure, or in fact all of them to be honest. The white balance was all over the place. The Safari is daylight balanced, but the leds were more of a warm light, but not quite tungsten. The street lamps were tungsten on steroids!! and there were a lot of fluorescent tubes in the background, around the courtyard. There really was no way to gel up the head and match it, because there were just far too many variables. In fact, in the end, I think I left the white balance set to fluorescent as I’d already made the decision to output several white balance versions from lightroom 3, and then blend the correct areas to make a finished balanced image.

Nikon D3 1sec ISO800 24-70mm f8

Another view of the bandstand, this time from the entry point.

Nikon D3 1sec ISO800 24-70mm f8

This was actually one of the prep shots, and really was only to gauge the lighting level against the ambient so I could fine tune the exposure to balance it out. This is one of those light testing shots that tends to make you smile and you tuck the image away as a happy accident. Definitely not the look I was after, as there is no recorded ambient to speak of. This was the first lighting test, and really, I was only after seeing the effect of the Safari on the interior of the band stand. Sarah and David were relaxing and chatting, and paying little attention to me as I intermittently popped the safari to see how things were going. I really like this image, as the couple are nicely lit and the bandstand is visible due to the light spill. The roof leds are only just bright enough to define the outline of the roof, and the street lamps barely register. I feel it carries a lot of atmosphere.

Park Hall may be contacted at http://www.lavenderhotels.co.uk/Park-Hall or 01257 455000

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Meet Jonathan, a commercial estate agent based in Nelson, not a million miles from my studio complex. It was Jonathan that found the premises for me, and basically turned my business plan on its head, before opening new horizons for me.

Jonathan happened to mumble something about needing a decent image for his social media and upcoming press releases, so this was an opportunity to repay him for the new opportunities I now have.

The above image is the original headshot Jonathan had in mind, and shows Jonathan’s easy going nature. One thing about Jonathan, when he smiles, it tends to be a big smile which can make his face appear much rounder. I particularly wanted to avoid the additional “weight” this could possibly add to Jonathan in the image. I chose to employ a short lighting technique, coupled with highlighting the nearer jawline and cheek to reduce some of the detail a little there, and draw the viewer’s eyes to Jonathan’s face where it’s lit a little softer. This has the effect of “narrowing” Jonathan’s face from the viewers point of view.

Camera left was a Lencarta Elite Pro 300, married up to a 200cm x 40cm gridded strip box and set to around 1/2 power output. Camera right and at a height of around two meters was another Elite Pro 300 angled down towards Jonathan and married to a 140cm x 30cm gridded strip box, and again it was set to around 1/2 power. Both these boxes weren’t too far out of frame.

Main, or key light was a Lencarta Elite pro 600, firing through a 170cm Oca just to the left of me, and at a height of just under two meters. The output was at 1/2, but the distance was greater.

Nikon D3 1/250^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f22

This image was to put Jonathan in context, with obvious vacant commercial premises in the background. Similar sort of setup to the previous image, although the stripbox to the right was brought lower, and angled relatively horizontally. The left strip box remained in the same sort of attitude, although both needed to be moved further away so as not to appear in frame. The key light (Octa) also required moving further backward as I stepped further back to get a full length shot. The output levels remained the same, but I needed to open up the aperture to accomodate the apparent light reduction on Jonathan due to the greater distance.

For this particular image, I also wanted more of the background to be visible, as it was important if I were to put Jonathan in context. If I had dropped the ambient by using a fast shutter speed, then the image would simply be of a some bloke sat on a chair in a dark room. Sure, that would work great if the guy on the chair looked shifty or wore leathers and had a rather rough air about him. But Jonathan? It had to be as relaxed and friendly as he is. The image had to say “Hi, how can I help?”. Consequently, the background needed to be seen, to supply a bit of a story to the image, but it shouldn’t be distracting from the main subject, Jonathan.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f11

Jonathan can be found at www.rentaunit.co.uk or 01282 699438 and say hi from me

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Winter weddings can be very challenging. If the weather’s good, chances are, it’ll still be incredibly cold. This wedding was on the 14^th January, and whilst we had watery sunshine, it was absolutely bitter.

At this time of the year, no matter how early the wedding breakfast finishes, the chances of having any ambient light to play with for the informal portrait session is pretty remote, to be honest.

We were at The Villa, in Wrea Green, just outside Preston. A beautiful venue with bags of character, and staff that have a vested interest in the bride and groom’s enjoyment of their day. A real delight and a pleasure to work there, as all the staff would go out of their way to help in any way they could.

Our biggest challenge came as we started to get the informal portrait session organised. I’d originally identified a couple of really nice lounge areas opposite the bar, but as the wedding breakfast finished, these two areas very quickly filled with wedding guests. Another area that had been identified was now filled with a casino and other gaming tables.

I had a look further afield, and found some beautiful areas within the restaurant. Each area had its own character, and would have made a superb set of backdrops to be honest. Unfortunately, our timing couldn’t really have been any worse. As soon as I realised the restaurant would be a great place to work, the restaurant guests began to arrive, and I really didn’t want to cause any kind of distraction to the arriving guests, or the staff for that matter.

There was only one thing for it, the garden.

I wasn’t looking forward to this one, as the temperature was falling rapidy, and I knew I would have to work extremely quickly so as not to inadvertently kill my bride and groom!

I pushed a Nkon SB800 speedlight into a 105cm parabolic umbrella, and got my wife Anne, to stand in for the bride and groom as I checked the settings. I utilised a Yongnuo RF602 radio trigger and set the output to 1/8^th on the speedlight. The first test shot showed I was a litte under exposed with the aperture at f5.6, so I opened it up to f3.2 and found the image to be pretty much where I wanted it.

A couple of other points you should know. I had the ISO set to 1600 so as to pickup the detail in the hotel behind the couple, and I knew the whitebalance would be different for the building and the couple, although I gel’d the speedlight to CTO in a bid to get the couple lit somewhere near the light colouring the hotel.

The bride and groom did the first test shot with warm overjackets on, mainly so they could get an idea as to how long the exposure would take (0.4sec or around 1/3^rd sec), also the groom needed to see how important his positioning of the umbrella would be, and the bride needed to see how her pose impacted on the overall scene.

The second test shot was exactly where we wanted to be, and then it was a quick throw off of the jackets, a quick pose and then pop, back on with the jackets.

Nikon D3 1/3^rd sec ISO1600 24-70mm Nikkor f3.2 (flash firing on second curtain sync)

The Villa at Wrea Green is a superb venue, and I would recommend it without hesitation. Stewart McIntosh is the General Manager, and he may be contacted on 01772 804040 or stewart.mcintosh@thevilla.co.uk

Two other images from the day. The first is from the bridal portrait session immediately before the service.

Nikon D3 1/250th sec ISO400 24-70mm Nikkor f5.6 and a touch of fill flash from a SB900 on camera, bounced from the wall opposite the bride.

The last image is from the first dance. All ambient without additional lighting.

Nikon D3 1/80th sec ISO1600 24-70mm Nikkor f2.8

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This was part of the portfolio shoot I did for Nicola Sumner, a young lady I’ve worked regularly with, especially wedding venue brochure shoots. I’ve previously written about the images from this session that were destined for Lencarta’s product catalogue, and these are a couple of others taken at Studio Sphere.

We needed a straightforward clean backdrop shot, a typical studio type shot that would be included in her portfolio.

The backdrop is vinyl, and was lit with two Lencarta EP300 heads, either side of the backdrop, and firing into white reflective umbrellas, and both were at 1/2 power.

Camera right was an EP600 head at around 2.8m, firing through a 170cm Octa at around 1/4 output. Another EP300 was camera left, although almost level with Nicola and at a height of around five feet, firing through a 200x40cm gridded stripbox at around 1/4 output. It’s providing a stronger rim light as it’s physically nearer to Nicola than the key light. Another EP300 was fired through a 120x30cm gridded stripbox at 1/4 power camera right and further back, providing the highlight across her cheekbone, shoulder and neck.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor f8

Similar pose, but to include a full length capture.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor f8

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I was given the task of finding images that would relate the qualities of various pieces of Lencarta equipment without the need for huge amounts of texts etc, and would work well for their product catalogue. Some of these images were a little tongue in cheek, whilst others conveyed their message quite strongly. When it came to the Safari Li-on, at first I wondered as to which of its many strengths I should portray. Very quick recycle times, bright modelling light, the lightweight compact aspect of the kit or any of its other fine atributes. As a very heavy user of the Safari Classic, the features that really stood out for me was the weight and small size. Surely it could be taken absolutely anywhere, even the most remote of locations. Hmmmmmmmmm.

How remote is remote? Well, I asked for a few ideas and had several come back. An empty beach, an open moor, Hard Knott pass in the lakedistrict, Pendle Hill. All were good suggestions, but didn’t really light my imagination, so to speak. When I said so to my family, my sister laughed and suggested rock climbing, albeit, rather tongue in cheek.

It would certainly be remote, and it would certainly show the kit was very portable. Great idea

What the hell was I letting myself in for

Bear in mind, this was during the last few days of November, with intermittent sun and a biting cold wind. The shoot took place at Trevor Rocks, Llangollen in Wales, and whilst it is indeed remote and beautiful, it was also very exposed to that bitter wind.

The above image had Chelsea rigged and ready on the rock face, with the sun behind her and to her leftt, and only just out of frame (coming up to mid-day). I had a single Safari Li-on head mounted on a light stand at full height, using a high intensity reflector with the output at around 1/2 power at a distance of around eight feet. This meant the light from the Safari was marginally above the ambient, although I didn’t want to darken off the ambient a great deal, otherwise we would lose any kind of detail in the distant hills that were in shadow. Something else I was painfully aware of, was the fact I had to be higher than Chelsea to get the image I had in mind, showing the remote location and height. Thanks to my sister Shelley, for ensuring I didn’t break my damned neck. She’s an experienced climber, and I wouldn’t attempt the shoot without her aid and guidance.

Nikon D3 1/60^th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor f14

This image was to show the ambient crushing abilities of the Safari, and again  its portability. This was taken just before 1430hrs and the sun is actually in frame. Safari Li-on single head at full power on the left, firing through a Profold 70x100cm softbox. Safari Classic single head at full power on the right, firing through a Profold 140x30cm stripbox. These two heads were sufficient to crush the ambient and produce the image you see, although I actually had to lift the detail a little in the background during post processing, as I think I overdid it slightly. There is a third Safari Classic head firing through a high intensity reflector that is almost in line between Chelsea and the sun. This one was to emulate the sun creating the highlight down Chelsea’s far side, as the sun had been overpowered to the extent that it contributed very little to the image at all.

Nikon D3 1/60^th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor f22

And without the lights and magic?

When the images were sent through to the Lencarta office, the decision was made to utilise them immediately for an advertising campaign, although it did mean they didn’t go into the catalogue, but there you go.

The final image below is of Anya, with a single Safari Li-on head firing through the high intensity reflector camera right. In fact, you can see the shadow from her left leg created by the Li-on. This was fairly tricky to balance with the ambient light, as the clouds caused the light levels to yoyo a bit. I wasn’t after overcoming the ambient, as I only wanted to raise the shadows on Anya’s side facing the camera. Her jacket and jeans ate a lot of light, and when shot without the additional lighting from the Li-on, she appeared almost silohette-like, except for her face, hands and right leg.

Nikon D3 1/60^th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor f14

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Further to my last post, and continuing the development of images for the Lencarta catalogue, I had another opportunity to work with Nicola, one of my favourite models. I originally met Nicola when I photographed her wedding in the summer of 2010, and we’ve been good friends ever since. I’m not sure if it’s the circumstances of our first meeting that influenced the nature of the assignments we would collaborate on, but this time we had a different agenda. As usual, I had two clients for the same shoot, in an attempt to get the best value for all those concerned. I’ve already mentioned Lencarta, and the second was Nicola herself as she wanted a wider range of images for her portfolio.

The above shot was conceived for a lingerie section for Nicola’s portfolio, but during the lighting development, I decided it would actually be perfect for the catalogue too, albeit from an elevated viewpoint to include the light modifier.

Initially, I boomed a 200 x 40cm gridded stripbox above Nicola. It lit Nicola quite well, but just didn’t seem to “hit the spot” as far as my original concept. I had quite intense shadowing in front of the settee, and the settee itself had areas of poor definition on the leather surface. I swapped the stripbox for a gridded 70cm white beauty dish and the change was fairly dramatic. Although it was gridded, the fact the beauty dish is much wider than the stripbox meant the shadow in front of the settee was now confined to being underneath, rather than in front of it. The leather of the settee itself was far better defined too, and the light along Nicola was also more pleasing.

Now we had the main light sorted, I also wanted some fill from the front, or camera left to be exact. I chose to use a Profold 70 x 100cm softbox with the head at around five feet. Both modifiers were mated to Elite Pro 300 heads. The beauty dish was at around ½ power and approximately 4 feet above Nicola, whereas the softbox was around 7 feet away and still set to ½ power, providing a softer fill and a little highlight along the front of the settee.

Oddly enough, I didn’t like the final image that showed the full settee in frame, and much preferred the closer shots.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f20

This is the image intended for the Lencarta catalogue, taken from a higher elevation to include the edge of the beauty dish and the logo. I used a SmartFlash coupled to a standard reflector and a 10º grid to light the logo. Output on the SmartFlash was set to almost full power.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f20

This is the setup shot.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f18

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As many of my clients know, I much prefer to combine several client’s needs together in one assignment. It keeps the cost down and everyone benefits from the input of others.

This assignment was for Lencarta, and in particular, for their catalogue. The request was for images that either showed their equipment in use, or the results possible from using their equipment. With that in mind, I knew there were some items that may be difficult to put into the frame, and provide enough interest to make it relevant. Light stands being a case in point. Lightstands tend to be used for pretty much every studio shot, and location shoots where lighting is used. So what was I going to do to at least hold the attention of the viewer for that little bit longer?

Meet Martins Arbidans, dance tutor. I had previously photographed Martins as part of the Dare to be Different crew, managed by Rachel Mason, and if anyone was likely to add interest to an image of some lighting stands, it would indeed be Martins

I’d also said I would get a headshot for him, so he could use it on his facebook profile or website etc. It was whilst taking a headshot that I stepped back to take the above image with the catalogue cover in mind. In the original headshot, there were two lights in use, both Elite Pro 300s. Frame left and just beyond Martins was a Profold 140 x 30cm stripbox (no grid). This provided the rim lighting for his shoulder and hat, at about ¼ output. Main light was provided by a 40cm gridded white beauty dish camera right and directly in front of Martins, again at ¼ output, although the grid reduced the power a little, hence the accent across Martins’ cheek from the stripbox. The stronger rimlight seen on Martins’ left cheek, neck and hat is provided by a 30º grid on a standard reflector mated to a SmartFlash at ½ power, basically side on to Martins and at a height of around 7 feet.

When it came to showing the light modifiers in frame, I needed to light the logos on the equipment, otherwise they just disappeared into the black. I set up a second Smartflash with a 20º grid on a standard reflector aimed at the Profold badge on the stripbox. Output was set at ¼ as the head was literally 18 inches from the stripbox.

The logo on the beauty dish proved more troublesome. I initially started with another SmartFlash head and 10º grid on a standard reflector, but it still wasn’t tight enough. I switched to a Nikon SB900 speedlight and fashioned a cardboard snoot of about 12 inch in length. Output on the speedlight was set to ½.

Nikon D3 1/160^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f11

This was the headshot that led to the product image.

Nikon D3 1/125^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f11

This is the original concept image I had with regards to the stands

Stripbox camera left (you can see the light from it on the floor). ElitePro 300 at ½ power to provide accent lighting along Martins’ side. Main or key was provided by a 30 x 40 inch softbox mated to an Elite Pro 300 at ½ power.

Nikon D3 1/60^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f7.1

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This was an assignment for Toy Box Live, a new company launching over Christmas 2011. Simple idea really, and particularly relevant in today’s economic climate………… Toy rental!

And how would you announce the launch of such a company? Well, wouldn’t you have a celebrity involved to endorse the launch and appeal to your target clients? Hmmmm, who would be best suited for the toy industry?

Santa and his helpers, obviously!

Well, the remit was pretty well defined by Alison, who seemed to have a good appreciation of potential obstacles and problems that may present themselves during the shoot. Time was the main challenge. Santa would arrive shortly before takeoff, the flight would last five minutes and I’d also be required to capture the helicopter landing, along with Santa greeting some of the waiting children. Time to get from takeoff point to landing point by car would be 20 minutes. This was going to be interesting!

As the helicopter was due to land near Blackpool Hospital at 1300hrs, I would have to be done at the airfield by 1240hrs absolute max, and in fact be already packed up and on my way by then. For this reason, although it had been suggested I arrive for 1215hrs, I had decided to get there about twenty minutes earlier, so as I could survey the site and prep early. After brief introductions with Alison and the pilot (Tom), I had a look at the front of the hangar where the helicopter would be placed. The first challenge became blatantly evident. It was wall to wall sunshine on the shortest day of the year at mid day, which means the sun is still extremely low on the horizon. The hangar faced south, which meant I could either photograph the aircraft bathed in glorious sunlight with the cluttered backdrop of the open hangar, or I could photograph directly into the sun to get the open airfield, and try to combat the sun in the frame without losing contrast. Great!

Using the hangar as a backdrop really wasn’t an option, it just wasn’t going to work. So, into the sun it would have to be. I used the Lencarta Safari Classic with a single head and on full power, utilising 600ws through a high intensity reflector, giving me 2.5x the effective light output when compared to a standard reflector. (Superb bit of kit that can dig you out of a hole such as this one!). Having said that, due to the size of the subject, I couldn’t get the light stand and head as close as I would have liked, otherwise it impacted on the frame. However, even at a distance of around twenty five feet, it still managed to balance the strong sunlight. The above shot was the light test, but it worked rather nicely.

Nikon D3 1/250^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f10

The first “official” image, with Alison and the company banner. The tail fin you can see frame right was another minor headache that developed during the shoot. It was another helicopter that was due to take off during our allocated shoot time. Unfortunately, they took a lot longer than expected to go through their pre-flight checklist before finally taking off, which stopped the shoot for ten minutes.

Nikon D3 1/250^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f10

One of the final advertising images, showing the piled presents within the cockpit and the sun in frame. I opened the aperture by 1/3^rd of a stop, to lift the darker area along the rotor support.

Nikon D3 1/250^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f9

And the man himself, along with his sidekick.

Nikon D3 1/250^th sec ISO200 24-70mm f9

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