Page 54 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #2

y experience told me that the wrong angle, the strobes (if I used them) could
difference between the "whitest cause the tile floor to be overexposed.
M white" and the "blackest black" in
this room was so great that there was no way I IN NOVEMBER, we had received a Profoto D1 kit
could create an image of Salena that looked just with two 500-watt/second “moonlights.” I’d
the way the human eye would see her. Howev- brought this kit to Belmont to use during the
er, trusting in the NyghtVision Methodology, I shoot with Salena. Moonlights are different
identified the specific lighting issues that would from conventional strobes in that the light they
need to be solved: discharge is more diffused. Also, they do not
take a standard mount, so while I could have
❶ It was late afternoon, which meant that used the Chimera adapter we have to attach a
the landscape brick of the courtyard and the softbox, I decided not to. Instead, I used the
gray granite of the porch outside the room two umbrellas that also came with the Profoto
would push even more light D1 kit. Black on the outside
through the windows. The and silver on the inside,
problem was that that light these umbrellas reflect a
was not consistently reflect- significant amount of light.
ed into the room. There So, not only did I need to be
were "hot spots" every- concerned about the angle
where. of the lights in relationship
to the windows, I also had
❶ One hotspot (per- to worry about how reflec-
haps two) is relatively tive the umbrellas were.
easy to address. But see- Even with the intensity of
mingly random, multi- the moonlights reduced,
ple hot spots scattered the umbrellas would reflect
throughout three differ- much more light than a
ent glass surfaces was softbox would allow to es-
quite another issue. cape when the moonlights
fired. In other areas of Bel-
❶ Given the angle of mont, the umbrellas would
the windows, and the be perfect. But in the gar-
absence of a full wall any- den room, unless I could
where, there was no way to find a way to control their
get my strobes into the room. Not easily any- intensity and keep them from reflecting on the
way. And, even if I did get them into the room, windows, they weren't well suited to the job.
the strobes would most certainly be visible in The fact was, these umbrellas were all I had—
the windows when they fired. so my only workable option was to figure out
how to use them.
❶ The tile on the floor posed a problem. While
the human eye is very good at exposing a room Now that I had identified the specific chal-
in such a way that details (such as tile) are al- lenges, I began to apply our methodology.
ways visible, this would not be true of the cam- The date was January 13th. I was in Reids-
era. For example, in the photo above, the area ville, North Carolina. (See Figure 2 at right.)

on the floor in front of Salena would be com- I was working on the west side of a house in
pletely blown out if I were not careful. Set at the the afternoon. Collectively, this told me that

54 | lighting the un-lightable