I've got a little commercial shoot to do for a helicopter charter company. Inspired by this Strobist post, I decided to do some remote flash stuff as it looks deeply cool and very different from the usual "here's a helicopter" shots that all the other charter companies seem to have.
Yesterday's plan was to visit the company and check out how to set up the shots, where to place flashes, logisitics for in flight stuff etc. and prepare for the actual shoot sometime in the next fortnight. My plan to do a dual-helicopter shoot with me in one shooting the other as it passed over a gridlocked M25 was wrecked as it became clear that it costs £800/hour to put a single helicopter in the air, and just landing one of them costs £50 in landing fees.
So we decided to prep for some simple in-flight shots with a flashed interior and lit pilot and probable passenger looking happy & relaxed in the back.
The idea is to do the shots at or near dusk and underexpose a dramatic sky. Shutter speed to have blurred rotor blades is about 1/125th so that decides one of the variables. Aperture is determined by the amount I want to underexpose the background sky, flash power is determined by the balance of light required in the cockpit and the rear passenger compartment, leaving ISO as the remaining variable.
So here's a couple of test shots with our own lighting guru Gordon being the fly-boy.
#1 Seeing how far away the Pocket Wizards work. Strangely the front flash stopped working as distance increased but the rear was fine - we think the avionics are interfering with the front PW somehow - we'll need to figure out a solution for this. We were checking the light balance front and rear as well.
#2 Close in shot. The sky is too bright so we need to shoot a bit later in the day. I can always fiddle with it in post processing but it would be nice to get right first time. Flash balance and positioning looks good. Rotor blur added in Photoshop as we couldn't find the keys to start it.
I'll update you all as this progresses. I'm hoping for some super shots that the company can use on their web site and promo material.
Cheers!
Tobers
Yesterday's plan was to visit the company and check out how to set up the shots, where to place flashes, logisitics for in flight stuff etc. and prepare for the actual shoot sometime in the next fortnight. My plan to do a dual-helicopter shoot with me in one shooting the other as it passed over a gridlocked M25 was wrecked as it became clear that it costs £800/hour to put a single helicopter in the air, and just landing one of them costs £50 in landing fees.
So we decided to prep for some simple in-flight shots with a flashed interior and lit pilot and probable passenger looking happy & relaxed in the back.
The idea is to do the shots at or near dusk and underexpose a dramatic sky. Shutter speed to have blurred rotor blades is about 1/125th so that decides one of the variables. Aperture is determined by the amount I want to underexpose the background sky, flash power is determined by the balance of light required in the cockpit and the rear passenger compartment, leaving ISO as the remaining variable.
So here's a couple of test shots with our own lighting guru Gordon being the fly-boy.
#1 Seeing how far away the Pocket Wizards work. Strangely the front flash stopped working as distance increased but the rear was fine - we think the avionics are interfering with the front PW somehow - we'll need to figure out a solution for this. We were checking the light balance front and rear as well.
#2 Close in shot. The sky is too bright so we need to shoot a bit later in the day. I can always fiddle with it in post processing but it would be nice to get right first time. Flash balance and positioning looks good. Rotor blur added in Photoshop as we couldn't find the keys to start it.
I'll update you all as this progresses. I'm hoping for some super shots that the company can use on their web site and promo material.
Cheers!
Tobers
Fantastic 
