The Art of Strobing: Winston Baltasar's Workshop

Sir Winston in Action!



Strobing at it's finest!


It was Sunday afternoon and I just woke up from last night's clubbing event. I know I had to have some more sleep and work the night after but we all were waiting for this day. I know I was not able to get the chance to meet the master a few weeks before for fashion photography lessons (which is my passion by the way courtesy of Xander Angeles! XD) and I was getting excited of my Deedee (Nissin DI622) because this week it was going to be STROBING. Yeah I know, I have a lot to learn about this subject and the one before that so missing this one again would literally be like abandoning my craft. I made sure I get to see him this weekend even if it meant less sleep for me so I jumped out of bed and took a cold shower... got CAMMY (Mah Crumpler) and set on to go to Makati for this very important workshop.

It is all about lighting and how it could enhance our photos. It was also time to try some things I read from the XBOOK of Xander Angeles and how to take fashion and post processed photos to another level. I was inspired by his work when we got the chance to meet him Friday evening at the DPP Loaded event and if there was one thing I will do after this strobing workshop by Sir Winston, it was to make my output mostly like the magazine covers Xander does for US fashion spreads.


Here is my shot, hope it did work LOL!



We started off having discussions on how we can practically apply lighting in outdoor shoots. Our settings obviously would differ in different lighting conditions so after we got out group assignments and had our models made over we went upstairs to take some shots so we can compare notes later on about our output and the settings we did to achieve it. Sir Winston shared some advise on how to make our shots better on the extreme outdoor lights we had that afternoon. As you know, the sun was up and we were all under the sweltering heat worried about our model; and how those strobes would go off if the on cam flash was not getting detected because everything was too bright. My camera was making the best out of it since I found out my batteries just ran out. Too much thinking went into all of these but the one thing I forgot was charge my camera and get batteries for the flash! Geeze!

Anyway I already have some shots taken that afternoon. I thought I did not have enough photos for critique later on but I listened to the things he said to other photographers and learned from their mistakes as well. The direct sunlight was harsh and it needs a filler in order to have ample amount of shutter speed and stop the motion of the subject (hence no motion blur) and the aperture level would dictate how much bluer skies we want on the outdoor conditions we were in. We needed to use a smaller aperture to keep the ambient exposure constant while not sacrificing flash synchronization on a subject since distance and ISO would dictate what would happen on a flash unit that only would reach around 1/1000 rates. Going over that is not advisable so some of us were only at 1/150 +/- 5% and stayed on aperture setting that would get us a nice blue sky. Some of my shots went overboard and got too exposed in the beginning but fixed that after a couple test shots on two locations in the roof deck of Sir Winston's house. My indoor shots fared better though because I had more control on light; and experience on studio settings from my photo shoots before. I was not able to borrow a light meter this time but the setting was not that different and the adjustments were minimal since I had to only use my on board flash since Deedee went kaput on me. The others were able to use radio triggers on their cameras and take advantage of the umbrellas they brought for the occasion. I was in the end very pleased with the few pictures I had to work with in post processing. Here are some excerpts on the part where we raffled off some prizes for that shoot. Awesome DPP and FHM issues for beauty and you know what were given away by Sir Winston.. that was a treat!


Awesome Mags were given away!



And another one!



How can we forget the birthday boy Benjo Licup!



The naughty Senor!



Nikon and Canon DO NOT MIKZ!!! LOL


Overall I learned a lot and the guys did too. Some had fallen inlove with the models that day LOL while some were just around for the experience shooting with the NOCTURNALS and Sir Winston. I hope the next one is going to be big... I want extreme makeup and "totally" almost naked glamor shots. I know there maybe time for that next year! I will be there! Thank you to our awesome models Ms. Jinri Park, Ms. Rowhe Rodriguez and Ms. Rix Benares. My favorite MUA in the whole wide world Ms. Yuan Yim THANK YOU!!! Without you this would have never been a huge success! Thank you to Sir Winston too! =)



The NOCTURNALS, CitiCameraClub, Sir Winston and the models GROUP HUG!