About the Image

This was shot in the German National Forest just outside of Zingst, Germany which is a lovely town situated on the Baltic Sea and is almost the most northern part of Germany. For several years, 9 years so far, I have been invited to teach lighting for fashion, lifestyle & portraits at the largest photo festival in Zingst in late May to early June. They typically have 28,000 people attending the photo festival during the May-June time frame. I decided I wanted to shoot some portraits there in the forest.

While I was out & about scouting with Emiliano, my lead assistant in Europe, one of my photography equipment sponsors called, Sunbounce, and asked if we could meet at the main hotel for the opening ceremonies. I said of course & we both went.

While I was there I saw the gentleman above, Heinz Teufel, who is a well known photographer and he actually started the Zingst photo festival years ago. I asked Emiliano if after the event if he would go to translate for me because I wanted to shoot a portrait of him. As it turned out Heinz spoke very good English and agreed to meet that afternoon. Emiliano speaks his native language of Italian, plus English, almost good as I do, and German, so he is really handy to have in Europe.

I used a strobe with a grid spot on it to keep some of the stray light from striking Heinz. I wanted most of the light hitting the Sunbounce reflector. This would give me a real soft light on Heinz's right side and be a really nice fill light.

Note: Some of the strobe light hit Heinz, you can see a shadow on his left side jacket.

About 2 days later, when I was at another function, Heinz came over and shook my hand while just gushing on how great the photo was and that I have completely changed his image. I though I was not going to get my hand back, he was very pleased.

See BTS photos below.

Feel free to share: stpvd.com/25/15

The Gear:
Canon camera, ISO 50, 1/125 second and a 200mm lens set at f2

The Light:
Ambient mixed with:
Lumedyne battery powered strobe system using a hard reflector w/a grid spot and is the main light,
California Sunbounce Pro sized reflector, white side used for fill light - See BTS photos below to see the setup.

The ability to use a reflector for fill light is much better and faster than using another strobe for fill. If you wanted to use a strobe for fill, you would need to setup another light stand, another strobe pack, another head, inside a softbox to get the same result.

The Sunbounce reflector is faster to setup and use. And, using a grip head and boom stick, can be setup and not need an assistant holding it. It is faster with an assistant however.

BTS below.

We are based in Los Angeles, California, Atlanta, Georgia, both in the USA, & Milan, Italy, and serve the nation and travel worldwide for projects, both video and stills. On average we travel 175 days a year from all over the USA, to Singapore to Japan, Europe and the Middle East. We are normally in Europe 2 or 3 times a year, mostly Italy and Germany, shooting for clients there.

If you would like to use this image, or any of my images for mock or comp use, please just ask. There is never a charge for this service. Educational use is permitted without charge, unless published, but please ask first. All commercial use is available only with a limited copyright release prior to use from the copyright holder, Steve Thornton. Thanks for looking!