A (Fairly) Supermoon
Back in November 2016, there was talk of a "Supermoon" that would be rising for a few nights. I, along with every other person on the planet, decided to take photos.
As I remember it, the moon was supposed to be at its largest on Monday, November 14. Perfect! The restaurant I work at is closed on Mondays so I set up a shoot for that night. I met up with a model but the moon was obscured by clouds. We still shot but I didn't get what I was looking for; something that communicated the brilliance of the moment. We waited until it started raining and eventually decided to call it a night.
I figured that would be it; I missed my shot. The next night I went in to work planning to be there until close but it wound up being a slow night and I was cut within a few hours. I got in my car and started on my way home when I saw it; a massive moon rising above the horizon. I called up Mandee, pictured above, "are you available, like, um... right now?"
Fortunately for me, the answer was yes and we both made our way to a local reservoir. I arrived first and set my camera up on a tripod. I took a long exposure, in this case 10 seconds, and waited for Mandee to show up.
She arrived a few minutes later with a friend which was fortunate because he became a light stand. I set up a Canon 600EX-RT on a stand with a 30"X30" Lastolite Ezybox to camera right and had her friend hold an undiffiused 430EX iii-RT on camera left to act as a rim light. I actually had him cup his hand around the flash so that it wouldn't create any lens flare (I have better tools for that now). Both lights are positioned in front of the model aimed down at her.
I took another 10 second second exposure, this time with the camera focused on Mandee rather than to infinity and with the lights helping to expose the foreground. The lights imprint her in the frame so that she remains sharp in spite of the long exposure, the rim light details her shape while the main light exposes her and splashes light on the ground around her.
The reason for the long exposure is that there should be a balance between the light coming from the strobes and the ambient light. If the lit subject is much more exposed than their environment, the photo will look unnatural and awkward which why I think a lot of people stay away from flash. My approach is to start by taking what I think is a "good" exposure without flash and then using the flash to pump in a little extra light where I want to highlight a subject. To expose correctly and maintain detail without cranking up the ISO, you need a slow shutter speed.
Even though we didn't exactly shoot at peak supermoon hours, I was happy with the results. Afterward, I took the initial long exposure sans-Mandee and the shot with her into Photoshop and did some masking to keep detail in both the foreground and the background of the photo.
Equipment: Canon 6D, Canon EF28mm f/1.8 USM, Canon ST-E3-RT, Canon 600EX-RT, Canon 430EX iii-RT, Lastolite 30"x30" Ezybox Softbox, Light Tripod, Unsuspecting Young Adult
