mario_marchadesch Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Hello to everyone, I'm from the Philippine Islands. This is the month of the MASSKARA festival in Negros Island. I am planning the take photos of the street dancing competition where the participants wear colorful masks and costumes. The event is usually held in the streets and at early evening. My question: Has anybody seen the photos of David Allen Harvey (Magnum, Nat geographic) of the carnival in brazil? The shots were taken at night though with bright lights flooding the event site. His shots seemed like slow shutter type with flash and the background fairly to nicely lighted with good depth. Also, the foreground subjects looked illuminated with a colored falsh. Can somebody help me with a technique (shutter speed, aperture, film, flash setting and accessory) to achieve a similar result? I own an EOS 5 and a Cobra 700af flash. Thanks in advance... Mario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smdeep Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Hi Coincidentally I saw the program on David Allen Harvey this morning on National Geographic. He was using a Leica with flash. With your Canon you can use fill flash. Shutter speed should obviously be flash sync speed or lower. I do not know anything about your specific Flash gun. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markci Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Just set your camera to manual and meter normally. Probably your expsure will come out to half a second or a second or something. That's what you want for motion. Leave your flash on TTL. Experiment with different shutter speeds and different amounts of flash compensation. Film choice is up to you. Since you want long shutter speeds you don't need fast film. This sort of effect is not hard. Harvey uses a very simple camera and a small manual flash unit. If he uses a colored gel on his flash it's probably a warming gel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallik Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Here is what I would recommend. Use a slow shutter speed of 1/15 or 1/30. This will allow you to go for smaller apertures for greater depth of field. Set the aperture to something like f8 or even f11. Due to greater depth field the background subjects are also clearly visible giving that carnival effect. The fill flash (with the TTL) will help light up the foreground object, and help in freezing motion. The background subjects are mostly lit with strong external lighting available that will also tend to give a color cast to the whole scene. Balance is, if you can, Photoshop editing. Hope that helps. Don't forget to post your photos and let us know after the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_marchadesch Posted October 19, 2003 Author Share Posted October 19, 2003 Thank you very much for your responses! Mind you, I will do this come carnival day, and hope to take great pics. I will post a picture once possible. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_chananie Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 I was looking at Harvey's pictures from Soul Divided which are available at the digital journalist site. It seemed one of his techniques was to use a wide angle lens, have something large and extraneous in the foreground, and have the real subject matter sharply focused in the background. Another technique was to silhouette people against a bright colored background. Are these right, or did I miss the mark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander_m. Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Check out this! http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0208/feature5/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twmeyer Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I'm bettin' he uses wide angle optics and the flash on a cord. This lets him pre-focus to whatever and hold the flash to the side... t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_duckett Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Mario, I like the work of David Allen Harvey, and William Albert Allard also and they both have a similar style. When you are using flash you are actually making a double exposure. Part of the exposure is created by the flash, and part by the ambient light. Your aperture controls the distance & intensity of the "flash", and your shutter controls the amount of ambient light. The longer you drag the shutter the more ambient light you will have. What you need to do is to find a balance between the too. I don't know your equipment, but I can tell you what works for me. I shoot both Nikon, & Leica, and this works with both systems so I think that it will work for you too, but you should test it on a test subject to get a feel for it, and this is for shooting in low light conditions. Using 400 ISO negative film, I set my camera to manual mode and set the aperture to f5.6. I set the shutter as close as I can to get proper exposure at f5.6. say 1/8th, 1/15th sec or 1/30th sec. If you can set your flash/camera to "Rear curtain sync" this will allow the flash to fire just before the shutter closes. At these slow shutter speeds any movement exposed by ambient light will be a blur or trail of light, but your flash will freeze the subject when it fires. Here are some other things to keep in mind: f5.6 will give you good flash exposure from a distance of about 2 meters to 4 or 5 meters, if your subject is closer you will need to stop down to f8 or 11, and if your subject is farther away you will need to open up to f4 or 2.8. When I am close (2 meters or less) I use a "stofen bouncer", at 45 degrees to soften the light from the flash. I am not familiar with your gear. These settings work for me, but you may need to adjust it to your system. Most of the time I am handholding the camera. I have traveled to the Philippines on 5 occasions, mostly in Cebu, but also Bohol, Mindanao, and Manila. I would post a photo but I don't know how to post one... Good luck on your shoot! Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smdeep Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 HiSeems to be David Allen Harvey week on National Geographic in India. Just saw the program again. No, Tom he does not use off camera flash. I think the established photographers break all the rules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew_somerset1 Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 That should be telling you something about the "rules." There's nothing wrong with on-camera flash. There's something wrong with the incompetent use of on-camera flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_marchadesch Posted October 22, 2003 Author Share Posted October 22, 2003 Mr. Alexander! you da man! the URL showed exactly what I want to achieve (feeling the beat picture). Thanks for pointing me to the page. It even had the camera settings of Mr. Harvey. Mr. Paul, thank you for your very detailed technique. I have some pictures back from the lab, and I missed out on what I wanted. I had clear, sharp, pics but all stopped by a fast shutter. I guess I wanted to come home with useable pics and decided to go with the sure technique. I had no time to experiment. Oh well, I'll prepare beforehand next time.... Thanks to all... Mario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_harvey1 Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Thanks all for your comments on my work. I'm am David Allen Harvey and a professional photographer living in Tucson Arizona. I am not a Magnum photographer but have done work for Nat Geographic. Although I'm flattered by your praise I'm sure you are not speaking about me - but rather David Alan Harvey. As a member of the National Press Photographers Association I and he would just like to remind everyone of the old adage - "I don't care what you say about me - but for God sacks - spell my name right!" David Alan Harvey and David Allen Harvey both appreciate it. :=) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_marchadesch Posted October 24, 2003 Author Share Posted October 24, 2003 Mr. Allen Harvey I'm sorry for the "misspell". Thanks for pointing that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd frederick Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Every photographer has his or her own style. Trying to learn somthing about the big Pros techinques is good, but try to develop you own style. When I was your age we tried to copy Alfred Eisensteadt, W. Eugene Smith, H.C. Bresson, and others...ever hear about these guys? How about Imogen Cunningham, Margaret Bourke White, Edward Weston, and such. Those were our heros, in the pre and post 1950's. What I am saying is that it's great to learn from the pros, take workshops, but...be spontaneous and develop your own style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellis_vener_photography Posted October 25, 2003 Share Posted October 25, 2003 One of David Alan Harvey's technique rules is to carry very minimal gear : no big zooms mounted on the camera and no big heavy bag of gear slung over his shoulder. He usually works with either a 28mm or 35mm lens and uses Velvia. the goal is to work as inconspicuously as possible. Carrying a lot of gear is a great way to make yourself stand out and distract yourself from what you are there for: making photographs. Works for him but might not work for you. there are lots of ways to skin a cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_atherton9 Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 Harvey does indeed work with very minimal equipment - literally, one leica M and a couple of lenses and a very simple Vivitar type flash, Velvia and sometimes Provia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_atherton9 Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 What he one told me was: "i use only leica m-6's....and only three lenses 35,28 and rarely the 50(my long lens).....90% of the pictures in the cuba book were shot with the 35 lens and i can think of only one published photograph with the 50.....all photographs on cuba were shot on velvia ..not pushed....my 35 is the 1.4 aspherical so i can make anything work...i do not own a light meter (other than in the camera) or a tripod.....a small $35. vivitar amateur flash is my only supplementary light which i leave on automatic ( i know exactly what it will do)...i believe the less equipment i use, the more freedom i have to concentrate on the subjects/the photographs....i do have backup m-6 bodies in case of theft or mechanical failure, but am usually cruising the streets with just one body with the 35, and an extra lens (28) in my backpack cheers etc....dave ..p.s. no i don't have any other equipment stashed in my room...in my earlier professional days i worked with nikons, but even then i was a relative minimalist....24, 35, 105, and sometimes the 180......i only went to nikons when i started shooting color for geographic (because of the built in meters) ..... i had always used leicas for black & white but didn't feel it was a good color camera for me until the m-6 was developed ( i never liked hand held meters for street photography) ..... i have been using the all leica approach since 1986 ......... creating a personal style was always the most important thing for me even as a teenager........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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