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My eldest daughter and I went out one evening with an idea to take a few images at night (in a cemetery). We took one flash (a Nikon SB-900) and a shoot through umbrella (although we weren't exactly planning to use it like a normal shoot through diffuser).

The general plan was to have her stand somewhere with some environmental interest and hold the umbrella like one would normally hold an umbrella in the rain. I'd then arrange to sort of shoot the flash into the umbrella and hopefully shroud her in light with the diffused and reflected light from the umbrella also bouncing out into the environment.

Things didn't exactly go to plan but with this first experiment we've got a few ideas for next time we try something like this

I first started with the relatively narrow aperture (f/9) and a fastish shutter (1/125) and took a number of shots which faded to darkness very quickly - I liked this simple image the best



then I opted for a wider aperture and a long exposure (many seconds) with rear curtain flash in an attempt to drag in some ambient exposure and hopefully the flash would freeze my subject and umbrella. During the long exposure I also did a touch of quick light painting to light some of the environment on the left and right

Always good to see people experimenting. Thanks also for the description of how you went about it Rodney.

I like the first one. But, have you thought of
getting rid off those little lights next to the
subject and turn the shot into a square format?

Good experimentation. Next time, instead of a shoot through brolly, try a reflective brolly to bounce back more light. With a black outer skin to the brolly, it will also shroud the jape of the brolly giving more mystery as to the light source.

Stay out of the cemetry at night! Weird things happen there.

zafra52 wrote:I like the first one. But, have you thought of getting rid off those little lights next to the subject and turn the shot into a square format?

The lights are just the edges of the headstone/cross being heavily backlit by the flash (I was hiding it behind the stone) - I did think of a more square crop but I liked the huge negative space

Reschsmooth wrote:Good experimentation. Next time, instead of a shoot through brolly, try a reflective brolly to bounce back more light. With a black outer skin to the brolly, it will also shroud the jape of the brolly giving more mystery as to the light source.

Thanks - I don't have a reflective brolly but I might invest in one.

Next time however I'm thinking of lighting it (the brolly) from above (maybe with a zoomed flash or my softbox even) - sort of like strong beams of light coming down from the sky and see what that does (hopefully lighting my subject well as well as putting her in a pool of light on the ground)

Matt. K wrote:Stay out of the cemetry at night! Weird things happen there

don't they ever - it was pitch black by the time we got there (I believe it was a new moon) and in a country town there isn't a lot of ambient light - definitely intend on going earlier (before sunset) next time I try this

Hi Rodney, this is nice concept and it's great that you have willing (and trained) subjects!

I can't see the cemetery in these images but I guess the ambient/painted effect wasn't enough.

Remorhaz wrote:(hopefully lighting my subject well as well as putting her in a pool of light on the ground)

Mr bean style?