Leaving space for creativity

Albert Pedrosa
Photo Mania

OKAY, I have to admit. I’m not an ambient light guy. I can’t survive a shoot without my strobes in the set. Of course, if you bring your strobes, then you’ll need to bring along the modifiers. When there are strobes, there’s a light stand, booms, reflector holder and the rest. Don’t forget the tripod and light meter.

My standard equipment for a regular shoot normally weighs over 50 kilos and I have mastered the loading and unloading sequence in my trunk. The position of my equipment where all spaces are covered is a result of many years of frustration and luck.

Lately, I have acquired some equipment here and there, and it seems that my backseat now has regular takers. I always have this fear that I might need something and it’s not available and I will have to settle with what I have.

This is the same reason why I always do a site inspection before we do the shoot. I don’t want to be helpless and be on the spot because I didn’t plan ahead. I know that this fear is the one that’s pulling me back and limiting my creativity.

Don’t get me wrong. Planning is a very important part of any shoot. But you have to agree with me that a planned shot also limits the possibilities because you tend to be in a secured and controlled environment. You won’t risk jumping into uncharted spaces because you don’t know if you’ll end up with something.

Recently, I’ve been practicing myself not to lock all details and leave some creative space for me to work out. I didn’t check the site and carried just a few light sources and a couple of modifiers. It was difficult the entire shoot but I know that If I stay in my comfort zone, I’d suppress my creativity.

In one of my shoots, I froze. All the noise in the set when we started was now reduced into a deafening tone. I can’t get my lights to work the way I wanted it to come out. I didn’t have my modifiers with me. Everybody was waiting for my instruction. I was pressing the shutter button just to get it going while I thought.

I knew I had to get out of the situation and try to spark some creative ways to get the shoot back on track. I wanted to take five and rethink the concept again but we were also short of time. At the back of my head I was thinking, this is what you get when you don’t plan. I refused to ask for a reshoot and tried to force myself to think.

In the end, I got out of the situation in one piece. I tried walking around finding a way to fill up the background with available light and help me work on my hair light as well. I angled my strobe almost 70 degrees on the side so as not to light the background and only the subject.

Since I increased my ISO, I have to reduce my strobe, so I tried covering it with paper. To reduce contrast, I turned on the auto light optimizer in my camera and set it to high. The journey of Photography is a never ending learning. Keep on shooting everyone!

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