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Sunflower Fields in PA

On September 9th, I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots’ meet up at Lesher's Poultry Farm Sunflower Fields in Chambersburg, PA.  This was a rare late evening shoot, so the photographer could capture a bit of the sunset, which was the thought at least.   A large storm was supposed to roll in the evening; threatening the shoot, so we ended early to beat the storm.  So, there were no sunset photos, just moody clouds.

For this session I used:

  • Canon R6
  • 2 Speed lights
  • Trigger
  • 1 Light stands
  • 24 - 105mm lens
  • Bug spray

Camera Settings:

This was an outdoor event in an open field with storm clouds rolling in.  Normally, I would keep my ISO locked at ISO100 but for some reason I was moving my ISO around a lot.  It ranged from ISO 100 to ISO 2000.  I’m thinking I might have set something up wrong on the camera, I might have had the third ring on the lens controlling ISO by accident.  But the Canon R6 has great range and the image at ISO 2000 basically looked like it was shot at ISO 100.  I’m going to have to make sure I’m not moving my ISO around in future shoots.  My aperture ranged from F4 to F20, with the most common aperture being F6.3.  Due to the eye tracking on the Canon R6, I’m becoming more comfortable with shooting at wider apertures, to get that nice blurred background.  My shutter speed ranged from 1/125s to 1/1600s with the most common speed being 1/320s.  Yes, I was using high-speed sync for a lot of the images, which is typical for outdoor shoots.

The Photos:

This was a nice sunflower field, with a good size parking lot.  However, we just missed peak bloom, so the challenge was finding groups of sunflowers that still looked perky.  The other challenge was the rapidly changing light, throughout the shoot due to the incoming storm.  I love some good moody skies, but I hate driving in heavy rain at night, so my other challenge was to get the shots and beat the storm.  I was mostly successful, as I finished shooting just as it started to drizzle and missed the heaviest of rain on my drive home.   So, with these challenges in mind let’s look at some of my favorite images.

Let’s start with a classic country girl look.  This is Lokelicious channeling Applejack from My Little Pony.  This was one of the last shots I took during the meet up as the rain was eminent and the wind was really picking up.  I was trying to blow over my light stand with a single speedlight on it.  The light stand didn’t even have a modifier on it, so it was a bit windy.  The flash was placed in the front of the model while I stood at the side.  Then during post processing, I did the basic edits of white balance, a small exposure tweak, and increasing the contrast slightly.  I also applied an orange (highlight) / blue (shadow) color grade to the image.  I used the orange/blue color grade to help simulate a sunset.  I also added a slight vignette.

ISO 1000, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/400, Focal Length 35mm

I like this next image of Kingsglaiive as Taikogane Sadamune from Touken Ranbu.  I like this image because of its overall mood, particularly the lighting on the model’s face.  For this image the flash was to my left slightly behind the model to create short Rembrandt lighting.  You can tell I have Rembrandt lighting due to the triangle of light under the model’s eye.  In post-production I did the basic edits of white balance, exposure, and contrast.  After adjustments I added a gradient mask to the left corner to eliminate a hotspot from the flash and balance the frame.  I then added a yellow (highlight) / violet (shadow) color grade.  I went with the yellow/violet color grade because it complemented nicely with the overall colors in the raw image and gives it a more earth tone. I finished the image up with a medium vignette.

ISO 320, Aperture F6.3, Shutter 1/1250, Focal Length 29mm

This final image of TechnicolorMikeB as a post-apocalyptic hunter took advantage of the dying sunflowers.  I also like how the sky adds to the overall mood of the image.  In this image the flash is to my left, perpendicular to the model.  This image is one that I edited the least, to get the look I focused on the contrast within the image.  Then used the vignette to draw attention to the model’s face. 

ISO 100, Aperture F6.3, Shutter 1/1000, Focal Length 56mm

Overall, the images from this session came out well, even though I was rushing to get through as many cosplayers as possible and beat the storm.  I would love to go back next year right before or at peak bloom, to really capture the golden glow of the sunflowers.  You can see all the final images here: Sunflower Fields.

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