Shooting on the Beach with LitePanels

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	There are many things to consider when you leave the studio to shoot portraits outside: weather, time of day, and the background to name but a few. In this lesson we will show you how you can take the control you have in the studio with you on location. By using the Photoflex LitePanel system, you can alleviate many of the frustrating factors that location shooting can present.
In just a few moments you can singlehandedly set up a LitePanel shooting room and take control of the location rather than letting the location control you. (Most images can be clicked for an enlarged view.)

Topics Covered:

Assembling an Outdoor Shooting Tent
Adjusting the Tripod for Low Angle Shots
Programming the Camera Settings
Using LitePanels for Fill
Balancing Light Outdoors

Equipment Used:

Camera/Media

Lighting Equipment

We got an early start for our day at the beach. We wanted to get our shots while our main light, the sun, was low in the sky, so we arrived just after sunrise.

While we wanted the sun to light our set, we did not want the harsh shadows that you get from shooting in direct sunlight. Our answer to this was to build a shooting tent with three Photoflex 77x77" LitePanel Frames. Two frames will have Translucent Fabric coverings for diffusing the sunlight. This will result in a nice, soft light for our portraits. One frame will have a reflective White/Gold Fabric for bouncing sunlight back into our subjects for our fill light.

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows our model standing in direct sunlight. The contrast is much too harsh for a portrait. The shooting tent will diffuse the sunlight resulting in much softer lighting and more pleasing shadows.

The LitePanel shooting tent consists of three 77x77" LitePanel Frames connected together with Connector Clips. The top and sun-facing LitePanels are covered with white Translucent covers. The third is covered with the reflective cover of your choice, for our set up we chose the White/Gold (figure 2).

Figure 2

Figures 3 and 4 show our model standing inside our shooting tent.


Figure 3	Figure 4

The light is greatly diffused and the shadows are much softer as a result of using the shooting tent (figure 5).

Figure 6 shows a comparison of the two lighting situations.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Assembling the Outdoor Shooting Tent

The shooting tent is easy to construct. The following steps show how we constructed our shooting tent with Photoflex 77x77" LitePanels.

Figure 7

Here is how we built our LitePanel tent.

The first thing we did was set up two 2218 LiteStands about 77� apart (figure 7).

Figure 8

Next we put together the first of the LitePanel frames and layed it down next to the light stands (figure 8).

To attach the LitePanel to the stands, we attached a Main and T Clamp to the top of each of the light stands (figures 9 and 10).


Figure 9	Figure 10

Next we stood up the first LitePanel and attached it to the Main & T-Clamps (figures 11 and 12).


Figure 11	Figure 12

Figure 13

Our next step was to cover the first frame. This frame would be the sun-facing section, so we attached the first of the white translucent covers (figures 13 - 15).


Figure 14	Figure 15

Figure 16

To set up the second 77x77" LitePanel we followed the same procedure as the first. We placed the two light stands about 77� from the assembled section, then put together the LitePanel and attached it to the Main & T-Clamps (figure 16).

Figure 17

The second LitePanel would be the fill on our set, so we attached the White/Gold cover to it (figures 17 - 19).


Figure 18	Figure 19

Figure 20

The LitePanels are designed to work well in windy situations because the covers are attached only at the corners to allow the air to flow around and through them with out knocking them over. This being said, it�s still a good idea to to secure the shooting tent by placing Weightbags on each of the light stands to reduce the chance of mishaps (figure 20).

Figure 21

Next we prepared the two assembled LitePanels for the roof. We attached Connector Clips (two for stability) to the top side of each of the LitePanels (figures 21 - 23).


Figure 22	Figure 23

Next, we set up the third LitePanel in-between the set up sections (figures 24 - 26).

Figure 24


Figure 25	Figure 26

Figure 27

With the third LitePanel put together and resting on the ground we attached the second white translucent cover (figures 27 - 29).


Figure 28	Figure 29

Figure 30

To attach the roof of the shooting room we lifted one side of the third LitePanel and clipped it into the connector clips on the top of the first LitePanel. We then brought up the other side and attached the rest of the clips (figures 30 - 32).


Figure 31	Figure 32

Figure 33

When our shooting tent was erected, all we needed do now was arrange it properly to the track of the sun across the set.

We set up the tent with the translucent panel to camera left due to the track of the sun at our location. We made some minor adjustments to square off the stands and we were set (figure 33).

Our next step for this shot was to set up the Manfrotto 055MF3 tripod with the Manfrotto 322RC2 Grip Action Ballhead. For this shot we needed the camera to be low as our subjects would be sitting on the beach. We decided to use the side mount feature, which allowed us to lower the camera nicely for the required low angle shot (figure 34).

For information about how to side mount this tripod, click HERE.

Figure 34

We need to program the camera settings before we begin shooting. The exposure mode should be set to M for Manual (figure 35). Manual will allow us to choose the aperture and shutter speed of our choice. Keep in mind that we will want a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of the waves in the background.

We set the reamaining camera settings to the following:

White Balance to Daylight (5500K)
Resolution to TIFF
Focus to Manual
ISO to 100.

Figure 35

We manually set our aperture to f/6.3. This is a standard aperture setting for portraits. At f/6.3, the background will record sharp enough to be recognizable, yet soft enough to provide a nice separation between the subject and the background.

We made a couple of test exposures and established our best exposure's shutter speed to be 1/320 second. This is a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the waves.

Figure 36

Our next step was to set up a 39x72" LitePanel Frame, to be placed in front of the shooting room to bounce some extra light into the models' faces. Once the frame was assembled, we installed a White/Soft Gold Fabric cover with the white side out. We then attached the LitePanel to a LiteStand with a Main & T-clamp (figures 36-40).


Figure 37	Figure 38


Figure 39	Figure 40

Now we were ready to start shooting. We called our models to the set and posed them, we set the camera into position and shot our first exposures. Figure 41 shows the results before adding the 39x72" fill.

Figure 41

Figure 42

Our shot looked OK, the balance of the foreground and background looked good but we wanted the 39x72" LitePanel to bounce more light into the subjects (figure 42).

This result shows the effect the fill has on the subjects. The shot was much better with the extra LitePanel, our balance was right on (figure 43).

Figure 43

Here in this comparison you can see the shot before and after the fill was added (figures 44 and 45).


Figure 44	Figure 45

With our shooting tent and fill set up we could shoot away, the following are some samples from the shoot (figure 46).

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Figure 46

Arranging the LitePanels into this shooting tent can help to give you the controls you have in the studio without having to be in the studio. After all, wouldn't you rather be at the beach?