Francis Vachon Photographe

My friend Marc-André, a candid shot taken during a friend gathering at his place
Technical: Canon EOS Mark III, 1/100 at f4,5 with a 24-70 at 64mm – ISO 800 + hand held flash on a VAL¹ with a stofen on camera right

I carry a camera almost all the time. When I go to see friends or have a coffee, I don’t bring 2 or 3 flashes, pocket wizards, and all my camera bag. I usually bring the versatile 24-70, one 550ex flash with a stofen omnibounce to diffuse the light, and the Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 to fire remotely. I can travel light, but still can take a flash off-camera and create beautiful portrait.

¹VAL: Voice Activated Lightstand. Yep, that’s a flash held by someone else that can move the flash around according to your need.

Profile photo on Konrad Sioui, Grand Chef (great chief) huron-wendat of Wendake Huron reserve (also called “Village Huron) just north of Quebec city February 17, 2009.
Technical: Canon EOS Mark III, 1/300 at f8 with a 24-70 at 70mm – ISO 200 + off camera flash on a monopod on camera right.

This is not a portrait. I could not set up off camera lights on stands but I wanted a nice off-camera flash light. So I put a flash on a monopod and followed the new Grand Chief of Wendake during a visit by two provincial ministers, underexposing the scene by a stop so the flash would make Sioui pop.

Technical: Canon EOS 1D mark II, 30 sec at f18 with a 24-70 at 67mm – ISO 100 + multiple flashes

This is my first time experimenting with a technique called “light painting”. I set-up my camera on a tripod and did a 30 second exposure. Armed with my 550ex speedlight flash in my hand, I moved around the ducks and shot a multitude of little burst of flash to light the part that I wanted. Because of the long exposure and the absence of ambient light, I could move freely inside the frame and not appears in the photo, as long as I was not staying at the same place too long.

Next time, I will bring more than one flash. The recycling time was a bummer. With two of them, I should be able to do better next time.

Those ducks are located on a bridge, separating it in two. My camera was less then a foot from the passing car. I’m a happy that no drunk driver passed by!

Drivers where probably wondering what a guy with bursts of light coming out of his hand was doing at night in the middle of a bridge!

Mastering off camera flash is great for portraits, but why stop there? This morning, I went to a press conference. The kinda-boring-guy-standing-behind-a-microphone talking-to-the-media type of press conference.

I setup a remote flash on a magic arm and a super clamp on a chair, fired thru a pocket wizard. At least, I could say that I got some nice light out of it. Super clamp and magic arm are fun. You can set them up pretty much everywhere, and you can attach a flash or a remote camera to them. The limit is your imagination!

Beaupré, February 5, 2008 – Rémy Gravel, an employee of the Beaupré AbitibiBowater pulp and paper mill, laces his skate before the hockey game involving mostly unionized mill’s employees. The mill’s 400+ employees, whose salaries are by far the main economic mainstay of this region, are right now putting together a package of cuts to their wages and benefits, as well as suggestions on how to cut production costs at the mill. Photo Francis Vachon for the Montreal Gazette.
Technical: Canon EOS 1D mark II, 1/40 at f2,8 with a 50mm prime lens- ISO 400, two remote flash (see below)

That is a photo I did this week for the Gazette to illustrate a story on the human side of the forest industry that is on a huge slump in the province right now.

The journalist suggested to take some photos of a local mill employees while they play hockey every week. The photo would be in the dressing room, before the game. Kind of hard to have a stunning photo of a bunch of guys prepping up for a hockey game, but I had to come back with something.

A hockey room is pretty boring, with bad hard light coming from above. That’s the part I could improve.

I did not want to shoot with an on-camera flash. That gives a flat and boring light, and it gives you a ugly drop shadow behind the subject.

How could I setup my remote flashes then if there was not particular guy that I needed to photograph, i.e. I could have to photograph anywhere in the room, wherever “something” was happening?

I setup two remote flash in two corners, bouncing to the wall and 45 degree up at 1/4 power. That allowed me to shoot at a low 400 ISO with a nice light. Depending of whom I was shooting, one flash was acting as the key light, and some other time the other flash did. Ideally, I would have put my flashes in opposite corner, but the configuration of this room did not allow me this.

When you look at the diagram bellow, you see that in in this particular photo, the upper left flash act as the main (key) light, and the other one fills. That is what creates the nice side light.

That is not a portfolio picture, but that’s something I was happy to show to the photo editor. Something that will ensure they will keep calling me back.

Know nothing about flash photography? You say “I prefer to shoot with ambient light” because, actually, you really don’t know how to use them? Please take 8 minutes of your time to watch this “Strobist Preliminaries” video. It is really a “flash for dummy” kind of thing.

Bert gives us another neat video of him shooting on location with two small flashes.

In the comment section of a previous post, Richard was asking:

How long does it take you to figure out ratios for this type of shot? How many test shots do you do to get to the right one? I assume that all your flashes are on Manual? Camera, too?

Well, by some kind of coincidence, Strobist just wrote a great “what is going on in my head as I take a portrait” post. Enjoy and learn!

A couple of years ago, before I knew I was going to make a living with photography, I was shooting for a small wrestling federation in my hometown of Quebec City. At that time, I was shooting with a Rebel with a kit lens, then with a 20D with a Sigma 24-70. With the Rebel, I was using the pop-up flash, and with the 20D I was using an on-camera 420ex speedlight.

Yesterday was a back in time night for me. There was a special wrestling show held by two wrestler I met at that time, and I asked them to take pictures. This time, I was going to do it with professional equipment, Strobist style.

I put 3 550ex speedlight up on the mezzanine, allowing me to have a nice light at 400 ISO, 1/250 at f2.8 (1/250 is the max sync speed for Canon). You can see the lighting diagram here.

You can compare the pictures below with my “best shot” of my early years. I think the difference is pretty obvious!

Scott Matrix gets back to the locker room at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Michael Style (right) team up with Matt Falco to give Antonio Corsi (left) some pain at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Marko Estrada watches his opponent getting back to the locker room at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008

Damian Steel (right) tries to evade a hold from Giovanni at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008

Sunny War Cloud (left) and Jake Matthews fight at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Giovanni (left) looks on his partner Sunny War Cloud (right) at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Franky The Mobster trash talks his opponent before a fight at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Titus applies a hold on Franky The Mobster at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Roderick Strong waits for his opponent at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Roderick Strong gives some pain to Marko Estrada at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

Despite loosing his match, Marko Estrada is congratulated by the crowd at the “Night of Excellence” wrestling show held at CEGEP de Limoilou January 18, 2008.

And as a little bonus: a time lapse!