Color of the night

A recent shot made while visiting an associated studio in Surat Thani, southern Thailand, the lovely and vibrant Spectrum Café Studio.   

The shot was made as a small demonstration for the fan club of the Spectrum Café Studio which is among the largest and most comprehensive camera and studio equipment distributor and an installation of a nice photographic studio, combine with photo-lab, coffee shop and light meals.

The shot was set up right in front of Spectrum, using simple equipment and lighting – available street light and shoe-mounted flash gun.  I made this shot using my Canon 5DII and EF 35/1.4L, with 580EX-II.  

To make the otherwise rather common street looked more dramatic, a few set up and preparation was made, such as the position of the bike to allow the model pose to her advantage, a car parked roughly 10 meters behind the bike to turn on the head-lamp adding some lighting to the scene, splash water nearby the bike so it reflects the light coming from behind, using slow shutter speed to allow some light painting from the passing cars, as well as create a nice light balance of the dark night, street and surrounding.  The main subject – the model and the bike, was lit by the she-mount flash.  My Canon 5DII was set to manual, ISO 200, EF 35/1.4L close down to f/4.0 for the proper image sharpness and a little background blur, shutter speed 0.3s, using E-TTL while reduce the output of the flash by 2/3 stop.