Going Medieval

A blacksmith at work. The scene was created by the production company Kompani Bastard.

I was at the Liseberg amusement par yesterday. While my son enjoyed the rides, I was more interested in the medieval market. I liked the way it was done, with a lot of attention to detail.

When you are in the audience, you can't control the light as you would on a real shoot. I had to stick to a single flash. I could not position it the way I wanted, so I left it on my camera.

Even with these limitations, there is a lot you can do:

• Bounce the flash! The tent had a white ceiling, so I used it to bounce the light from the flash.
• If you want to shoot a scene from the dark ages, particularly, a night scene, don't make it too bright! I used 1/8-1/4 power. This was enough for me to light the scene at 1/60s, f/6.3, and ISO 320, but it still left some ambient light. The ambient light was important, because it created the mood for the scene.
• Color the light! Since this was a forge, I used a 1/2 CTO gel on the flash to warm the light.
• Post process! In post, I reduced the glare from the bare flash. I simply cropped away some reflections, and burned (darkened) the brightest surfaces. I also cloned out some objects at the edge of the frame.
• Take lots of different pictures! Even though I just walked by this scene, I shot more than a dozen pictures. If it had been a real shoot, I would have shot a couple of hundred, or more.

Now, go out, shoot, and have fun!