Sailboat at Night - Lighting??

jonahparis · Apr 1, 2009

Hello All,

Ive been asked if I would like to photograph a large boat. One of the types of photographs needed would be of the boat at night.

My question is how I could go about capturing an image similar to the one attached. Do you think off camera flashes were used? Or perhaps some portable lighting was set up and hidden? It looks like there may be some lights set up down by the waterline.

I am exciting about this opportunity to capture the boat at night. Just hoping to do it well. I am not too concerned about shots in the day; however, night will be new territory with its potential lighting techniques.

Many thanks for any tips & tricks in making a boat come alive with lighting

Cheers
Jonah

Dao · Apr 1, 2009

Looks like there is a strong strobe mount on the pole. Look at the lens flare and the shadow of the pole and other objects.

And there maybe 2 strobes next to the camera face towards the boat. Look at the shadow of the 2 silver looking thing at the bottom of the photo. And the reflection of the objects too.

From the reflections of the boats sitting on the left and right, I will say at least one or more on each side. (notice the 2 hot spots on the left of the photo?)

Also, I will expect the shutter speed should be pretty fast to avoid motion blur due to the boat is floating on the water. And the aperture was small so that everything is in focus. Since the sky is blue, so I will assume the shot was taken during the day, not at night. (with the suspected shutter speed and aperture settings)

JerryPH · Apr 1, 2009

That's no speedlight... first of all, its not quite a night shot so lots of power from a single source is needed. A nice 800-1000 W/s or higher studio strobe powered by a battery pack tied up there will do this. That or either 5-20 higher end speedlights.

One could also wrap up a lot of single colour (or multi-colour) string lights (Christmas lights?) at night.

One of the signs of an experienced photographer is the ability to adapt. Most would look at this and not be sure what the results would be, but where the experience comes in is with the question of "what to do next to reach my goal".

To do that, all one has to do is analyze the current result and compare it to your desires and come up with a solution that either brings you closer or gets you what you want.

tsaraleksi · Apr 1, 2009

I'd think that this could be a cool opportunity to use light painting to get the glow around the waterline, etc, with strobes mixed in for some of it, but you'd have to figure out how to compensate for boat movement.

jonahparis · Apr 1, 2009

Thanks for all this input.

I just called the Captain of the boat who was present when the photographer was taking the photos.

He remembered on person using a flashlight to paint the light onto the scene. He also said they redid the shot a number of times.

I ask about the lights by the waterline, and he said he believes those were lights from the boat itself.

Sounds like he was taking note of there work as he was interested.

I imagine if one uses a flashlight to paint light on to the scene, one would want to use a broad pattern and a bit diffused. Any particular type of bulb to use for color temp?

All and all sounds like to possibilities are broad for ingenuity and creativity. There is not not necessarily a right and wrong answer.

Changsha · Apr 14, 2009

Looks to me that the light source was high on the mast, possibly a mast head light, a deck light or some other light source. Look at the shadows from the mast and the other deck structures. The main light source is clearly from above. This shot was not taken at night but at dusk, look at the clouds in the distance. I believe it was a long exposure with the camera mounted on the bow pulpit or on a tri-pod at the very front of the bow. Good night shots require even lighting no matter what the source. Good luck with your shot.