The Story Behind My Profile Picture

Believe it or not, this picture was taken at around noon time, under the bright, blazing, hot sun. One has to wonder what does it take to create this picture. A lot apparently… but with some resources, know-how, and creativity, you can also achieve similar results.

I am very honored to have this picture taken by one of the most internationally acclaimed photographer, Louis Pang. It was during Louis’ workshop I attended last year, when I was asked to pose for this shot.

Louis was demonstrating to us the use of high-speed flash synchronization, or high-speed sync. High-speed sync allows the flash to fire light pulses for the duration of your camera’s shutter curtain. To the naked eye, this burst of light “appears” to be one flash of light. This allows syncing with the camera’s shutter speed when it is set faster that the normal flash sync speed, which is usually around 1/250 sec.

Here is a behind-the-scene look of the set.

Courtesy of Louis Pang

It looks like a lot of things going on, but let me break it down for you. In front of the model (that’s me) is the key/main light. As we are shooting under the sun, we used 3 speedlights to “overpower” the sun. To add depth, a couple more speedlights at each side in the back were used to bring out the red color of the container. These flashed were zoomed in to give it direction. Another one right behind me to provide a rim light effect, to create separation and gives the picture its three dimensional qualities. That’s a total of 6 speedlights! And once all the setting are dialed-in, all that is left to do is for me to pose for the shot! And by the way, a special mention to my support team, the two guys who held on to the crates where i’m standing to make sure it doesn’t collapse.

So that’s it. The end result or the “money shot” ended up as my profile picture for my website. And what an experience and learning indeed! The combination of technology, creativity, and understanding of light gives you limitless possibilities to take a picture. It certainly opens up your mind to all sorts of ways to use light… as long as you understand how it works.