Curated Lighting

Salwan Georges for The New York Times. 2026-04027

I took this image from a New York Times article. I don't remember the event, but it caught my attention because of the care the camera crew took in creating lighting suitable for a television spot on the evening news. Amid the forest of light stands I can see two "spot" lights and two "broad" light sources. They appear to be in a cross-light configuration. What really caught my eye was the large translucent umbrella that minimizes the effects of direct sunlight on our reporter's head. I also noticed the cord that was used to help counter-balance the boom holding the umbrella. In the past I would have used a sandbag to carefully counterbalance whatever was mounted on the far end of the boom, but this method could make it much easier. This doesn't eliminate all the problems associated with hanging an accent light on the boom, but makes them more manageable. 

 A light modifier that I haven't used often enough is the Lumiquest Softbox III, although I often had one neatly folded and stored in my camera bags. I preferred to use a shoot-through umbrella, but I have had them damaged when the wind decided to blow them over. The Softbox III has a  much smaller cross section and is less likely to be carried away. I did have some problems keeping it mounted on the flash head, and finally added adhesive Velcro strips directly to the flash, and finally securing it with a Velcro strip that cinched around the mounting tabs like a belt. 

I was invited to photograph a shooting event sponsored by an18th century historical reenacting club and decided to experiment with a portable lighting setup. Instead of my usual translucent umbrella, I went with the Lumiquest because its small profile was less likely to be blown over by the wind. I mounted it on a Manfrotto compact light stand and went to find some action.

This photo gives you an idea of how the lights tand was positioned. Once a proper exposure was determined, I could position the light in a variety of positions as long as I maintained the seven-foot distance between the light and the subject. The height was set just below my subject's eye level so I could get some light under the brim of his hat. The flash was angled upwards so it wouldn't cast a second shadow on the ground. Once the light stand had been positioned, I had plenty of time to position/reposition the light, so I frequently made quick test exposures. I started out with the sun behind my subject, hoping to highlight the smoke that followed the shot. Because the distance between the flash and the subject was unchanged, I was able to make a variety of photos without further adjustment.

I started with a backlit shot with the hopes of highlighting the smoke. It did work, but the depth of the shadows on my subject's shirt betrays my flash's presence. Another flash could have been added to brighten up the shadows on my subject's back, but that's getting to be a bit much, even for me.

One shortcoming of this photo came in the form of a bright highlight on the side of the rifle. It happens that the barrel had its flat side reflected the light from the flash with mirror-line precision. It could have been eliminated by a different light stand location, but that's something to keep in mind for a future shot.

While the shooter was preparing his equipment for his next shot, I took the light stand and placed it on the same side of my subject as the sun. Here the light was used to brighten up the shadows a bit, and if you look at the shadow cast by his right wrist, you can see that the light was again set at my subject's eye level, and positioned beyond the right edge of the frame. It is more natural looking, almost even, but the shadow regions have a little more detail in them.

Two variations on the technique were selected for used as the club's website banner. If you look at the first image, you can see there are some consequences to pointing the softbox a little too high, while in the lower image it was probably pointed too low. I did get the dramatic lighting on the smoke set off by the dark trees in the background in both shots, which was my intent all along.

Updating An Old Technique

One Big Umbrella: In 2015 I had great success using a Westcott 7' Parabolic Umbrellas on a photo assignment in San Mateo's Japanese Garden. By placing the shoot-through umbrella in a path of the morning sun, I was able to produce an enormous softbox effect with no flash enhancements. 

Parabolic umbrellas were all the rage back then, as they supposedly provided the photographer with a more efficient design to concentrate the light more effectively. The dream was that speedlight users could get more "bang for your buck" when using their little flashes. While skeptical, I bought two, one shoot-through and one with a silver reflective interior, and decided to see if the hype was true. Right out of the gate I found the umbrellas difficult to control even in the most gentle of breezes. After some experimentation, I determined that the best way to secure the umbrella was to use two light stands clamped as far apart as the umbrella shaft would allow. While stable, I need a bunch of sandbags to keep them from swaying. Certainly it was effective, but so darn clumsy.

The only way this could be made to work (legally) in a public venue was to have Cissie hold the umbrella aloft on a monopod and  manually align the umbrella for maximum effect. I hope you'll agree that it was worth the effort, and I still consider this photo shoot one of my best efforts. As lovely as the shot was, I couldn't help but think that proper exposure for my subjects resulted in an overexposed background. Nobody has ever commented on it, but I know it's there, and find it very bothersome.

Fast forward to 2026. The assignment was to photograph the District Manager for California Water Service Bayshore District. (Cal Water). I knew Cal Water had a new facility just two blocks from where I used to work, and since there was an inner lot for storing emergency vehicles and equipment, I suggested that we make the shot with an outdoor background. I had scheduled the shoot for early to take advantage of the breezeless morning air, so I pulled my mega-umbrellas from storage and brought them, along with two twelve-foot light stands in case they both were needed. 

It was about 9:15 in the morning, and the air was relatively still. Ross, my subject, suggested that we lay out the contents of a typical "go bag", and use the San Mateo "Water Wagon" as a background. As luck would have it, the morning sun illuminated the wagon perfectly.

I started out by mounting the translucent white  umbrella on a light stand and aligning it to produce the largest possible shadow on the ground. You can see the shadow of a second light stand that was used to hold my speedlight key light. Notice that the props are placed well within the edges of the shadow. I purposely left a gap between the trailer tires and the far edge of the shadow (below left).

Next I positioned my subject so that his entire body is within the shadow. Notice that the fill lighting from the shoot through umbrella is very even, but a bit underexposed when compared to the background (above right).

This final shot was made with a small Lumiquest Softbox mounted on a lightstand about two feet to camera right. This gave the subject some three dimensionality and added some sparkle to the supplies in the foreground. His right foot has now been positioned within the shadow provided by the umbrella. If necessary, the umbrella could be moved slightly, but it is so much easier to position the umbrella and arrange everything else.

This technique can also be applied to making a headshot where the background needs to be handled differently. Had a head shot been required (sample, left), I could have used a smaller aperture (the shutter is set to 1/250 of a second (the fastest convention flash synchronization speed) and the key light moved closer to the subject to brighten the subject without any other adjustments. 

Never Let The See You Sweat: Behind the scenes there was a bit of unseen drama. My flash trigger failed to communicate with my key light, so I was forced to switch for the key light's radio receiver to an optical trigger which would be triggered by a shoe mounted speedlight. Some position changes had to be made, but once all of the adjustments were made, the session went smoothly. It turns out it was a depleted battery issue, and instead of changing them out, it was faster to revert to the optical mode. All this was done while keeping up the chatter on how well the session was going, while under my breath I occasionally muttered,  "That's odd".

Elapsed time from first test exposure (8:18 AM) to the last photo (8:31 AM) was 13 minutes.

 It was a good day.