I relish the challenge of a tricky client brief … in this case, a shoot for a golf advert. Evening conditions, action based, recognisable skyline, branding … the works and all quite manageable save the shooting being requirement at dusk. Freezing action in low light conditions without cracking the ISO into insane numbers is generally a no go.

The alternative? Bring in a steady tripod and break the image down into separate elements; shooting at low shutter speed to bring in ambient light for the non-moving elements like the foreground and skyline then bringing in fill in flash to light up the darker parts. Next, freeze the action with the use of lights, in this case battery powered Profoto studio heads with narrow beam reflectors. Additional flash heads placed around the image successfully light up the background trees and the foreground green. The last step involves bracketing the individual layers to allow choice and to later save time in Photoshop balancing the general light theme.

Once the client was happy with the main image, I wanted to take advantage of the same light scenario to shoot some additional material. Any excuse for a little play. I put on my long 300m lens, came in on a low angle to catch some of the background street light and shot the following image. Not a bad shot for a little extra effort.

My thanks now go to Cash for being a great golfing pro … I’m sure that you can now hit this bunker with your eyes closed … and to Ahmed for running around and getting the lighting to work and finally to Neil and Adele for the initial concept. This indeed was a challenge I relished!

Wk.