Tag: profoto

In a previous blog post, i talked about Humanising the Peloton and specifically paying attention to some of the smaller tours that act as the foundations to the Grand Tours (like the Tour de France with its 12 million roadside spectators and 3.5 billion TV audience). The Tour de Suisse is one of the final races before the yearly procession around France, and despite the worlds best cyclists competing in it, I was pretty much alone in a field all day long to set up this shot to feature in today’s behind the shot.I’ve long been inspired to shoot a cycling race using studio strobes ever since seeing the amazing work Brent Humphreys carried out during the 2007 Tour de France. He covered the tour and made a very strong portfolio, including two incredible shots taken from both the team and individual time trial. With this years Tour de Suisse time trial occurring very close to me, it was a perfect opportunity to try and capture something unique.In my bag this day was a Profoto Acute B2 600 AirS, Profoto TeleZoom reflector, 4 Speedlights and a Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Plus X.One of the great things of the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 is the ability to hypersync. In general, the flash synchronisation of a studio strobe is set at 1/250 of a second. This shutter speed really limits the use of flash during a sunny day, especially for a battery pack that is 600W like the Profoto Acute B2. With a little software calibration on the Pocket Wizard TT1 though I was able to make it so that I could push the shutter speed beyond that, freezing the (very fast) action as the riders came by.This shot is an image of Omega Pharma Quickstep rider Matteo Trentin, and it was captured towards the end of the day. OPQS had a great Tour de Suisse with Matteo Winning one of the previous stages and his team mate, Tony Martin spending most of the race in the leaders jersey. I’m positioned low on the ground, practically lying on the floor, with a Canon 1d Mark IV and Sigma 15mm Fisheye combination. Directly opposite me on the other side of the road is the Profoto strobe, with an additional speedlight (which can be seen) behind his front wheel. Directly to my right are two additional speedlights for fill and the sun is high right. I was torn with having the speedlight illuminated behind the wheel and i removed it after this shot, but in this instance i think it added to shot rather than ruining it. It’s very much a case of personal preference on this but i generally stay away from having strobes visible in an image.I’ve had mixed results with hypersync but this shot came out at 1/2500 freezing the cyclist completely, despite the 65km/hr cyclist flying through the field of view of the fisheye. The results are so sharp that you do lose an element of speed, but on this instance it was the style that I was looking for. I’ve wanted to take an editorial event such as a cycle race and make commercial styled images from for a while now and a time trial route provides the ideal studio setting. I was able to move my flashlights freely without interruption and a subject passing by every minute.Despite the tranquility of a day in the fields of Switzerland, I still look to the Tour de France, along with its 12 million spectators, with a great deal of excitement. There’s nothing quite like the carnival of le tour!You can view more of my ‘behind the shot’ series here.