No Need for A Lens Break
A traditional rule in people photography is to avoid harsh, midday sunlight, but there is one way you can be a midday photography rule-breaker and avoid no-income siestas. The easiest fix, look for open shade under a tree or building overhang, but the more mobile photography studio solution is the SUNBOUNCE SUN-CAGE that can save the day, or especially for the midday noon to 5 p.m. hours — that’s five or more hours of a natural prime-light source you can capture to your advantage as a professional photographer.
Photographer Mike Majewski used a SUNBOUNCE Sun-Cage to help reduce the wind while also creating beautiful light.
While the SUN-CAGE might look overwhelming, it’s an 8-foot-cubed mobile-location photography studio solution that fits in a 53-inch SUNBOUNCE roller bag and is easily assembled in 15-minutes or less by a photographer and their assistant. And when you allow the extra time required for safety to secure your mobile photography studio, whether it’s two sandbags at each corner or the optional SUNBOUNCE Safety Kit, this mobile photography studio solution is easily built in about a half-hour or less — and there is no electric bill or studio rental fees when you’re done!
Photographer Mike Majewski took this photo of Kyra with a SUNBOUNCE Sun-Cage and a -1/3 stop No Moiré backdrop screen. She was additionally illuminated with a SUNBOUNCE MINI reflector with a Sparkling Sun fabric.
The True Beauty of Natural Light
You cannot recreate the true beauty of natural light in an indoor studio with artificial light. I’m sure some photographer will disagree, and in my defense, Mother Nature is more powerful than man, but she does have a sweet-side. The SUN-CAGE will allow you to capture her sweet elegance on location and it will make you the midday photography rule-breaker while other photographers struggle with harsh, higher-contrast artificial lights — ironically, a typical three-light professional studio set-up with three professional light modifiers cost about, as much, or more than the basic SUN-CAGE kit.
The Practical Sense of It
Whether your choice is intermittent studio flash or a continuous light source like LED, tungsten, or even HMI, by the time you add up the accessories for a studio pro-lighting system like remote radio triggers for flash, or light modifiers for flash or continuous light sources, along with professional light stands, extension cords, spare bulbs, etc., you can easily outspend the costs of a SUN-CAGE. And again, you’re paying for rent or mortgage, and surely electricity, things that don’t come with the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution.
If you’re a location photographer, you’ve got to carefully pack those professional light kits and modifiers in several expensive hard cases — modeling lamps, flash tubes, tungsten lamps, and all glass in general is easy to break or bust in transport compared to fabric screens and rugged aluminum frames. Oh, and don’t forget the extra batteries for radio remotes, and the expense of battery power packs for flash, tungsten, LED, or even HMI photography lighting kits — it all adds up especially if you throw in a generator and fuel.
Overpower the Sun with Flash
It’s no secret, I’ve often taught how to overpower the sun with flash at my photography workshops and even written about it books and magazine articles, it’s a great photography lighting technique — but save it for the sunsets. Can the SUN-CAGE work with this photography lighting technique? You bet, especially if you’re trying to reduce the elements of Mother Nature, like wind or even a simple light sprinkle of rain, not to mention, a SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution can also provide a sense of privacy and security to your subject when you have gawky on-lookers on location.
Enhance the Three C’s That Make A Great Photographer
In my teachings, writings, and lectures I’ve also spoken about the three C’s that make a great photographer, comprehension,creativity, and communication. Comprehension is simply understanding your equipment, how it operates and what it can do for you and creativity is something you’re either born with or if not, you learn the knowledge of it through study and practice. Communication, in its simplest form, is the ability to communicate with your subject and the intended audience.
Now let’s look at how the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution can enhance those three C’s for you, the photographer always looking to excel in the creation of photographs and not pictures — anyone can take pictures, but not everyone can create masterpiece photographs.
Ashley was photographed “in the cage” and illuminated with a SUNBOUNCE MINI reflector with the 3D Silver Raindrops fabric.
Enhancement of comprehension that the SUN-CAGE brings is the deconstruction of complex into simple. When you set up artificial lighting, besides a source of electrical power, you’ll need stands, sand bags, power cords, extension cords, and possibly a generator or heavy batteries and with flash, radio triggers and more batteries. Once carted and assembled on location, you must understand artificial light output in relation to your camera exposure of your background and lighting ratios, especially if you plan to over-power the sun with artificial light.
The SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution eliminates those complicated artificial lighting calculations because when you pipe-in natural sunlight using a SUNBOUNCE reflector, like the PRO or MINI, what you see is what you get in your camera, especially with a mirrorless digital camera. There is no calculating of aperture values to flash output or lighting ratio equations — you control the light as you see it with the SUN-CAGE. If you’re a strobe user, you don’t see the results until “after” you’ve depressed the camera shutter release.
Enhancement of creativity that the SUN-CAGE brings is all the variable options of fabric combinations with not just white diffusers and black screens, but even the SUNBOUNCE exclusive no moiré neutral screens that can darken your background without the screen itself being picked up by the camera, especially with lower apertures. Who needs to overpower the sun with flash when you can see the background go darker in front of your eyes? Before you even release your digital camera’s shutter? Now that’s creativity in front of your eyes that can bring out even more creative possibilities in your mind as you absorb the situation.
Enhancement of communication that the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution brings starts with the reduction of noise caused by Mother Nature’s wind. And regardless whether you have two of the sides covered with white diffusers, or two black fabrics to subtract light, or one side black and one side white, your model, or your subject, is focused on you and not distracted by peripheral vision elements. It’s easier to give direction to someone looking at you and not at what’s going on to the left or the right of them.
Besides making communication on location with your subject easier, the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution, with its ability to enhance your creativity and more, can help you as a photographer communicate the right message with your photographs to your subject and your intended audience.
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Click the arrows above to see SUN-CAGE assembly instructions, photos, and illustrations.
In the End
It’s all about your personal taste and photographic style. When your photographic passion strikes during what old school photographers call midday light, or the harshest hours of sunlight, all you have to do is prove to them that you can break the rules effectively. It’s easy, simply choose the right lens, crop tight, set the correct aperture values and if necessary, use a reflector or fill-flash. Breaking the rules is not hard to do in photography.
Plus, photographers, videographers and cinematographers will appreciate when it comes to the amount of gear for artificial lighting on location, you can’t beat lightweight aluminum tubes, fabrics, fasteners, and sandbags packed in lightweight, durable fabric bags. No heavy hard cases are required with the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution and it beats any artificial lighting gear set-up hands down. No need to rent a truck, trailer, or large SUV to transport the SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution.
The SUN-CAGE mobile photography studio solution will separate the professionals from those that aspire to reach their level, especially when it comes to breaking the rule to avoid the harsh, midday sunlight and to provide photographers with the enhancements of comprehension, creativity, and communication to achieve greatness in their photography, videography or cinematography. It’s about creating photographs, still or moving, not pictures, something that brings distinction to your results.
