Behind the Scenes - Whitewater Kayaking
I first shot kayakers on this waterfall years ago but at the time just used natural light. We shot on a cloudy day, and at the time I was excited about the images, but looking back my excitement had faded and they weren’t super strong. They kayaking was still impressive, but the images were flat and weren’t anything special.
I had the idea towards the end of last summer to try and shoot the falls using a flash to create a more dynamic image that showcased the power of the water and the shape of the waterfall. At that time of year the water is to low to safely paddle so it needed to wait. I sat on the idea for the winter and waited until the spring when the water levels would be higher.
When looking at the falls in person it’s difficult to tell how three dimensional the water is with ridges and troughs. My goal was to have a light coming from slightly behind the kayaker, illuminating the kayaker, and putting the camera facing side of the water into shadow.
Having been to the falls before I knew there was a flat ledge right next to the lip of the falls where I could easily place a flash. Even knowing this I did a couple trips to the falls to plan, and see what I actually needed to make the shot happen. The first time I went was the middle of a bright sunny day. The sun was directly above the falls and lit up everything. I knew if I was going to get the shot I had in mind I would either need a cloudy day or to come later in the afternoon once the sun had moved lower in the sky.
With an upcoming forecast of rain we ended up opting for the rainy day. I lined up a kayaker (Kiah Schaepe) and he brought another paddler (Dave Graham) to kayak with him and be safety. I chose this falls because I wanted something they could be easily repeat and paddled multiple times while I got the exact shot I wanted. When shooting with flashes like this you only have one frame, so you really need to nail the timing to get the exact moment of action.
For this set up I used two lights, an Elinchrom ELB 1200 and an ELB 400. Both lights were set right next to each other and both had the Elinchrom high performance reflector. This reflector throws the light pretty far, mixed with the high power output the lights can be far away from the subject and still light it. In addition being a generally small light source this creates a hard light and would create the shadows on the water I was looking for. The flashes were aimed at slightly different parts of the waterfall. The ELB 1200 which was my main light was aimed at the top of the falls where the kayaker would be. The ELB 400 was position lower to illuminate the bottom of the waterfall and make sure the entire falls was lit up. Quick note, I probably could have gotten away with one light as a single flash did have enough spread to cover most of the falls. However I had both so decided to utilize them to make the light more even from top to bottom.
I wanted everything in the shots to be as sharp as possible and a fast shutter speed is the best way to achieve this. All the actions shots had a shutter speed of either 1/3200 or 1/2500. This froze the individual drops of water and the kayaker. Utilizing the HS technology from Elinchrom I was able to shoot these fast of shutter speeds and rely on the shutter speed to freeze the action and use the light to illuminate the scene, but not be required to freeze the action. (To fully understand this topic and why/how it works is slightly confusing, send me a message if you have questions and I’m happy to discuss it)
Once the lights were dialled in they got to kayaking. Kiah and Dave would paddle the falls, I would shoot, and as they were hiking back up to the top I would show them the images and we would review. The main shot I was after was tight on the waterfall and showed the power of the water. It took a couple tries to get the exact moment and style of the kayakers. Once getting this exact frame I switched up to a few different angles to create some variety and have a few different options for final frames. Kiah and Dave were more then happy to hike back up and keep paddling the falls. Overall the lighting set up for this shot was fairly simple back lighting, but was exciting to see how even something as simple as this can make an image that much more dramatic.
The ELB 1200 and the ELB 400 positioned on the falls. Although hard to tell from the photo the angle is slightly different on each head to fully illuminate the falls.
The ELB 1200 and the ELB 400 positioned on the ledge. With the force of the water falling it was creating a strong breeze. I brought some webbing and rope and tied the lights into a tree to secure them so they wouldn’t fall into the water.
After kayaking I wanted to shoot a lifestyle. Even though this was a personal project and the action image was my goal I always try and shoot an environmental portrait to help tell the story. I wanted to show the kayaker looking over the river and the scene of the gorge that the waterfall ran through. I still used both lights for this shot. I set the ELB 1200 with the high performance reflector directly behind the subject. This create the rim light, and illuminated the water droplets in the air that were coming off the waterfall. Next I set the ELB 400 off to subject left at about 45 degrees. This light had a 7 inch reflector with a 30 degree grid. I wanted to fill in the face and the kayak. The grid allowed me to fill in the kayakers face while still controlling the light spill and preventing it from bouncing off the ground and creating spots of light I didn’t want.
Since I wasn’t trying to freeze action on these portraits I went back to a normal camera sync speed of 1/250. I balanced the flash with the ambient light to fill in the river and the surrounding forest and a pop of light to highlight the kayaker.
After shooting I was excited to get these on the computer and look at them on the big screen. I had been thinking about making these images for a long time, and was happy with what I had captured. It’s always a satisfy feeling to have an idea and to see it come to life and look how you imagined.
Gear
Canon R5
Canon RF 24-105 F4
Canon RF 70-200 f4
Elinchrom ELB 1200
Elinchrom ELB 400
Elinchrom High Performance Reflector
7 inch reflector with 30 degree grid
The ELB 400 with the 30 degree grid used to fill in the kayakers face.
The ELB 1200 with the high performance reflector used as a backlight
Paddling lighting diagram
Lifestyle lighting diagram