How I Shot the Magic Bus by Mike Busby's School of Photography

The Washtucna Bus

My friend Chris wanted to photograph the Washtucna Bus against the stars. So, we loaded up a few speedlights and made the quick drive to Washtucna.

This is one shot and one exposure. It's advanced photography, but there's no magic to it, it's just knowing the fundamentals and placing the lights to give the bus a little form.

The shot went like this: The shutter opens, the flashes fire and light the bus, and then the shutter remains open for another 20 seconds to capture the stars.

I had to synch the settings on the flash with the long exposure of the stars. Manual modes were used for all the settings. I shoot the stars between ISO 800 and ISO 3200 and between f2 and f4. These numbers might change depending on one's gear, but they are my starting points. The flashes were set to fire at ISO 3200 and at f2. The flashes use minimal power at the these settings. and if more light might be needed,  then upping the power on the flashes would be the easiest approach.

Also, because the aperture was so low, I went with the 20mm lens. Because it's so wide, all I had to do was take a couple steps back to ensure a depth of field that would encompass the bus and the stars. In other words, both the bus and the stars would be sharp.

The first flash, the key-light, was set in front of the bus and set to 1/64th power. A second flash was set to the side of the bus and also set to 1/64th power. However, it was placed further away from the bus. About one stop further away. In effect, the front of the bus is a full exposure, and the side is exposed at -1 stop. In other words, the front is bright, and the side is not as bright, and this gives the bus form. It's the same principle as shading a 2-dimensional cube on paper to make it appear 3-dimensional. The third flash was gelled red and placed inside the bus and set to 1/28th power. The flashes were adjusted a stop brighter each by the time we were done.

I'm using the Godox system with lighting stands, S-Clamps with Bowens mounts and reflectors. Controlling light to the foreground was managed by placing reflectors on the speedlights. The shape of the reflector directed where the light went. There was some darkening down of the foreground in post, but 90% of it was done by controlling the direction of light during the capture.

Mike's Equipment Page - Click here and scroll down to see the referenced equipment.

Most of this has become second nature, and it took roughly 10 minutes to set up. The tripod, the lights, and dialing in the correct exposures. Once the exposure is set, and as long as you don't change camera settings, you can now move the tripod and camera anywhere you want and get a good shot. You can get close, you can move far away, you can do what you want. The amount of light falling on the bus remains the same no matter where you are at.

So, the sun finally went down, the stars came out and we began shooting. We discovered some additional lighting was occurring from buildings behind us and to the North. However, it only affected and created some minor highlights in the highly reflective areas of the bus. These were easily dealt with in post.

The final settings were:  f2.8 for 20 seconds, at ISO 800. Flash Settings 1/32 key light (front) 1/32 Fill (Side) but further away than the key light, and 1/64 inside.

I shot this on the night of my wife's 50th birthday. She's a bit of a hippy and she's the girl that prefers wild flowers, much like the ones at the front of the bus. So, she got a 20x30 metal of the image. It's a little bit of her, a little bit of me, and a little bit of us. And for the records, it was a big hit with the family, and it looks amazing.

There's all kinds of advice across the internet on photography, but they tend to give out recipes for specific conditions. While I provide the settings for shots like these, my school provides the fundamentals of photography and off-camera flash photography. I don't show you the settings for one condition, I show you how to determine the settings for any condition.

Thanks for reading and shoot me some questions if you have them.

Mike
Mike Busbys School of Photography
(509) 995-2954