How to Light the China Night Markets

[imported_rpcrowe]

I have been thinking about how I want to shoot the various night markets in China when I visit there in April of this year. Night markets are an important part of local color and will sell anything from clothing to fast foods. Some of the fast foods are quite unusual - such as fried scorpions on a stick.

The various stalls are usually composed of plastic tarps stretched over frames and there is no overhead ceiling covering the photographer which somewhat limits the ability to use bounce flash. Most of the images I have seen of the night market stalls are either shot with available light only or with direct flash. (see image for an idea of what a stall looks like)

Available light is not too great since the vendors are often back lit and the lighting is quite haphazard and chancy. Direct flash is, well; DIRECT FLASH IS DIRECT FLASH AND IT IS TERRIBLE.

I plan to use flash but, to shoot in a way that doesn't look like flash has been used. I will shoot with a Canon 40D camera and a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens which will give me fairly decent low light capability. I plan to use a 550EX flash bounced into a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro ( www.dembflashproducts.com ). The Flash Diffuser Pro allows bouncing the flash into a Flip-It reflector which can be tilted depending on the type of shooting. It allows bounce flash to be used in venues which have no surface against which to bounce and uses a diffuser to further soften the light.

I will shoot in RAW with my camera in manual and the flash in ETTL. I will meter for the ambient light. I'll then shoot with the flash at -1 or -2 EV. This should end up with the flash being more fill light than the main light source and, hopefully provide a natural look. I plan on balancing the color of the flash somewhat to match the tungsten ambient lighting with an amber filter. Then I should be able to balance the whole image when I import it into Adobe Bridge on its way to Photoshop CS3.

I would appreciate any ideas from fellow photographers regarding my plans.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any venues here in the San Diego County area which have somewhat equivalent lighting. If anyone can point me to such a venue, I will be able to practice prior to my China trip.

[Lilikoi the cat]

Your plan sounds good but all beyond my skills.
My thoughts though:
Off camera cord for your flash and it will reflect in a different direction. incident and reflected.
Hang some clothes on hangers and light it from behind in your yard, put up some different colored boxes,pans and you could get some shoot time in.
If you will be going later on in the year. A live performance of what you are looking for is the Cherry blossom festival. I guarantee there will be many down toward LA

[Killjoy]

Richard, have you thought about trying to shoot at a flea market?

Not sure where you might find one that's in the evening, but a lot of the regulars have that kind of setup with the poles and tarps for cover.

The markets you describe sound a lot like what I ran into in South Korea many years ago (about 18 years now?).
But those are all old film shots, and I'd have to scan them. Let alond trying to dig for the negatives.

[imported_rpcrowe]

Yep, I thought about flea markets and about farmers markets but, I don't know where one is at night. The saving grace is that I will have more than one occasion to shoot these in China. I have a few nights in Beijing free and a night in Xian. I am especially interested in photographing the night market in the Muslim Quarter of Xian (City of the Terra Cotta Warriors). I have heard that this area, in which the Muslims are ethnically Chinese, is quite safe which is not necessarily the case in the Muslim areas to the farther West of China which the Muslim Uighur people are often demonstrating against the Central Government. We are not scheduled to travel in those areas.

The advantage of having a notebook computer and a program which can download and view RAW files is that I can survey each day's photography in the evening to learn what corrections that I should make. I am also going to take a target card to nail down the color balance in any iffy area. I was considering using my 420EX as a slave to my 550EX but, I don't want to carry the extra weight and to put my wife into the role of a grip.

I will be carrying a tiny 270EX everywhere and will use it for fill flash in daytime shooting. It is a shame that the little 270EX doesn't have slave capability. That would be a dandy addition to this little flash.

What I will do is shoot much of my imagery using auto exposure correction. That way I will have 3 different exposures for each image. I am going to use my monopod for much shooting and many of the shots will be steady enough to use as HRD imagery if I want. I have enough CF card memory to shoot close to 3,000 shots each day without having to download. Even shooting AEB with triples of everything, that will be in the area of 1,000 different shots a day... However, if push comes to shove, we will return to our hotels for the evening meals and if I am running short of memory - I can download a few CF cards which I shot during the day. However, 3,000 images is quite a bit of photography, even when I am going to triple up on my shots using AEB.

[lvolkjr]

I don't know how far you are away from the border, but you may want to consider Tijuana for night markets. I'm not sure if they have those or if it would be safe. I would look into it before deciding to go, especially the safe part.

[kitoi]

Have you tried different positions of the bounce portion of the diffuser or tilting the flash off center?

I use a similar diffuser and keep it straight up and/or shorten the height then tilt then tilt the flash off center a couple of notches when I shoot my son's night band performances so the light doesn't reflect off the instruments so harshly.

[Killjoy]

Since you brought it up Richard (having your wife play the role of key grip that is).....

I have been toying with the idea of getting one of these.
Put that little sucker on the top of a painters pole, and your grip can move and hold the light above your subjects. It would work with either the wireless triggers if you found them, or even with the 550 as a commander and your 420 on the end of the pole.

[imported_rpcrowe]

Originally Posted by Killjoy

Since you brought it up Richard (having your wife play the role of key grip that is).....

I have been toying with the idea of getting one of these.
Put that little sucker on the top of a painters pole, and your grip can move and hold the light above your subjects. It would work with either the wireless triggers if you found them, or even with the 550 as a commander and your 420 on the end of the pole.

You could really get your light up high with one of these. However, I will often use my CF monopod which is light in weight (.95 pounds) and which I have with me quite often.

Speaking about poles... I have seen a post on some forum where the photographer used a pole to elevate his camera and then used a cell phone or IPOD (I don't remember which) to view and control the camera.

It is a neat idea but, there are just too many moving parts for me. I can't chew gum and walk at the same time!

[Lilikoi the cat]

I think it was an Ipod, it would be "tethering" and I wonder if it would work on a Blackberry thingy too?

[Killjoy]

It's an app that you can download and works on the iPhone and the iPod touch.

And I doubt that they have it for a blackberry Kevin. Sorry.