Technique: Vans Warped Tour Pre-Party Shoot

Recently, I was asked to shoot an event for the Dallas Observer and I shot it in a way that I had been wanting to try for a while. I was shooting the Warped Tour Pre-Party and it involved shooting bands on stage and people in the crowd, so it meant that I would be moving around a lot. My go-to setup for shooting stages is two Vivitar 285s on either side of the stage. For shooting crowds, I've been using an on-camera Canon 580EX II through a ring flash adapter that triggers a handheld Canon 430EX II.
The 430EX acts as the main light with the ringflash as an on-axis fill. The nice thing about using the (expensive) Canon flashes is that exposure is controlled by the flashes and ratios between the flashes can be set on the 580EX. It allows for easily setting up different looks. I usually don't like relying on the flash/camera to determine exposure, but this setup works surprisingly well.

For this shoot, though, I really didn't want to bring light stands and four different flashes - too much gear. I knew I had to use flash, but I wanted to use as little gear as possible.

The setup I had been wanting to try was one I saw in the Bill Cunningham New York documentary. In the movie, Bill uses a single Vivitar 285 attached to the camera by a flash cord to shoot events. The 285 has a sensor on the front that can be used to automatically control the flash output. You set the aperture on the camera according to a calculator dial on the side of the flash and every exposure comes out close to that aperture. It's definitely low-tech, but the 285s have been used since the 70s (then with film cameras, obviously) to make some great photos. I ended up pulling out one of my 285s and after briefly testing this setup decided to try this out in the field.
I have sealed lead acid (SLA) battery packs for my 285s, which allows me to shoot thousands of uninterrupted flash photos and greatly improves recycle times. Coupled with a wireless flash trigger, my setup was complete. A sort of modern update for the single 285 setup.
The sensor on the front of the Vivitar 285 is surrounded by a dial that is used to control the flash output. There are manual settings that put out a set amount of light and don't use the sensor, and there are automatic settings that rely on reflected light hitting the sensor to determine when to shut off.
The automatic settings are chosen by color. I used the yellow setting, which uses the least amount of flash output, so I could use a nice wide aperture. At ISO 200, it outputs at f2.8. For my EF 24-70mm lens, this was a good setting, allowing me to shoot with the lens wide open. However, 24mm wasn't wide enough for me, so I switched to my EF 17-40mm lens. This lens only opens up to f4, so switching the camera to ISO 400 meant that the flash settings didn't have to change.
I would use the 285 handheld and point it to whatever I wanted to light up in the frame. The light from the 285 isn't wide enough to cover everything captured at 17mm, so it allowed me to light certain areas of the frame and not others. Trying to light everything in the frame means having to get creative. Fortunately, I like the selective lighting look that is necessary with this setup.

The setup was a complete success with very few exposure surprises. I would definitely suggest this simple setup if the single flash look is the look you're going for. The nice thing about using the 285s, other than the fact that they're relatively inexpensive, is that they can be used for up-close portraits, but are also powerful enough to light up entire rooms. This versatility made the pre-party shoot a breeze, as I was doing both of these things.

Here's an example of a shot where the 285 lit up the whole room.

Since the flash is handheld, it can be placed below the face to light up under the brim of a hat.

Here, only the subject on the right is lit by the flash

Shooting the crowd up close

This is the very recognizable 'single-flash-up-high' look

For shutter speeds, I usually stuck around 1/40 - 1/60. For a certain look and to allow more ambient light in to the photo, I would slow it down, sometimes as much as half a second. The 1/60 setting is a comfortable one, though, since this was the fastest that most film cameras could sync with the flash. It's the X-sync speed, so it brought back memories of when I only shot film.

This light and easy setup worked really well and is one I'll be using again in the future.

I don't know if anyone even reads these posts, but if you do and find it interesting or have learned anything, please let me know!