Time to Finish

Training to be a surgical doctor starts with school, A levels in England UK, 5-6 years in medical school +/- the odd additional science degree, and then a mere 15 or so years as a trainee in hospital medicine before you get to cut it as a consultant surgeon.  Then the real learning begins...





Taken as part of the photog series with "Time" in the title for my evening class, here the brief was to record someone at the top of their game in vascular surgery with only a single handful of cases to go before retiring.

When you are over awed by people and events sometimes you can be sidetracked into thinking the picture is not going to do the person or situation justice. And you might be right. But wasting time over such confidence issues can lead to the inevitable - you don't record the event.

Sometimes you just have to take the picture...



Time to Finish

Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8mm lens @ 44mm F/8.0 1/80th second
Nikon SU800 commander unit on the camera - triggering the flash units with infra red
Light meter (Sekonic)

2x SB900 Nikon flash units: one acting as a Key light within a Lastolite Soft-box on a stand immediately out of sight camera right, a second SB900 at 2 stops less than the key, situated camera left low down on a tripod acting as a soft "fill light".

Each flash was fitted with a CTO gel (from Honl system with a speed-strap attached on the front). Settings of each flash were on manual: 1/8 for the SB900 right; 1/32 for the SB900 camera left. White balance was corrected for tungsten in Lightroom 3.6

For me this picture composition breaks all the rules. I was grateful to Simon, friend and colleague for allowing me to take this shot. (Incidentally he is a founding member of the hospital photography group that some of us began only two years ago).

The subject's  head is more or less in the centre of the frame - usually the worst place but here it's the only logical solution. The lead in lines to the head are the arms to his shoulder and face and the handle for the theatre lights above pointing vertically down. Note the lights are on and they are focussed on the theatre bed. The soft box was feathered - in other words with the edges just on the subject but mostly pointing to the background behind him. The clock in the background was a plus.

Learning points:

1) Pre-shoot: prepare, prepare, prepare. Whatever that means - from charging all batteries, setting your camera controls back to their default settings after that lowlight landscape that you visited the night before, setting up light stands just before the operation, dragging in an unsuspecting medical student to double as your model whilst you get things right in camera and so on.

2) Light-meter reading off the model helps to get the exposure correct