Outdoor shoot in Dubai: Flashes, dunes, desert tree

At Rollei, we like to put new products through extreme tests. Just being functional isn't enough – they have to be truly robust. And the location for testing our new HS Freeze 6s and 4s studio flashes was quickly found: an outdoor photo shoot in the Dubai desert.

It quickly became clear that our flashes had no problem with the weather conditions. It was more challenging for the team.

A shoot in the desert isn't something you do on a whim. It requires extremely good preparation – especially regarding water supply. Not only should cold drinks be available, but also sugary ones, because the body quickly reaches its limits and then urgently needs the energy from sugar.
Our guide therefore brought a whole cooler full of drinks. An expert is worth their weight in gold in this situation – and even vital. Because in Dubai, you need someone who has a license to even drive into the desert. This permit is necessary because an excursion into this sometimes unforgiving part of nature can be potentially life-threatening. Those who get lost are often doomed.

Why you let air out of your tires in the desert

You should start shooting early in the morning so that the sunlight isn't too aggressive.

Before we headed into the desert, we stopped at a gas station to let air out of the tires. By deflating the tires, you increase the surface area that the tire uses to move on the sand. If you don't do this, you quickly get stuck in the sand and then have a serious problem. In the desert, our driver then drove diagonally up the dunes and down the other side.

On set, there were five people and in our luggage we had a camera, two flash heads, our new HS Freeze 6s and 4s, as well as various softboxes. On location, we decided which direction the photographer would shoot, where the sun was coming from, and where the model should stand.

Tip: Once all that is clear, no one else should go there so that no tracks are visible in the sand and the picture is clean.

Flashing in strong sunlight? Yes!

One might ask why one should use flash with such strong, natural light.

The answer is quite simple: If the sun illuminates the model from behind, it casts a strong shadow that you want to compensate for in the photo. For this, flashes must, of course, have enough (wireless) power.

All in all, it was the ideal test environment for our new devices, which have a power of up to 600 watt-seconds (6s). Until we had everything set up, the model remained in the car so that the work wouldn't be too strenuous for her.
During the shoot, she was occasionally barefoot, which quickly becomes arduous because the sand is very hot.

Therefore, it's best to work with closed shoes. Sweat can also become a problem if the make-up runs.
For all these reasons, a photo shoot shouldn't take too long.

Such a situation can become a real problem for normal flashes without dust protection. Not only if the flash, including the light shaper, falls over, but also if dust is stirred up by the wind in the desert. That's why our new flashes are dust-protected.

To prevent them from falling over anyway, we have the following trick: Open the softboxes at the back so that the wind can pass through without knocking over the light shaper. Of course, you can also bury the box, but sometimes that's not enough. For the light result on the final photo, the opening doesn't make a big difference.

Although the desert appears so barren and empty, it has the potential to be absolutely surprising. After crossing two dunes, we suddenly discovered a large tree, which in itself seemed very strange.

According to the motto: "There's actually nothing here, but we have a huge tree with green leaves to offer."

A fantastic backdrop for our outdoor photo shoot, which fortunately also provided us with some shade – despite this, it was already very, very hot at 40 degrees Celsius at this time (around 8:30 am).

Meeting the Camel Herder

And then we experienced another happy surprise. Because behind the next dune, completely unnoticed by us, there were more than 80 camels, which until then had been invisible to us because of the dune.

The reason they were there: camels need a lot of exercise, which is why there was also a herder with them who takes them for a walk once a day.
Our driver immediately went to the herder, gave him drinks and a little money, so we got excellent motifs with the camels for the perfect photos in the Dubai desert.

A truly unforgettable photo shoot.

More from Wesco Taubert