An aspect to flash photography that I frequently underline in the articles on this site, is that we need to carefully consider the direction of light from our flash when we bounce our flash. Sometimes we just need to bounce the flash behind us into the room to get soft light. But when we have multiple walls / surfaces we can bounce the flash off, then our choices become more interesting … especially when we do portraits.
This is Carly Erin, a delightful model that I photographed earlier this afternoon. You’ll be sure to see a few more images of her in the coming weeks.
What I wanted to show with these two images, is how the direction that I bounce the flash towards, has a fairly dramatic impact on the final image. I once again used the black foamie thing to shield my flash from directly illuminating my subject. I bounced my flash towards the area that I wanted my light to come from.
Lighting diagrams to show where I bounced my flash? Not this time. : )
Instead, look at the images, and look at the pattern of light and shade, and try and deduce from that where I had bounced my flash. It’s all there in the final images.
Similarly, the approximate camera and (TTL) flash settings and approximate focal length are clearly implied. More important than those relatively inconsequential details, is the direction of light.
A friend of mine, Carol Beuchat, is a photographer who specializes in dog portraits and dog shows. She was at the recent Westminster Dog Show, and needed to photograph this beautiful whippet, Chanel, for a magazine cover. Since it was in Manhattan and it was ice cold freezing outside, we had to photograph the dog indoors. The hotel lobby where the attendees to the dog show stayed would have to be the setting. And would have to make a great setting.
The one foyer of the hotel had these gleaming metal elevator doors. Carol carefully figured out the image’s background in relation to where she would let the dog’s handler hold the dog .. and positioned herself there with a long lens. (Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS )
Since the dog would easily become bored, we had to figure out the exact place we wanted the dog to be, and also figure out the lighting well ahead of time. Once we were ready, the Chanel’s handler would bring her down, and position her. A few frames … and Carol would have the shot.
We had to be meticulous about the setting-up – and still be very flexible during the actual shoot …
Chuck Arlund is a Fashion photographer based in Nashville whose work constantly impresses me. As a friend, I occasionally have the privilege of getting to interrogate him on his technique. What surprises me every time then, is the simplicity of his lighting. His setups are rarely complex, but always effective. I feel quite fortunate that he agreed to a guest spot this week to explain more about his approach to on-location lighting. (Also check out his blog for photographers.)
simple and effective on-location lighting techniques
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of photographing Jeannie D, a well-known South African TV personality. Actually, “well-known” is an understatement – she’s a bit of a star.
The shoot was for the cover of Top Billing magazine. The cover image had specific requirements for the setup of the scene – a Manhattan apartment, with a view of the city in the background. I’ll post more of the actual cover shoot later on, but in the meantime wanted to show some of the portraits of Jeannie D that I got in between the TV crew setting up, and the setting being prepared …
For the shoot I brought in 3 Q-flashes and a barrage of umbrellas and softboxes and reflectors, as well as a Profoto AcuteB 600R kit (B&H) with softboxes. But I photographed a number of portraits, such as the one above, using just the available light in the apartment. The apartment was a corner apartment, and so had a lot of light flooding in from two sides. The light then reflected back from the white walls inside. It was like shooting inside a massive softbox. You just couldn’t go wrong!
This topic – balancing flash and ambient exposure – seems to one that many newer photographers struggle with. The big hurdle seems to be the basic starting point – how do you decide on the exposure for each?
I’d like to explore this topic a bit with this post. The trigger for this was a question that someone emailed me regarding an image in my book on flash photography. Instead of answering the question directly, I thought that a wider answer might be more illuminating. We’re still on that perpetual quest for more aha! moments. So let’s see where we head with this. (I’ll come back to the specific question and answer at the end of this.)
But why do we even want to add flash to a subject when the available light is soft?
The answer is that with flash we can control the direction and quality of light, and create a more dynamic image.
We don’t necessarily just use flash to avoid camera shake and / or poor exposure in low light. We use flash to create better light on our subject. We can ‘clean up’ the light that falls on our subject. Or to create more dynamic and interesting light. It’s about control. We decide. So where do we start?
The simplest approach for me, when I work in fairly flat and even ambient light, is to under-expose the ambient light by a certain amount. Then we add flash for correct exposure. So how much do we under-expose the ambient light by? Well, it depends. Usually a stop is good. Two stops can also work. If you’ve seen some of the images in fashion and music magazines where the subject is in a pool of light .. yet, the sunlit cityscape is darker, then that is because the photographer under-exposed the ambient light by 2-3 stops. Even in bright sunlight. So we have some leeway. That should ease some of the anxiety.
Under-exposing the ambient light by a stop, and then adding flash … is but one scenario, and one recipe. This approach won’t apply to every possible situation you might encounter .. but it’s a good starting point in grasping that Big Question – where do we even start in balancing flash and ambient light?
Let’s start of with an example where the previous method wouldn’t work:
settings: 1/125 @ f3.5 @ 800 ISO
lighting: Q-flash T5D-R, in TTL mode diffused by medium softbox to the right
(A speedlight in the softbox would’ve worked just as well here.)
Here’s the image without flash, just so we have a reference ..
This striking photograph was taken by Stephanie Zettl, who as our guest blogger this time, tells us more about how this image came to be …
Can you identify what inspires you and your work?
by Stephanie Zettl
Inspiration should not be confined to one thing. The more we study and experience art, music, and films the more material we have to enhance the style and impact of our photography.
My most recent magazine cover was based on my love for music. The different musical genres influenced the style of the dress, hair and makeup of the shoot.
The cover photo is my homage to Herman Leonard – a photographer famous for his photos of jazz musicians – and all those wonderful jazz movies of the 1940s and 50s. I wanted my model to take the role of a Jazz Diva singing in a lounge. In order to emulate this look, I knew that I would be shooting in black and white, my lighting would have the look of strong directional stage light, and a little grain or “noise” would not be a bad thing.
That being said, this was still a fashion shoot and I wanted the main light on my model to still have a beauty light aspect to it and show off the dress and styling in a flattering way.
The stage that we were working on was equipped with four spot lights that could be slightly directed to illuminate the stage and the musicians. Because the dark lounge also had some wall sconces that I wanted to make sure showed in the photo, I had to make sure my metering took them into account. I think they add to the mood of the photo and give a sense of space.
I brought my Profoto lighting kit, but found that because of the light levels for the existing lights, I could just use the modeling lights to balance with the other lights. They effectively became “hot lights” or constant source lights instead of strobes. Though there are some disadvantages, I actually like working with hot lights when possible because what you see is what you get when directing and shaping your lighting. (Video lights, like the Lowel ID light, are also considered constant light sources and you can find several of Neil’s articles on their use here.)
I had one light in a soft box to camera right on the model to provide soft frontal beauty light. There was a second light without a diffuser placed behind the trumpet player to provide separation from the background and rim light on my subjects. It also helped to further enhance that feeling of being on stage.
To give the intimate feel of a lounge setting I shot through the piano player to frame my model. The final shot was made at 1/60 sec, f2.8 at 1000 ISO.
Stephanie Zettl and Chuck Arlund will be teaching a workshop entitled, “Inspiration, Application and Advice” February 10, 2010 in Nashville, TN. The workshop will include a morning seminar, an afternoon of shooting great models and an evening review of the photographs created during the workshop. The morning seminar will focus on finding inspiration and developing your style in a saturated market. During the day there will also be great advice about interacting with your clients for the best results and of course lots of great lighting demonstrations.
An icy cold day in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan … and a brave model that insisted on going bare feet. That’s just a glimpse of the latest NYC Photog Shootout gathering that took place on Saturday. This shootout is part of the ongoing series of events arranged by Rob Nicholson. There were many familiar faces in today’s group amongst the new. Good opportunity to say hi to old friends, and make a few new ones.
As with the previous NYC shootout in June 2009 , I gave some instruction on some of the basics of manual off-camera flash to the groups. We worked with a Q-flash and a softbox (and sometimes without the softbox), and a bunch of Pocketwizards that I handed to anyone in the group who didn’t have. Strange thing – I ended up with one more pocketwizard than I started out with. Bonus! (Actually, if you were there and you’re missing one, let me know.)
It was a bit of the Wild West out there with the huge groups of photographers firing away.
The second group had an interesting addition to the shoot …
The one type of photo session where I work the most at getting my lighting just right, is with a boudoir session. I find these intimate photo sessions quite a challenge. I have to get a variety of looks in a short time. For this I have to not only concentrate on posing and angles but also concentrate on the lighting. On top of that, I have to make sure my model or client is comfortable and relaxed at all times. The session has to be fun and really show her off at her best.
I bring a variety of lighting equipment to these shoots – speedlights to be used on camera,
and as a softbox setup. I also favour video lights.
But I keep the equipment portable and compact and easy to set up .. which means that I mostly use available light where I can. By closely looking at the direction of the various light sources in a room, I can position my subject in relation to the light (eg, a window), or simply move the light source if it is a bedside table lamp.
With the light levels fairly low indoors, this necessitates fast optics and high-ISO capable cameras. The style that I prefer is sensual and romantic. Sexy without being overly sexual. With boudoir photography, I feel that a ‘hint’ works better than being more direct. But styles and tastes vary of course.
An example of where I used the soft light coming through the window as the main light source. I didn’t add any light to this. The window light was soft, and it was the dominant light source from this viewpoint. Easy to use. Now I could concentrate on directing the flow of her movement.
The image above was shot ‘with’ the direction of light, giving even light on her. It is also good to break it up a bit and shoot ‘against’ a light source, or at an angle to a main light source …
I’m often asked what I would do when I encounter a situation where you need to use flash, but there is no easy way to bounce flash. My answer invariably is .. you’re screwed!
Well, not really. My advice is that you have to improvise and find some way of finessing your light. In tough situations, you still want to try and shy away from using direct on-camera flash whenever possible. Direct on-camera flash as the main source of light rarely looks good. And I only use the word ‘rarely’ there as a hedge against someone finding that single rare moment where direct on-camera flash actually was aesthetically the best choice.
Earlier in the day, working outside with the couple, we had great light. There was a changing mix of dramatic light and soft light, which made it easy getting beautiful photos of the couple:
Later in the evening, just using bounce flash was enough to work with:
However, the outside ceremony was scheduled for early evening. I knew that even if the ceremony started on time, the light would gradually fade into darkness as the event progressed.
I now had to balance the practical consideration of getting sharp images, with the artistic consideration of retaining the mood of the setting and the mood of the ceremony. I couldn’t rely on there being enough available light to carry myself and my second photographer through the time of dusk setting in. Direct on-camera flash just doesn’t look that good, but there really was no way to bounce flash there .. we were outside next to a lake.
This is where panic set in. I desperately want to give my clients images that look as great as those they saw in my sample albums or on my website. But there were the practical matters to consider.
I wanted both these things - sharp images, but also images that retained the mood …
Going by the emails that I receive, one of the areas that many photographers struggle with is that of combining ambient exposure and flash exposure. This question is also expressed in other ways. It can be a frustrated, “where do we even start?” I also often see it expressed as an involved step-by-step deconstruction of technique, making the entire process more complex than it is.
In reply to that, and many other emails I’ve received in the past few months, I’d like to offer an analysis of a few images from a recent shoot.
[ click on the photo for a larger image ]
One of my favourite clients has the most adorable baby boy that she wanted some portraits of. I had to shoot fast, since his attention span was .. oh, zero. He’s still a baby! I also wanted to be able to cover myself in getting some available-light only portraits, and some with bounce flash. I didn’t want the flash to be overwhelmingly bright. And in bouncing the flash, there was also less chance of disturbing the baby. So I had to mix it up in order to get some variety, and be sure of images that worked.
The image at the top was shot with the Nikon D3 and the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S
Lighting here was a combination of available light and bounce flash. And as usual, I used the black foamie thing to flag the flash so NO light from the flashgun fell directly on the child.
My camera settings: 1/100 @ f4.5 @ 640 ISO, using TTL flash
The FEC was not recorded, but would’ve been around 0EV because my flash isn’t merely fill-flash here, but fairly dominant.
Now where the settings look like they might be informative, I also often feel that these numerical values are a diversion. Too many photographers will get hooked on the choice of f4.5 over another aperture. Whey 1/100th of a second? Why 640 ISO?
The truth is that this could’ve been a different combination of settings. What is important here, is the quality of light. It is our major concern here, and should interest us more than f4.5 at this moment.
The light on the baby’s face is directional. There is more light coming from camera left .. and from this you should be able to deduce that I did indeed bounce my flash to my left. Using that piece of black foam to flag my flash, I was able to get directional light like that.
The light is soft. Since I bounced my flash into the room, and it bounced off the walls, and furniture, I will have soft light.
So those two aspects of the light from my flash is easily understood – soft directional light.
Now let’s look at how I chose to balance my flash with the available light …
