a simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

Photographing a wedding can be pretty hectic at times, especially as it so often becomes the photographer’s de facto responsibility to keep everything on track. The formal photo session specifically is a part of the day that many photographers find challenging. (The other is photographing the wedding processional.)

When photographing the family portraits, you can really help yourself by nailing your lighting. Get it down.  Then you can concentrate on getting the groups together, and concentrate on posing the groups. But your lighting works! Much less stress.

I mostly work with the Quantum flashes since they are workhorses and don’t melt when used hard. They also have a bit more power than a speedlight. But quite often, I like working with a speedlight setup …

and if you need to see a similar image with the exposure pulled down to give a bit more detail of the flash set-up.

But here’s a proper close-up of what’s been used.

the equipment you’d need:

Two speedlights.
Here I used two Nikon SB-900 speedlights.
They’ve now been updated as the even better  Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H)

If you’re a Canon shooter, then the  Canon 580EX II Speedlite (B&H) is a great choice. But any speedlights would’ve worked. There are good reasons to use cheaper manual-only speedlights, but I prefer having only the top-end speedlights which offer the flexibility and features I need, such as TTL flash and high-speed flash sync.

Radio triggers
I like the PocketWizard TT5 units, but since we’ll be using manual flash only here, there’s a wide variety of radio triggers for flash that would’ve worked well.

45? white satin umbrella (B&H)
This single shoot-through umbrella disperses the light surprisingly evenly.

Umbrella Bracket (B&H)
You need something to hook the umbrella up to the light-stand, and be able to swivel the umbrella into a specific direction.

Battery packs
For faster recycling, I’d strongly recommend battery packs.  The proprietary battery packs make a lot of sense:
- Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
- Canon CP-E4  Compact Battery Pack (B&H)

Dual Speedlite Bracket
I use the IDC double mount as shown in the photograph above, but it’s been updated by the Triple Threat. There are numerous options here, and a Google search will show many choices. There’s the Morris Umbrella Tilt Head (B&H); the Interfit Strobies Triple Flash bracket (B&H). Lightware offers the FourSquare. There’s the WizardBracket. There are also DIY dual flash brackets.  A wide choice.

But it does make sense to get two speedlights in there for extra power, or for faster recycling. Besides, you have at least two speedlights anyway.

Lightstand
I like the Manfrotto 1004BAC (B&H), but a lower priced lightstand like the Impact Heavy Duty 13′ LightStand (B&H) is a good option.

That about covers the gear you’d need.

Oh, currently my standard camera and lens for formals:
Nikon D3S  (B&H);
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S  (B&H)

Exposure metering

I don’t use a lightmeter here, since I can rely on the histogram method of getting accurate exposure with manual flash.

Since the family members will be in a fixed position in relation to the light (on a light-stand), it just makes the most sense to use manual flash. TTL flash will cause too much variation in exposure.  What you need for a faster workflow afterwards, is consistent and accurate exposure. Every frame with exactly the same exposure.

Manual flash exposure is controlled by these 4 factors:
- distance between the light source and subjects (which is fixed)
- power  …  the power / output of your speedlights. You need to figure this out, for your chosen aperture and ISO
- ISO  …  select a reasonable ISO. I often go as high as 800 ISO with the family photos with a suitable camera. 
 - aperture  …  pick a suitable aperture. f5.6 makes sense. f8 makes sense. f2.8 is kinda risky for a group because the depth-of-field is so shallow. Stay with a medium aperture.

My settings for the image at the top were:
1/160 @ 4.5 @ 400 ISO
There was a lot of available light streaming in, so I chose my settings accordingly, and added enough manual flash to give me good exposure for the brides dress.  All other tones fell into place along with this.

related article:
- exposure metering for the bride & the bride’s dress

For this wedding, in a darker church, I chose:
1/60 @ f5 @ 800 ISO … using exactly the same setup.

A quick note about focal length – use as long a focal length as you comfortably and practically can. Really resist the urge to zoom wider on a group of people .. really try to rather step back and keep to a longer focal length.

And this is how it comes together for the lighting – using a lighting gear that is easy to use, and gives surprisingly great light for a medium sized umbrella. This way you can take stress off you by having great light with the family formals session.

more articles about wedding photography
and specifically:
- lighting and photographing the wedding formals
- lighting the wedding formals

other articles on off-camera flash photography

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

Hanging out with my friend Brooke, (NYC boudoir photographer), at yesterday’s workshop, I noticed some of the images on her iPad that she was showing to explain her lighting techniques. The photographs had an interesting mix of gold and blue tones, and I thought the way she achieved it would be of interest to everyone. It might be familiar to regular followers of the Tangents blog. (Oh, Brooke is co-presenting a workshop on boudoir photography, and there’s a discount for Tangents readers.)

inspired boudoir lighting

by Brooke Ismach, New York boudoir photographer

Since launching Inspired Boudoir, a joint photography venture with fellow photographer Laura Eaton, I have been lucky enough to speak quite a bit about boudoir photography. Which means I’m showing boudoir images to photography groups. Consistently, I am asked one question more than any other: How did I achieve the “blue” background lighting in the attached photo. Most photographers guess using gels, but the answer is actually simpler than that …

When it comes to boudoir, I feel confidence is sexiest thing a woman can wear. If a woman isn’t projecting sexy, flirty, playful, hot – some believeable emotion, the image is going to fall flat, no matter how amazing your backdrop is. That said, when given the opportunity to shoot in a venue that has almost as much personality as my subject, I’m going to treat that venue like a second invited guest. Not quite with the same priority of my subject, but I know in addition to all the tightly framed sexy shots, I want to capture at least a few wider images, that also showcase the venue.

The speakeasy where this image was taken, was stunning. But it was also very dark, almost solely candle-lit and without windows.
I knew I had two challenges. First priority was to flatter my subject; and secondly, flatter the venue. Which in this case meant lighting both separately.

I ultimately used 3 light sources in this photograph.
The main light, faced toward the model is a Lowel ID Light (video light) on a stand. The second, the noticeably blue background light, is a Nikon speedlight, powered by a pocket wizard. And the third light, is an LED video light that I simply placed on the floor pointing upwardto illuminate the brass ceiling.

As I said, my first priority was to create an image that flattered my subject, meaning believable skin tones. My second was to show off the venue. That said, accurately representing the color of the couch, or showing every minor detail of the room, was less important to me, than not allowing the background to fall off and go dark. The Lowel ID Light is a tungsten (very warm) light, whereas the Nikon speedlight is a much cooler light. Had I set my camera to account for the light output by the speedlight, the Lowell would have turned my subject a very warm sickly orange. Instead, by setting my camera to account for the tungsten lightening, I knew my subject would look natural and the speedlight would throw off a very cool, blue-ish light.

If the speedlight had been gelled for tungsten light, then the color of the flash would’ve been more neutral in relation to the video light. But by keeping the color temperature of the Lowel ID-light, and the color temperature of the flash separate, there was this distinct jump between the colors. By setting the camera’s WB to Tungsten, the light from the flash turned blue.

Boudoir is about fantasy. The blue works, because it creates visual intrigue, in this case, compliments my clients blue lingerie, gives the background some umph and creates depth separating my client from what’s behind her. Success.

Inspired Boudoir is a joint photography venture between Brooke Ismach (Studio Brooke) and Laura Eaton (Laura Eaton Photography).
We will be hosting a boudoir photography seminar on January 28th in Laura’s downtown Philadelphia studio. Seats are limited, but we are offering the special coupon code to Neil’s blog readers: “tangents” for $100 off.

The seminar will feature actual shoot time with models. In addition to talking about marketing, finding clients, branding, portfolio building, and much much more.

- lighting for boudoir photo sessions
- more articles about boudoir photography

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Stephanie Zettl, (who should by now be a familiar name here), recently showed me a photograph she shot of kids jumping on the bed. The photo was crisp and evenly lit. The lighting strongly reminded me of the way I lit the recent posted photo of Ulorin Vex, where I used off-camera bounce flash. And it turned out I was right.

And that is the beauty of this – clean, crisp lighting that is easily achieved.

off-camera bounce flash – photographing kids in their room

by: Stephanie Zettl (St Louis wedding photographer)

When I photograph kids my main goal is to capture the things that make them kids: their laugh, their desire to play, their sense of curiosity, their innocence. I want to create photographs that they will look at 20, 30, 50 years from now and cherish because I was able to captures moments that represent their childhood.

For me, to truly be able to do this, I like to just let the kids play and be kids. Generally I like to work with the available light because that allows me to take multiple shots quickly to get the perfect expression. Window light and open shade are my friends. However, sometimes the quality and the quantity of available light is just not there. But there should not be an excuse for bad lighting. As a professional photographer, we need to have the ability to see, shape and create the light as needed. When the quality of available natural light is poor, there is no excuse for not bringing out and using our flashes.

For this photo of two adorable happy sisters and their dog, I was faced with some difficult lighting conditions. There was a nice large window in the girls’ room, but grey nasty weather made both the quality and the quantity of the light dismal. Bounced light from my flash came to the rescue. Bounced light allowed me to create soft natural looking light and still freely capture the kids at play.

I knew the kids would probably end up bouncing on the bed, so I wanted to set a higher shutter speed of 1/125 to freeze the action in the low ambient light. I also knew that since they would probably be bouncing all around the bed I wanted a medium aperture to make sure both of them were in focus. I choose an aperture of f/4

I could have used on-camera bounce flash for these photos, but since I was going to keep the lighting in one location, I chose to put my SB-900 flash with a Pocket Wizard TT5 on a stand and trigger it from the camera using the pocket wizard TT1 mini and AC3. This allowed me to move around and not have to worry about adjusting the direction of my on camera flash.

At first I bounced the flash off the wall and ceiling to my right, but I noticed that the light was very pink due to the color of the wall. I decided to completely close the white blinds in the room and bounce my flash off them so that it had a very clean, neutral color cast. I took a couple of test shots to make sure my direction of light was good and then told the kids to have fun.

I love this photo. I love how the kids are loving life and even the dog is in on the fun of bouncing on the bed. I believe I was able to get this photo because I didn’t have to worry about the quality of my light or fight with the quantity of it. I had a reliable consistent set up that just let me shoot and pay attention to my subjects.

Stephanie Zettl (St Louis wedding photographer)

Equipment used with this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
PocketWizard MiniTT1 transmitter (B&H)
PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)
Manfrotto 1051BAC light-stand (B&H)

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

Stay informed of new articles via the monthly newsletter.
Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

gelling your flash for effect

The idea of gelling your flash for effect has been a topic here a few times. I most often use gels on my flash to correct my flash when working with tungsten / incandescent light. There are times though when I gel my flash just for effect, creating a shift between my foreground (lit by gelled flash) and my background.

In the examples shown in the several articles here, there wasn’t the type of background where the effect can clearly be seen on easily recognizable “neutral” background. In the article turning day into night, we turned the sky a dark shade of blue. With the sequence of photos of a model, Bethany, there was a reflective mirrored wall as background that we changed the color of. The effect looks stunning, but the mirrored wall might not be something that makes the color shift obvious to the casual visitor here.

With that, during a recent individual workshop in Manhattan, while working with Anelisa again, I took the opportunity to specifically take this sequence of images. They will hopefully clearly show how we can create a more dramatic effect by shifting the color balance of our flash in relation to the available light …

Here is the starting image. We’re working in the shaded area here, so my White Balance is Cloudy. Keep in mind that I inevitably will change my WB as part of my usual RAW workflow. It’s an adjust-to-taste thing. Therefore, I regard my WB as being “Cloudy RAW”.

The technique is a straight-forward one. We get our basic exposure based on the background. Keep in mind that we can not expose correctly for the shaded areas such as the ground, AND the sunlight buildings at the same time. The simplest approach here is to under-expose for our subject – the model – and then pick up the slack with flash. In this case, I used TTL flash since we could work faster. But I had to adjust my exposure in RAW, because of over-exposure. More about that in a short while.

Here is the pull-back shot to show how the light was held in relation to Anelisa. I wanted the light to come from nearly-the-front and to the side. So the softbox was held higher up so I could get the longer shot that I wanted, without the softbox getting in the shot.

Here is the image without the flash.

Knowing that I am gelling my flash with 1/2 CTS gel, I changed my camera’s WB to 3850K … but in editing the RAW files, I changed the WB of this sequence of images (incl the ambient-only shot), to 4650K. The predominance of blue tones of the available light, made the 3850K gelled flash still look too cold. Hence, my WB was … 3850K RAW. That has to become new terminology! Cloudy RAW. Daylight RAW. Incandescent RAW. 3850K RAW.

With this sequence, the flash over-exposed by 1 stop. Since it is TTL, the flash’s exposure can vary depending on composition and how much dark tones there are, and how much of the subject / scene is lit up by flash. So this ambient-only shot, and the pull-back shot above, and the following flash shots, had the exposure pulled down by 1 stop in the processing of the RAW file, than they were in-camera.

I could’ve spent the minute or two there to finesse my flash exposure with my FEC dial, but Anelisa had to leave soon, and there were cars constantly moving by, and it was cold. So sometimes I just rely on the latitude of the RAW file to help me out.

image settings:  1/250 @ f2.8 @ 200 ISO

image settings:  1/250 @ f2.8 @ 200 ISO

image settings:  1/250 @ f4 @ 200 ISO

With this photo, I dropped my available light by another stop by closing down my aperture.

While I had enough leeway with my flash exposure to jump into high-speed flash sync territory with an 1/500 shutter speed, I chose to stay at maximum flash sync speed, and change my aperture. Since I am shooting in TTL mode, the change in aperture will only affect my ambient light, and not my flash exposure.

Remember the rule that aperture controls flash exposure? Well, it is only true for manual flash. Not TTL flash. TTL flash will follow your choice of settings … while you remain within range of what your flash is capable of.

By changing my ambient exposure like this, under-exposing it even more, my flash is starting to dominate, giving a more dramatic effect.

equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3S  (B&H);  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)
Lastolite Hot Shoe EZYBOX Kit (24″x24″) (B&H)

That compressed perspective in the images is due to the long focal length of the lens used.  All images were shot at approximately 150mm focal length. The images weren’t at a consistent distance like I would have liked them to be since we had to step out of the way for approaching cars.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G VR II

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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The Hudson Valley Click is a group of photographers in New York who arrange photo shoots for photographers who are interested in learning more or who would like to build their portfolios. I’ve mentioned them a few times in the past - photo shoot / haunted fashion / pin-up photography. With these photo sessions, they arrange for models and hair stylists and make-up artists, and for a small entry fee, you get to play. They are also pretty cool bunch of people to hang out with.

At the most recent shoot-out, the one organizer, Nuby DeLeon, showed me an image that he had set up, and my jaw dropped. With great pre-visualization of the intended shot, Nuby had set this dramatic scene up. Even the color image on the back of his camera looked perfect! Nuby was gracious enough to allow me to share this with everyone, including the lighting diagram …

Film Noir Fight Scene
by Nuby DeLeon
portrait, wedding & commercial photographer – New York

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to explore dramatic lighting when Hudson Valley Click did their monthly themed shoot at Mountain View Manor in Glen Spey, NY. The theme for the month was Film Noir so having a beautiful Victorian mansion to shoot in was a treat. There were a number of models, all dressed in period costume.

My inspiration for the shot is Frank Miller. I wanted to match the dramatic lighting with some dramatic, almost over the top action.

The first thing I had to figure out was the lighting. I knew the action was going to be at the point of contact and the spray of spit as the gangster, played by J.J. Oracz, was hit. For the main light I used a 22” Kacey Beauty Reflector with a Grid  attached to an Alien Bee 1600. I put the main light 8 feet up on a boom from behind the gangster. I put it behind the model for two reasons – one is to highlight the spray of water and the other is to create an interesting light pattern on the wall.

Next, I added a SaberStrip with an SB-600 inside to fill in the front of the gangster and also act as a rim light for the cop, played by Jose Flores. That’s what I love about the SaberStrip – it’s very versatile and lightweight. It can serve multiple purposes just by how you place it. Almost every shot I do I end up using the Saberstrip either as a main light, rim light, background light or accent light.

I added a third light to accent the gun because the shadows created by the main light ended up hiding it. For this I used an SB-800 in a Strobies Bracket (B&H), which came with a 7” reflector. This was perfect for focusing the light in one area while eliminating lens flare.

Finally, I decided to add a spot of blue light to mimic a police car parked off camera. Even though I knew the final image would be in black and white I still wanted to light it as authentic as I could get it. Having worked as a still photographer in a feature film cop drama I saw them using alternating blue and red lights off camera to suggest a cop car on scene. I took this same idea and added the blue gelled bare flash off camera right.

Here is the lighting diagram:

Now about posing – I put the cop in a static pose and told him to convey the action through his face because that is what was going to sell the realism. The gangster got ready with a mouthful of water and flipped his head back on cue. I tilted the camera slightly to add even more motion to the image.

For post processing, I used NIK Software - Color Efex 4.0 and Silver Efex 2.
If you’re ever in the New York area, check out Hudson Valley Click Portfolio Building Group. Hudson Valley Click is an organization dedicated to providing unique opportunities for photographers, models, makeup artists, hairstylists, and designers of all skill levels to network and build a portfolio of images that will stand out. We do this by partnering with local Hudson Valley venues and businesses in a joint marketing effort to provide a place to shoot that would otherwise be difficult or expensive to do alone.

Nuby DeLeon  - portrait, wedding and commercial photographer, New York & Connecticut 

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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flash photography technique – turning day into night

During the photo session with a couple, Laura & Todd, I wanted to add some variety to the images from the urban setting we were in. The sky had been overcast, but started to clear later on, leaving wispy clouds. Just perfect for a dramatic sky as the background. Of course, it is impossible to get your subject AND a bright sky equally well exposed without resorting to graduated filters or additional lighting, ie, flash. The technique with off-camera flash is quite straight-forward …

The first thing I did was get my basic exposure for the sky.  Zeroing out the needle works fairly well unless the sun is in the frame.

A test shot at 1/250 @ f11 @ 200 ISO showed that I had detail in the sky. Of course, there was a reason I was at max sync speed – it is our sweet spot when using flash in bright light.

The sky had a nice pattern to it, but the colors were too neutral. It needed something more. So I checked what the sky would look like if I set my WB to 3850K (knowing I could gel my speedlight with a 1/2 CTS gel).

Aah, now we’re getting somewhere.

Still working at 1/250 @ f11 @ 200 ISO, I knew that the single speedlight wouldn’t be able to push enough light out if diffused with a softbox. It had to be direct, undiffused, off-camera flash.

I had my assistant hold the light nearly above me, but to my right and behind me. The reason was so that the light on Laura’s face wouldn’t leave a hard shadow of her nose across her cheek or mouth.

Since my exposure settings was chosen for me, by how I wanted the background exposed, I had to add f11 @ 200 ISO worth of flash on my subjects.

The simplest would be to use manual flash, and to use it at full power.

Using the distance shown on the back of the Nikon SB-900, I had my assistant hold the speedlight (up on a monopod) at about that distance. If I had used a Canon 580EX II, I would’ve placed the speedlight on my camera to see the distance scale. Slightly more cumbersome route, but the distance I need to hold the flash away from my subject, will be revealed.

For more on this: a tutorial on how manual flash exposure is affected by distance, and choice of settings.

Finally, I used the PocketWizard TT5 units and AC3 controller, to trigger the off-camera flash. I had the AC3 set to manual and full power.)

With the off-camera speedlight gelled with a 1/2 CTS gel, and my WB set to 3850K, the color balance for my couple was just fine, but the sky shifted to a more dramatic shade of blue.

A few easy & logical steps to get to the final sequence of images.

more images from this photo session in New York

equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3S  (B&H);  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

Stay informed of new articles via the monthly newsletter.
Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

simple lighting setup for studio for studio photography

This photo of Anelisa and Aleona, two of my favorite models, were taken towards the end of the evening of the most recent flash photography and lighting workshop here in New York. The studio that the workshop was held in, had a white cyclorama that was just inviting to be used.

As a recap of manual flash photography, I wanted to show how simple and easy a basic studio lighting setup was … and that it was quite within the reach of every photographer. Well, not the studio itself, but the lighting setup and equipment, as well as the technique, is well within the reach of any photographer …

A comment I had as feedback about this part of the workshop, was: “I was personally surprised at how little it took to create that sort of a photo.”

And that’s what I wanted to show – the simplicity of the lighting setup. Here is the pull-back shot.

Two speedlights, each with an umbrella. For a home-studio setup where you are using part of the living room or such, and you have daylight coming in through a window, you can even forego the light on the background. Just the one light in the front.

I used a 45″ white shoot-through umbrella to create a large light source.

All the equipment hooked up there:
- a speedlight,
- a battery pack (to make sure the flash recycles fast enough),
- a light-stand / umbrella clamp / umbrella
- a radio trigger to have the camera trigger the flash.

The radio trigger here is the  Pocket-Wizard Plus II Tranceiver (B&H), and is a simple unit that only allows manual flash. No more is needed for a studio setup. We just need manual flash capability here. Where the Plus II unit is easier to work with than the PocketWizard TT5 units or the RadioPoppers, is that the Plus II units make it easy to use a lightmeter.  (The PW TT5 and RadioPopper units rely on the camera’s wireless technology, and the communication between the Master and Slave units consist of visible light pulses .. which trigger a hand-held lightmeter prematurely, making it impossible (?) / tough to get an accurate lightmeter reading.

But to start off with, a wireless trigger / radio transmitter isn’t even essential for a basic studio setup – you could use a speedlight on the camera as the Master flash to trip the Slave unit. Many of the examples in my book about off-camera flash was shot exactly like that, without radio transmitters.

But the lightmeter makes it easier to be much more specific and precise about our decisions and choice of settings.

About the choice of settings:

Since we’re shooting with manual flash, we have 4 controls for our flash exposure. (Everything but shutter speed.)
- distance
- powere of our flash
- aperture
- ISO

Distance:
In this case, we set up the main light a certain distance from the two models – close enough to get a wide spread of light – but far enough to get the half-length portraits at a medium telephoto focal length. (That makes for a more normal and pleasing perspective than a wide-angle view.) However, in the example at the top, I purposely exaggerated the view by zooming to 30mm on my 24-70mm lens, as I shot from below.

Aperture & ISO:
We decided on f8 @ 400 ISO … why? Because that is what we decided we needed. A medium aperture at a decent ISO that is within the capabilities of a single speedlight. Simple.

Power (of our speedlight)
All that is left is to figure out our power setting on our flash – which is set to manual output, of course. In that linked tutorial on manual flash, we used our flash on our camera to see the relationship between flash output and distance. But here we have the umbrella diffusing our flash, so the distance scale on our flash has little bearing on anything. We need to calculate our flash’s setting to give us f8 … the aperture we (arbitrarily) decided on.

This is where the lightmeter makes our life so much easier. We now hold the lightmeter close to our subjects (the two models), and trip the flash, and look at the light meter’s display. (Of course, we had set the correct ISO on our lightmeter.)  We now trigger the flash and check the aperture that the lightmeter says our flash is giving us (for that distance and ISO). Then we change our flash’s output, by as much as is necessary to get to that aperture we want.  Simple as that.

I  ”count the clicks” to shift the exposure – adjusting my flash’s output by as many 1/3rd stop clicks as my aperture dial tells me.

All this takes much longer to describe than actually do. It really is simple.

For anyone who has been curious about using a simple off-camera setup like this – the equipment needed for an initial start is surprisingly little and inexpensive. The technique is really simple.  Don’t let all the wordiness fool you – it really is simple. You just need to DO it and see for yourself.

This is a topic we will revisit a few times again in the upcoming winter months. Ideal time to stay sheltered indoors and play with this.

In the image above, I had a second speedlight in an umbrella with a black backing. With this, I wanted to add enough light on the background so it doesn’t go grey, but remains white. In retrospect, I should’ve bumped the exposure from that flash up somewhat so that the background went white by blowing out a bit. It would’ve saved me some of the Photoshop effort to get a white background.

I used Shine-Off to reduce some of the specularity on the skin tones:

Buy ShineOff Plug-In for Windowsuse code: neilvn for 10% off

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Then on a final layer, I punched up the contrast and saturation via the RadLab filters / actions palette.

You can order the RadLab or the Totally Rad action sets via this affiliate link:
the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%

Equipment used with this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
(2x) Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  (2x) Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(3x) Pocket-Wizard Plus II Tranceiver (B&H)
Umbrella Bracket (B&H);  Brass Adapter & Stud (B&H)
45? white satin umbrella, with removable black backing (B&H)
45? white satin umbrella (B&H)
(2x) Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)
Sekonic L-358 (B&H)

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wedding photography – favorite image – city lights

This photo from a event wedding received a lot of favorable comments when I posted it on my Facebook page, as well as questions about how it was shot.

For the romantic portraits, I often take a couple around the venue – the light is just different than during the day. This is where video light comes into its own. Here though, I wanted some of the city lights and light from the traffic outside the venue to appear in the background. The way I envisioned it, was as a stream of cars behind them, but in the first few test images, the cars were too distinct, even at f2.8 and 200mm focal length. Looking at how the approaching cars lined up at the traffic intersection, I decided to use that instead, and let the cars’ headlights flare out.

Then I just needed some light on the couple to complete the image …

Shortly before we went out, I was still photographing a last few family groups that we didn’t get to earlier in the day. So I had a light-stand and white shoot-through umbrella ready. (Exactly the same off-camera lighting setup as shown in this recent post where I photographed band members.) I had my assistant hold it up at camera left. I tried shooting in TTL, but the exposure varied too much as the background lights flared or not. So I settled on low-power manual flash with the speedlight. I didn’t need a lot of power since I was shooting at f3.2 and 1600 ISO. In using the PocketWizard TT5 and AC3, I could easily flip between TTL and manual exposure for the off-camera flash.

The wide aperture was to help separate the couple from the background with the thin depth of field. The high ISO was because I was shooting hand-held. I didn’t have time to fetch and set up a tripod on this cold evening. Even at f3.2 and 1600 ISO, I used 1/25th shutter speed. This is where a stabilized lens is essential.

Proper technique to steadily hand-hold the camera and lens also made the difference.
- lens supported with my left hand under the lens;
- anchoring my elbows in my sides;
- legs apart;
- breathing controlled;
- lightly pressing the shutter release.

Focusing was a problem. The strong back-lighting from the cars’ headlights made it really difficult for the camera to focus. So I had to prefocus before the cars stopped there again with the next light change.

In terms of the chosen exposure – the camera settings are guided by the ambient light. There isn’t a real way to meter for it with your in-camera meter. So it really just depends on a good guesstimate for the initial exposure, and then nudging your shutter speed, aperture & ISO to where you need them to be. But mostly you just change your shutter speed to bring in the ambient light, because f3.2 and 1600ISO are getting close to the ceiling of useful settings. Also, since I was shooting with manual flash, it just made sense to change the shutter speed before I change anything else.

The flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTS gel to bring its color temperature closer to that of the city lights and car headlights.

And that is how this image came together. It even works in Black & White:

an album of images of this wedding can be seen on my Facebook page
images from this wedding can also be seen on my wedding photography blog

equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)
Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)
umbrella bracket (B&H);  45″ white shoot-through umbrella (B&H)

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example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox (model: Ulorin Vex)

Ulorin Vex posing for us during part of the on-location session of the flash photography workshops which I presented in San Francisco earlier this year. Ulorin Vex is of course absolutely stunning, as always. While I often direct models how they should pose, this one is all her doing . Not even I can improve on that.

The image here at the top was shot with an off-camera softbox – my usual preferred Lastolite Ezybox softbox. The direction of the light here should immediately reveal the approximate position where the light was positioned. Just as comparison, we removed the two baffles of the Lastolite, to see how direct off-camera flash would compare. We kept the softbox hull in place, so it did help contain the spread of light a bit. As you’d expect, the results look more dramatic.

With this image, I did some additional processing of the image in Photoshop, using the Radlab action sets.  Here is the pull-back shot. As you’d immediately notice as well, I cloned out the intercom box, and cleaned up some distracting spots and marks on the metallic areas.

With the two comparative images, I wanted to help give an idea of how different the results can be. While my own preference is for soft light, direct off-camera flash is always an option. A softbox (or large umbrella) is a more forgiving light source though than direct flash. You have more leeway in placing your light in relation to your subject if you make it a large light source and diffuse it.

camera settings and details for both images:
1/200 @ f5.6 @ 200 ISO
The 2nd image was over-exposed by around 1.5 stops.
This is due to the light being more concentrated to the center of the image, which will affect the TTL metering compared to the image at the top where the entire area is evenly lit. Since the setting is metallic, that had to affect the TTL exposure metering as well.
Canon 5D mark II (B&H);  Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS  (B&H)
The camera was hand-held with the lens zoomed to 28mm and 40mm respectively.

Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H)
FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H);  AC3 ZoneController (B&H)
set-up as explained in this article on wireless TTL triggers for Canon

image processing done with the RadLab action sets
(the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%)

other articles on Tangents, featuring Ulorin:

model – Ulorin Vex
Ulorin Vex in red (photo session 2)
Ulorin Vex – window light (photo session 3)
Ulorin Vex – Monaco foyer (photo session 4)
manual off-camera fill-flash (model – Ulorin Vex)

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these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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favorite images – After Dark Edu – Charlotte

As a mentor and presenter at the recent After Dark Education events in Charlotte, (much like what happens at any workshop or seminar that I present), I didn’t get to shoot much. I feel it is more important to let the people that are attending, get the time with fingers-on-the-camera’s-controls. But I did get to play with some of the lighting equipment in the bays there. That’s much of the attraction of the After Dark events – loads of lighting toys to play with and learn and figure out on your own, or with the help of someone.

With that, here are a few of my favorite images …

Josh was posing for another photographer in the one bay. I decided I like the look of the modeling lights – the look of the lighting setup and the quality of the light. So I took a few images just with the modeling lights. No flash.

I even liked the warmth, and retained much of it, for the images I originally posted here. (Like the one shown below.) Even if the White Balance technically isn’t correct, I just like the look. But I had several people comment immediately that the photos looked wrong, so I changed the images that were originally at the top, for those with a better WB setting. Ones with a WB that looks more pleasing than the overly warm images.

camera settings: 1/80 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H) … handheld at 70mm

Here is the pull-back shot to give some idea of the lighting setup.

The lovely Amanda, who I met when she modeled at the previous After Dark event in Cincinnati. This photo was the one demonstration shot during my presentation on bounce flash photography.

1/250 @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)

One of the several adorable kids we had as models. Tons of attitude and confidence. An excellent model.

For lighting we used one of the Larson softboxes and  the Photogenic CL500 continuous light (with daylight balanced bulb), which gave out a huge amount of light.

The background here was the elevator doors, thrown out of focus with a telephoto zoom used wide open.

As I mentioned, the beauty of After Dark’s setup is that you have 10 bays with different lighting setups and kits, and if there is one open, you can play around. Megan was our gorgeous (and patient) model here.

the pull-back shot of the lighting setup:

The next two images were taken in a different bay. There was a large softbox to the camera left, and then we worked with the placement of the reflector on camera right. The first image was without a reflector, and the second we positioned the reflector to do its thing.

Everyone was also fascinated by the fluorescent ring-light. Blindingly bright when you get close to it as a model. The photographer’s view is one of flat even light. Quite wonderful if that’s your thing. The ring-light leaves its calling card as that perfectly round highlight in your subject’s eyes. Strange to see the first time, and really bizarre when your subject looks up and the white halo intersects with the iris of the eye.

Blonnie – a Delaware wedding photographer – indulged me by posing for a few photos. The catch-light here in her eye isn’t perfectly circular around the iris because I had her turn her head away from the camera.

I also did a presentation / shoot on boudoir posing & lighting. Chris was our kinetic model … so much more interesting that when I showed a few of the poses. (It even makes sense to internalize and memorize the basic boudoir posing by doing it yourself, same as learning the basics of posing for photographs in general.)

(photo by Blonnie Brooks)

A final image – one which I posted earlier on in the convention, when Britney posed for us during an impromptu session using handheld video lights.

For more info on upcoming After Dark Education events.

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these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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