Wedding photography: Night-time city lights & off-camera flash
Wedding photography: Night-time city lights & off-camera flash
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 Read more inside...example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox
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 Read more inside...Bounce flash photography & white balance settings
Bounce flash photography & white balance settings
A question that often comes up, is whether the white balance will change when bouncing flash. The answer is an obvious one - yes, the light will pick up any color cast from a non-white surface. But that is why we need to shoot in RAW. Then the decision about exact White Balance becomes less crucial. The photograph above, is of Roz, and was taken during the recent flash photography workshops in Dublin, Ireland. Roz was Ireland's contestant in the 2010 Miss Universe contest, so it was quite a privilege to have her as one of our Read more inside...photo session: urban ballerina – Oktavia
photo session: urban ballerina - Oktavia
Oktavia is the stunning model on the cover of my book about off-camera flash. We've intended to do another photo shoot ever since then, but busy schedules kept us from that until recently. A theme that Oktavia wanted to explore, was that of the Urban Ballerina. The idea with the urban ballerina is the contextual dissonance of having a graceful dancer in the middle of some urban setting. There's no real meaning to it other than contrasting art & beauty against the harsher urban setting. Read more inside...photo session – vintage pinup style (on location)
photo session - vintage pinup style (on location)
When the hot-rod show which didn't offer as much in terms of photography as I had hoped, Jill and I moved over to the pier in Brooklyn. Having a model in a retro sailor-suit type outfit ... well, it just seemed to good an opportunity to waste. I thought of perhaps using the Ice Cream Factory there as a backdrop to a straight-forward pinup photo, but ultimately decided the Hudson River waterfront would work better as a setting for the photo. Then we just had to add some simple but dynamic lighting, and give the final image a vintage Read more inside...Directional light with off-camera bounce flash
Directional light with off-camera bounce flash
During the same afternoon that I had the opportunity to photograph Ulorin Vex, I took several other sequences of images of her in other costume. Here we worked in the foyer area of the Hotel Monaco in San Francisco. (If only all other hotels had such a diversity of immediately photogenic areas!) With this image, I wanted a near-symmetrical image, with just Ulorin Vex's posture slightly breaking the symmetry up. Just enough to make a stunning subject even more eye-catching. A little more about the train-of-thought to getting to this Read more inside...off-camera flash – creating separation with back-lighting
off-camera flash – creating separation with back-lighting (model: Bethany)
Another image from the photo session with Bethany, when I was in San Francisco earlier this year. This interesting background is part of the lobby area of a San Francisco night-club. I knew the wooden panelling and subdued incandescent lighting would make an interesting background because of the repetitive pattern and glow. A slow shutter speed brought the background light in ... and then I used flash to light her. I didn't gel my flash - specifically so that the background light would go that warm. The Read more inside...“Using the available light” is not a random decision
"Using the available light" is not a random decision
Since I often use flash or additional light, there was some surprise in the (favorable) comments in the Facebook album when I mentioned this photo was shot without any flash. Not even fill-flash. Just the available light. But where I posed the bride, was a specific decision. It wasn't just random. Now, I often get the feeling that when someone boasts they only use available light, that it is meant to disguise that they don't know how to use additional lighting. My thought here is that unless you find yourself in great light, or Read more inside...Wedding photography – lighting large groups
Wedding photography - lighting large groups
Weddings are one of those occasions when families and friends come together from far and wide. An opportunity to see people they might rarely see otherwise. So it is an important task of any wedding photographer to record this - to get photographs of the various family groups. This photo is the pull-back shot from one of the big groups I had to photograph at an Indian wedding this weekend. Now, everyone who has been to an Indian wedding, knows that they are sprawling events. There's lots going on and it can be slightly chaotic at times. Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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