This week’s guest blog post is by a Calgary wedding photographer, Mark Pawlyszyn. He is one of the standout members on the Digital Wedding Forum, where his work easily caught my eye. His style in his wedding photography has steadily become more impressive over the course of just a few years. As such I am very honoured that he agreed to a guest spot on the Tangents blog.
Before I start into the main area of my blog article, I wanted to say that I really admire what Neil has done here. Tangents has always been one of the best resources around for learning flash and photography techniques. When I first discovered this place there was a wealth of information about how much you can do with very little equipment, and although over the years a lot has been added to this foundation, what Neil does so well is to show how great lighting techniques can be readily accessible to just about anyone.
But what if you actually enjoy time-consuming or complicated setups? For good or bad, this is something I tend to do. My motto is, why use one flash when you can use ten? (To be honest, I think the most I’ve only ever used at once was eight). I also like to plan things in advance, to have certain ideas for a wedding and try something new. It’s cool to have new poses and locations, but I also like to have complete concepts, like a theme within the images.
This image is one example that comes to mind is from a wedding I did last winter. The bride contacted me shortly before the wedding to say that she wanted some photos in the nearby cemetery. She wasn’t into anything dark or gothic; she just wondered about the lives of the people there and if anyone still thought of them. So she sometimes visited, just to kind of make sure someone still thought of them. When she told me this I had an idea for an image—something positive, but with a moody atmosphere. I sketched it out and sent her an email to see if she’d be up for it …
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 …
2009 was another crazy-busy year for me. As regular readers of the Tangents blog will know, the majority of my work is as a New Jersey wedding photographer. This also includes the various photo sessions, as well as the wedding albums that had to be designed. Adding to my crazy schedule were the 17 photography workshops that I presented across the USA; and 4 sold-out workshops in the UK and Ireland! Regulars here will also know that another major event was my book on flash photography that was released in August ‘09.
But, most of my work though centers around the weddings that I photograph. This year again I was fortunate in meeting and working with wonderful brides and groom and their families. As a wrap-up of the year – and also to show off a bit – here is a slideshow of some of my favourite wedding images of 2009.
Click on the controls for the slideshow to start. (There is music accompanying the slideshow.)
Over the course of the past year or so, I’ve made a steady attempt to move this blog away from being wedding-heavy, and take the material more towards general photography, and photographing people.
However, since the most of my work is as done as a wedding photographer in New Jersey, I still get a large number of questions which relate to wedding photography - and specifically, photographing the reception. So I thought I would expand a little on the techniques I use in photographing wedding receptions.
Other reasons for not using additional off-camera lighting at receptions usually have to do with the logistics and space, and shape of the reception room. Quite often there just isn’t space to safely put down a lightstand or two. Also, more and more receptions venues are lately using up-lighting. This already helps create a more colourful and interesting background, and additional flashguns would just destroy the mood.
The classic shot – a beautiful bride lit by soft window light.
That’s a yes on the beautiful bride – but it’s a solid no on the window light.
What you see there is on-camera flash. (Which most likely won’t be a surprise to regular readers of the Tangents blog.)
This image is from a wedding this past weekend, and it makes a great example of how light, choice of lens, composition, angle and technique come together to make an image work. With a bit of post-processing added finally for that vintage feel.
Let’s look at the light first .. how I used on-camera bounce flash for my lighting here.
In the first of two postings on how I light the wedding formals, I showed how I use a single flashgun when photographing smaller formal groups indoors. The equipment is relatively simple then – a single flashgun (Q-flash) and a large 60″ umbrella to give me good lighting. The flashgun that I use for these, is a Q-flash. Specifically the older T2 model since I only use them in manual mode here. When I have a larger group I use two of these flashguns – each with an umbrella. But more about that in a follow-up article coming up soon.
What I wanted to illustrate here is one of the benefits of doing the formal portraits (indoors) with manual off-camera flash … consistency.
Since the flash gives off a specific amount of light every time – it is manual flash after all and not TTL flash – and since the flash is on a stand, and therefore at a constant distance to your subject .. this means that your flash exposure will be consistent. It will be consistent regardless of YOUR position. You can move around.
This off-beat photograph of the bride and groom kissing, was a grab shot. While I was on my knees in front of the bride, adjusting her dress, the groom leaned in for a kiss. I grabbed my camera and as I lifted it to my eye, the groom playfully tried to block my shot. And there it is.
Since my lights were set-up and exposure calculated for the manual off-camera flash, the exposure remained the same .. regardless of my being right up close to them. My distance to the subject had no influence here.
My favourite image of the week is this one from a sequence taken during the romantic portrait session after a wedding. The wedding took place in Florida, earlier on in November. (It’s my favourite image of this week since I am only now catching up on a backlog of work.) As a wedding photographer in New Jersey, it is quite a treat to do a destination wedding – someplace a little more exotic than the Garden State.
Not only was it a destination wedding in Florida, (timed with a flash photography workshop), but this also happened to be the first time that I photographed a same-sex wedding. And I felt particularly honoured to have so much faith placed in me with a special event like this.
The reason why this image is my favourite is that it shows a wonderful couple together in a spontaneous moment. It is very much *them*, and I am sure their friends and family will instantly recognize this image as capturing the essence of who they are, and how they are.
This is where a lens like the 70-200mm f2.8 is essential .. it allows breathing space between you and your subjects. The light is all available light. No flash necessary with the soft early evening light.
But I did a little bit of work on the image in Photoshop, so let’s see how I got there ..
This favourite images from a recent wedding, is one which I’d like to analyze a little as to what went into creating it.
First of all, I am usually quite specific about my backgrounds. A cluttered background can really bring down an image which might otherwise have worked. So in a case like this, when creating the romantic portraits outside the venue with this couple, I was on the look-out for something interesting to work with. When I saw the twinkly lights in the trees outside, I knew that it would definitely make a great out-of-focus background.
I then needed to position the couple in relation to the background – and in this case use a lens with a longer focal length to help place them. A wide-angle lens would’ve given too wide a field of view. I need a tighter composition.
But in how I wanted to position the couple, I also knew the light on them wasn’t ideal. I would have to add on-camera flash as a quick fix for the lighting. Since I was working alone, I couldn’t rely on an assistant to hold a reflector or an umbrella / softbox. I therefore looked for something to bounce my flash off .. and I figured that I could bounce my flash off the outside walls of the venue. I did so at an angle, that I could still have a measure of directional light on them.
These two things then combined to make it this particular spot that I used:
- an interesting background, and
- an area I could bounce flash off.
Since I knew I would be losing a lot of light from my on-camera speedlight in bouncing flash off a large wall outside, the short telephoto that I wanted to use, also needed to be a fast optic.
The previous article on the topic showed a more static set-up in how I light the formal portraits of the bride and groom and families on their wedding day. But I try and get as many on-location portraits of the bride beforehand to bring in some variety to the portraits. It is also a very good idea to get as much done as early on as you can on the day .. just in case the time-line gets compressed and things don’t quite follow the original plan. Then you’ll be much happier for having some solid portraits in your pocket. So it definitely is a good idea to shoot some formal portraits when you can just after the bride has finished her preparation.
In this example, I had the bride in the hotel’s foyer, but I specifically had the bride stand in a place where the overhead tungsten spotlights didn’t fall directly on her, but there was obviously enough spill light to give a strong colour cast. So she was relatively in ’shade’ compared to the brighter background. This was done on purpose, so I could use flash to light her properly. In this case, on-camera flash in TTL mode. And to make sure I don’t get an ugly colour cast in adding “blue” flash to the warmer tones of the tungsten+daylight mix .. I gelled my flash with 1/2 CTS gel and had my white balance set to 3700K. More about that on this previous post on using flash in a tungsten environment.
I bounced my flash to camera left, and used the Black Foamie Thing to shield any direct flash that would’ve fallen on the bride. I specifically want indirect flash. The moment that your subject can see any part of your flash tube, there is direct flash … and that would spoil the effect that I am after here … soft indirect light that is still directional.
With this, the first in a loose series on lighting and photographing the family formals at weddings, I would like to show that with a simple approach it is possible to get clean results that work every time.
In lighting the formals, I don’t try to get all Rembrandt, but prefer a fairly flat way of lighting everyone. I keep the lighting static for all the images, whether I am photographing one person or twenty. With time usually being a real constraint during the wedding day, there simply isn’t the opportunity to play around too much with the lighting .. and I find a simple predictable way of lighting works best.
Before we get to the actual gear I use, let’s start off with exposure metering for flash.
Because I work with 0ff-camera lighting, and everyone is static in relation to the lights, it is much much simpler to work with manual flash. With TTL flash there is the chance (or risk, if you will), of exposure varying from image to image. This will slow your post-production workflow down as you now have to correct exposure for individual images. In the end it is just simpler to work with manual flash in this instance.
You can work with a flashmeter, however, I use the histogram with as much accuracy by metering for the brightest relevant tone – the white dress. Since the lighting setup is straight-forward and the lighting pattern quite even, metering for the flash exposure is pretty simple as well.
The flash exposure is chosen for a specific aperture and ISO – we need enough depth-of-field, and f5.6 is good for a small group of people in line with each other. For our ISO setting, we need as low as possible to get the best results – the best colour reproduction and contrast, and as little amount of digital noise as we can tolerate .. and on modern D-SLRs an ISO of 400 gives very good results indeed, and can even be considered a low ISO setting.
But these settings also need to be chosen in relation to our available light .. and for the image above, here is the available light only shot:
