Neil vN - tangents » wedding photography

bridal portrait – working with the available light

Neil vN — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:25:02 +0000

bridal portrait – working with the available light

This striking portrait is of Rachel, a bride whose wedding I photographed yesterday. Yes, a Tuesday wedding! The prep was at a hotel on the Jersey shore, and when Rachel was ready, I wanted to shoot a few straight-forward portraits there in the hotel. There was a lot of light in the hotel room itself, but the decor was white – which helps for high-key portraits. But I wanted some variety.

So I scouted around, and decided to do some photographs in the passage outside her hotel room. Since it was a wedding on the Jersey shore, and we did other portraits later on, on the beach, I thought this bright wallpaper wouldn’t be too inappropriate as a backdrop. Now it was just a question of light …

This pull-back shot shows the setting. I really prefer to get as simple a background as possible. An f2.8 telephoto zoom lens is essential here in compressing perspective, and eliminating clutter in the background.
- wedding day portraits – simplifying composition for effect
- wedding day portraits – bride & bridesmaids

camera settings for the image at the top: 1/100 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon D3s (B&H); Nikon 70-200mm f2/2.8 VR II (B&H)

Now, even though the light here was soft, with the large panels of fluorescent light, the light is still top-heavy. So then it became a matter of directing Rachel’s gaze slightly upward so there are no shadows under her eyebrows. Clean open light. Just the way I like it.
- direction of the light … any light
- even with high ISO settings, you still need great light
- flash photography concepts

It’s a specific approach, that helps in defining a specific style that I have – aiming for both simplicity and elegance.

romantic wedding portraits – working with an idea

Neil vN — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:06:21 +0000

romantic wedding portraits – working with an idea

I was down in Baltimore last weekend, photographing a wedding there. The groom, Chris, follows the Tangents blog, and he and Lindsay sought me out as their wedding photographer. While this is hugely flattering, there is now a little extra pressure to live up to and even exceed expectations!

We snuck outside during dinner time, and walked around the Lord Baltimore hotel, to get a few urban portraits. During dinner there is a bit of a lull in the reception while the guests enjoy their meals. A good time to get additional romantic portraits without taking the bride and groom away from the party. Outside the hotel, we worked in the subway station’s entrance, and a few spots on the streets of downtown Baltimore. Then in the distance on a street intersection, I saw a wisp of steam rise up. A familiar sight in New York, and I had always hoped to photograph a couple through the rising steam, but never had the opportunity.

But this was a bit of a gamble for me. There is the idea … but it depended on the steam rising up in a way that augmented the photograph. The steam was very erratic in how it rose – the wind would waft it around, and the passing traffic would just blow it away entirely. So the idea would need a bit of good luck to work.

There was also very little light in the middle of the intersection, and I couldn’t risk my second shooter’s life there to hold up a video light. It would have to be just the available light in the middle of the pedestrian walkway across the intersection.

I took a quick test shot to see if it could work …

Sure enough, 1/80 @ f2.8 @ 2500 ISO

The low-light abilities of the Nikon D3S (B&H) would save me again. And of course, an f2.8 telephoto zoom with aggressive stabilization. The
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G VR II (B&H) is my lens. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II (B&H) is a wonderful choice as well. Super-sharp with incredible stabilization.

I then told Lindsay and Chris to go to the opposite side of the street, and as soon as the light turned green for them, go to the middle and stop there. The pose would have to be a straight-foward half-hug while looking at each other.

Here is a shot of Lindsay and Chris, waiting to cross the street. There was a fair amount of traffic!

The telephoto zoom at 200mm, would help isolate them against the out-of-focus urban scene … but would also help me *reach* across the intersection to frame them in a sensible composition.

I took about 40 frames in short bursts, of which about 6 are successfully sharp with no cars in the frame. Quite a few images were lost like this …

With the distance and city noise, Lindsay and Chris couldn’t always hear me properly as I shouted instructions, so there were a few odd expressions that didn’t make the final edit either.

I was very happy with that success rate – 6 images – since the light was low, and conditions were unpredictable. It all came together based on an idea; a little bit of luck; photography equipment that was up to the challenge … and a couple that trusted me as their wedding photographer.

other articles on wedding photography

Recommended telephoto zooms:

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

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G VR II

Amazon.com Widgets

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bounce flash photography & the inverse square law

Neil vN — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:00:51 +0000

bounce flash photography & the inverse square law

After you’re done noticing the decorated candles that the bride is holding while dancing with the groom (a tradition in Palestinian weddings), you may well notice how evenly lit this photograph is – from foreground to background.

The people visible in the background seen there between the bride and the groom, are nearly as well lit as the bride and groom. Because this was on-camera bounce flash, the background will be brighter than may have been anticipated. If I had used direct flash, or flash with a diffuser cup or bounce card, my background would’ve been much darker. This is because when we bounce flash behind us, the Inverse Square Law works for us.

This gets interesting, but hopefully we can make it less complicated than the topic often appears. So hang in there …

As comparison, here is an image taken shortly before, where I shot too fast for my on-camera flash to keep up. So this misfire will give you an idea of the effect the single flash had.

My camera settings:
the image without flash: 1/100 @ f3.5 @ 3200 ISO
the image with flash: 1/80 @ f3.2 @ 3200 ISO … TTL flash set to 0 FEC; gelled with 1/2 CTS
Nikon D3S (B&H); Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S (B&H)
Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H); Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)

Looking at this image again compared to the image where the flash didn’t go off, we can see just how much the flash lit up the entire room. Now, it helps to keep in mind that it was the flash riding ‘on top of’ ambient light, and not quite the flash doing all the work here in getting to the final correct exposure.

Even though this reception venue is quite large, I was able to use only an on-camera bounce flash. I bounced it over my shoulder, using a black foamie thing to flag it so I don’t hurt people behind me with the blindingly powerful flash. I was able to do it because of the incredible high-ISO performance of the Nikon D3S (B&H) which allowed me to comfortably shoot at 3200 ISO.

Now, when we bounce flash like this without a plastic diffuser or bounce card, we don’t think of our flash as our light source anymore. Instead, the surface that we bounce off, becomes our light source. In this case it was the ceiling and walls above and behind me. The walls behind me were about as far away as the walls there in the back of the photograph. In other words, the de facto light source is now quite some distance away. And this is where the Inverse Square Law kicks in to help explain why the background is relatively bright in comparison to the subject.

Inverse Square Law

The Inverse Square Law implies that as we move away from a light source, the light becomes less bright in proportion to the square of the distance.

This video clip by Mark Wallace as posted on the Fstoppers site, is the best explanation of the Inverse Square Law that I’ve seen to date. Mark Wallace really breaks the daunting topic down to something which can be visually understood, and those 12 minutes will be a solid investment in your photography.

In a similar way, I want to make it visually understandable why bouncing flash behind you would open up the background of the image. It might sound counter-intuitive, but here is what happens. And it relates directly to the Inverse Square Law.

Let’s work through an example:

If we measure a (manual) flash at 12 feet and let’s say we measure f8
then if we measure the same flash at twice that distance (24 feet),
we will lose 2 stops of light. Our light will measure now measure as f4

If we double our distance from the light, then we will lose another 2 stops of light.
So if we move from 24 feet, ie, where we measure f4.0
then at 48 feet, we will measure f2.0

Every halving or doubling of distance means a 2 stop difference in light.

This is where the gradient of light fall off becomes important.

If you move from 6 feet (which would measure f16 in this scenario)
to only 12 feet away (where we measured f8)
then a mere 6 feet change in distance implied a massive 2 stops drop in light.

But moving from 24 feet to 48 feet – a huge jump in distance,
would mean the same drop in light levels … 2 stops.

Those are the numbers. And the theory works in practice too.

The clear implication is that the gradient of light fall-off is less steep, the further we move from the light source. This is hugely important!

How it all adds up with bounce flash photography on location:

In a real shooting situation, we might not get as technical as that. We just need an innate understanding of what is going on. The further our subject+background moves from the light source, the brighter our background will appear, relative to when our subject+background is much closer to the light source.

Now if we look at the image at the top … the people in the background are not twice the distance from my light source compared to the bride and groom. They are closer than that. Therefore, they will be only a stop or so darker than my subjects. Or even less than a stop. The fall-off becomes much slower now at this distance from our light.

If I had used direct flash, then the people in the background would comparatively have been much further from my light source than the bride and groom .. hence, the people in the background would’ve been much more under-exposed with direct flash …. than they would’ve been with flash bounced over our shoulder behind us.

Here is another example that I have used in the article on flash photography during the wedding ceremony in church.

1/125 @ f3.5 @ 1600 ISO
on-camera TTL bounce flash (gelled with 1/2 CTS)

The shot without flash is uniformly dark. The shot with flash bounced behind me into the front of the church … the background brightens up considerably more than we might’ve anticipated. People behind the bride and her parents, are well lit by the on-camera bounce flash.

Again, it happens this way because the people in the background are not that much further from my light source, than the bride and her parents are from the light source. The Inverse Square Law implies that the further our subject+background is from our light source, the less dramatic the light fall-off between our subject and background.

Hopefully this article helps easing in a subject which can be daunting from the outset. And hopefully this article helps with the “feel” if not the immediate math. The part we need to intuitively grasp here is that if we bounce our flash behind us, our background opens up.

And for those already familiar with the top of the Inverse Square Law, I hope that this article brings it in again from a different direction.

Let me know if there are any questions, and let’s work through this. Understanding all of this (to some degree at least), will help our understanding of flash photography.

practical tutorial: controls for manual flash exposure

more articles about wedding photography …

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a simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

Neil vN — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:48:43 +0000

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.

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

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exposure metering – let your background blow out!

Neil vN — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:21:53 +0000

exposure metering – let your background blow out!

Too often there’s the desire for us to bring the detail in our backgrounds back in by adding flash. But there are times when the image will be stronger if we just allow the background to completely blow out. It especially works in our favor if the background is cluttered, because then by letting the background completely over-expose, we can simplify our composition.

The photo at the top is of Randa, whose wedding I photographed the past weekend. While finishing her preparation in the bedroom, I noticed a gesture she made as she tried to control the veil … but I also knew that if I exposed correctly for her as my subject, the background would melt away. So we played with the idea for a minute.

Here is another photo in the sequence, but with the exposure pulled down by 3 stops with the RAW file. That will give you an idea of what the background would look like. Not bad … but not as simple as I like.

Then by exposing correctly for her, the background disappeared. I also lose some detail in the veil, but I can live with that, since this image is more about the mood and the gesture than it is about exact retention of detail in the veil.

Here is the image without any post-processing. (Aside from a slight tweak of the white balance of the RAW file.)

camera settings: 1/80 @f/2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon D3S (B&H); Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)

Then for the final image, shown at the start of the article, I used the Totally Rad action set, with a mixture of presets that I named ‘Vintage‘, that I’ve used before with some images. It gives the image a warm muted look that works well in this context.

The technique is so simple, but it relies on us recognizing the potential while actually shooting.

This is exactly the technique I used when I photographed Anelisa in the shopping mall when working on the review of the Fuji X100. By exposing for my subject, I let my background blow out, giving an ethereal looking photograph.

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

more articles on available light photography
more articles about wedding photography

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wedding photography – using bounce flash outside

Neil vN — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:12:49 +0000

wedding photography – using bounce flash outside

When working with a couple during the romantic portrait session, there’s the need to bring variety to the images – not just in posing and composition, but also in terms of light & lighting. For this reason I use a variety – available light; video light; off-camera flash and on-camera bounce flash. I really like using on-camera bounce flash since it is such an easy light source to use, always at hand. There was a recent article on using bounce flash outdoors, but I’d like to add another example where I used bounce flash outside a wedding venue. Let’s look at the sequence of images …

Photographing the bride, Justine, against a Tungsten-lit background, I positioned her and myself so that I could get that warm halo around her. Bounce flash. Dead easy. Of course I used the black foamie thing to make sure the light from the flash was indirect, yet directional. It’s a simple but effective way to work with on-camera flash indoors.

I chose my camera settings such that the ambient light in the background registered, and then added TTL flash. The flash picked up the exposure to where it needed to be. I had to dial a positive FEC to compensate for the brighter tonal values dominating the center of the image.

camera settings: 1/60 @ f/2.8 @ 1000 ISO .. TTL flash @ +1.33 FEC
Nikon D3S (B&H); Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H) … used at 145mm
Nikon SB-900 (B&H); Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)

Then we moved outdoors …

.. the soft evening light was just perfect. Nothing extra needed. The light was fairly low, so I used 1600 ISO. Not a problem with the Nikon D3s.

camera settings: 1/250 @ f/4 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon D3S (B&H); Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S (B&H) … used at 28mm

The light was getting low, but working with the direction of the light, there was enough light to comfortably get by.

Then I had the idea of shooting from an elevated point of view and using the lines there as a compositional device. Standing on a chair, I was able to get that point of view … but I also made sure that were I placed myself, I would be able to bounce flash up against the walls and ceiling of the entrance way.

Here you can get a better idea of how high the ceiling was, and where I bounced my flash off.

Since the light was too low shooting in that direction, I didn’t particularly meter for the ambient light, but rather chose my settings so that they made sense … ie, enough depth-of-field and a not-too-low shutter speed. I needed to hand-hold a non-stabilized lens, and flash might not entirely freeze my movement there, standing on the cushioned chair.

Here is one of the final images in this sequence … and another as a comparison where I disabled the flash so that you can see what the ambient levels where at.

camera settings: 1/200 @ f/4 @ 1600 ISO .. TTL flash @ +1.00 FEC
Nikon D3S (B&H); Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S (B&H) … used at 30mm
Nikon SB-900 (B&H); Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)

Since the couple had no idea of what I was aiming for, it helps in showing the result. I do this during the session – it helps reinforce their confidence in me. But I don’t do this with such frequency that it holds up the flow of the photography. It is important to keep the energy level up.

The image at the top of the page then is one of a sequence … which is one of a number of sequences I took. All of this with the motive to give the couple an interesting variety to their photographs. Using different lighting sources and styles definitely helps with that. It keeps it interesting for the couple, and it keeps it interesting for me as a photographer.

more articles on bounce flash photography
more articles about wedding photography

more images from this wedding can be seen in the album on Facebook,
and in previous articles here:
- wedding photography – tips on posing – asymmetry
- back-lighting with flash for silhouetted wedding portraits

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

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Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

2011 overview – my favorite wedding photographs

Neil vN — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:35:41 +0000

best wedding images of 2011 – New Jersey wedding photographer

2011 was another busy year for me as a wedding photographer. This slideshow features some of my favorite wedding and engagement session images of 2011.
(Soundtrack courtesy of TripleScoopMusic.)

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Alli & Scott – their wedding day – fusion clip

Neil vN — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:19:31 +0000

Alli & Scott – their wedding day – fusion clip

The latest Fusion clip where we blend video and stills to give a short form overview of the wedding day, is of Alli and Scott’s wedding. They were also the couple in the recent article on photographing the bride & groom’s portraits with video light.

The Fusion clip was edited in iMovie, with the soundtrack from Triple Scoop Music.

More interesting is the thought-process that went into choosing the camera settings for the Canon 5D mk II that the video clips were shot with …

the camera settings for shooting the video footage with a DLSR:

With the video clip of Lea – moving portrait, where I played with the Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II (B&H), I explained some of the rationale in deciding on certain camera settings when shooting video with a D-SLR. But in this instance, where we were shooting video clips of the wedding, the approach was slightly different:

With Canon DSLRs, multiples of 160 ISO give the best noise performance. So for the entire video day, we tried to stay at multiples of 160 ISO, especially since we’d be cranking the ISO quite high during the wedding reception. The low light of the wedding reception necessitates a higher ISO. Adding a video light to it turns the background darker. Raising the ISO allows more of the actual ambient light to register.

Most of the wedding day was shot with the relatively slow aperture zoom, the Canon 24-105mm f4L IS (B&H). It’s a sharp lens and has a nice range, but that slow aperture can be a limitation. Since we worked indoors, there wasn’t much opportunity to change the aperture much from the wide-open f/4 to keep to the appropriate multiple-of-160-ISO settings.

We needed to keep the camera at 1/50th off a second shutter speed through-out.There are many articles online which will describe why 24fps gives a film-like appearance. And for specific reasons, it means we need to shoot at 1/50th shutter speed to maintain the 180 degree shutter rule, if we are shooting video at 24fps. So we kept the shutter speed to 1/50th shooting the video footage.

Therefore, since we wanted to keep to a 1/50th shutter speed, and had to shoot at f/4 or there-abouts, we had to change my ISO to suit, even though my specific ISO setting might not match the ideal.

equipment used during this shoot:
Canon 5D mk II (B&H)
Canon 24-105mm f4L IS (B&H)
Canon EF 35mm f1.4L (B&H)

Manfrotto 458B tripod with NeoTec Pro Photo tripod legs (B&H)
Manfrotto 701HDV fluid head monopod (B&H)

LitePanels MicroPro (B&H)

other articles featuring video clips shot with the Canon 5D mk II:
- Lea – moving portrait (short video clip)
- Sydney & Paul – their wedding day – fusion clip
- Cherryl & Jim – their wedding day – stills and video fusion clip

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.

wedding photography – tips on posing – asymmetry

Neil vN — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:20:26 +0000

wedding photography – tips on posing – asymmetry

When working with a bride and groom for their portraits, there are a few ideas that I know will work. You have to have somewhere to start. Some fail-safe ideas for poses that allow you to at least get the essential images. From there on, I try to improvise a little, depending on the personalities of the couple, and also the place where we find ourselves, and the light. So opportunity does sway the portrait session a fair amount.

I prefer working this way, rather than applying a more mechanical “flow posing” technique. I feel that allowing opportunity and the couple themselves to guide the photo session to an extent – is a more natural way of working towards definitive portraits of the couple.

This does mean that you need to *look* at the couple, and how they appear within the camera’s frame … and then gently adjust their pose if necessary. At this point then, it becomes more about photographic composition. Now we need to look at balance and symmetry … and asymmetry.

One key tip that I rely on, is that while a symmetrical pose can be striking … the easiest way to break it up and get more variety, is to change the position of hands and feet. One hand lower than the other. A different level. The same for how you position feet – one foot on a different level than the other. Up / Down. Front / Back.

Here’s a sequence to show the thought-process …

Photographing Justine and Kyle outside their venue, the early evening light was soft and warm. No flash needed. The light was perfect.

This is where I started this sequence. I wanted more of a Fashion feel to this sequence. (Easy enough with a couple this photogenic!) For one of the first images in the sequence, I had Kyle look off into the distance, while Justine hugged him from behind. I then asked Justine to make eye-contact with me for at least one photograph.

I then swung around to shoot from the front. But her hands were too symmetrically positioned here on either side of him. Instead of the photo looking balanced, to me it looked less dynamic because of that.

So I quietly asked Justine to bring her right hand up to his shoulder …. and here is that image.

This pose also allowed my 2nd photographer to get a few complementing frames.

Just that subtle shift in the position of her hand, created a more dynamic composition.

This is the kind of finessing of a bride and groom’s posing that I prefer for wedding portraits.

It is always a good idea to study books and photographs for poses to use, and internalizing some of the best ideas. However, instead of relying on mechanically replicating those ideas, I rely on a more instinctive approach, looking at the composition, and subtly adjusting what is needed, right there and then.

back-lighting with flash for silhouetted wedding portraits

Neil vN — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:12:49 +0000

back-lighting with flash for dramatic silhouetted wedding portraits

One of the easiest ways to create dramatic light for a silhouette when photographing the wedding portraits, is to add a flash behind the couple. The beauty of this is that there is a fair amount of leeway as to what would work. We need not be all that exact, but there are some a few things we should check …

1. The distance of the flash behind the couple – a few feet.

2. Set the flash to a wide zoom angle for the flash-head. Flipping the diffuser panel down, or using a diffuser cup, would also help spread the light.

3. Tilt the flash up by about 45 degrees.

4. It is best we don’t put the flash on the ground directly behind the couple, because if the flash comes from below them, the light tends to over-expose large areas of the underside of their faces and chins. Not ideal. So it helps in elevating the flash off the ground. A small tripod is best.

There is more to this. I was using the PocketWizard TT5 units, and they don’t respond well if the receiving unit is on the ground. The receiver needs to be elevated to receive the entire radio wave from the sender. So I knew from experience (and one or two test shots here), that I had best elevate the flash anyway.

In the example above, I told my assistant to crouch down behind them wile holding the flash (and wireless receiver) in her hand. My instruction was to “be small” as she crouched so that she wouldn’t appear in the frame.

5. Manual flash settings make the most sense. TTL flash metering isn’t really of help here, since your camera won’t be directly metering the area lit by the flash. The flash exposure will mostly be rim-lighting, and not lighting your subjects from the front. The manual flash settings – try 1/4 power or 1/8th power or even 1/16 power, depending on your aperture and ISO.

My settings for the photo above:
1/30 @ f4 @ 1600 ISO … lens zoomed to 30mm
My settings were based on the need to have some detail in the wedding reception venue behind the couple. Then I added flash. Simple.

My flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTS gel.

Since the building is well-lit, there was also the option to not use flash, and just have the natural silhouette, without the flash adding the rim-light.

My settings for the photo above:
1/40 @ f2.8 @ 2500 ISO - hand-held, lens zoomed to 24mm

And just for comparison, here is the same setup, but lit from the front.

My settings for the photo above:
1/40 @ f2.8 @ 2500 ISO - hand-held, lens zoomed to 24mm
My flash was gelled with a 1/2 CTS gel.

Here I had my assistant hold a white umbrella aloft, with the shaft of the umbrella pointing at the couple. She also held the flash aloft in her other hand, bouncing into the umbrella. While this image works, for me, it just lacks the dramatic impact of the image at the top. However, it is a photo I would include to show the couple, just to give them the option.