Off-camera flash for wedding portraits on the beach
I had the great pleasure of photographing Sarah and Antonio’s wedding in Santa Monica, California. For the romantic portrait, we went down to the beach in the late afternoon. With the pier in the background, and with the sun (even at 5pm) still beating down, the photos were going to look vibrant, with that sun-drenched look. Beautiful.
When I posted the photos in an album on Facebook, a number of people asked me about this (and other photos), and how I photographed them. The technique is quite straight-forward, as described in numerous articles on the Tangents blog. With that, instead of just giving the hard numbers of the camera settings, and a few details … I thought it might be better as a challenge to followers of the Tangents blog, to reverse engineer this, and figure out the details. So yes, there’s a little bit of homework involved.
A little bit of homework
The only post-processing that was done, was to clone out people in the background. So the image is fairly straight-forward with little juicing up in Photoshop.
- What would be typical camera settings for this kind of image?
- What lens was used? Approximate focal range?
- What was done (if anything) for additional light?
- What care was taken in posing the couple?
Related articles
- Controlling bright daylight w/ direct off-camera flash (model: Molly K)
- Photography technique – taking photos in hard sunlight
- Tutorial: how to use the guide number of your flash
- Getting the most power from your flash / speedlite / speedlight
- Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight
- Camera & flash settings: what do you want to achieve? (model: Ulorin Vex)
- Off-camera flash – what are your camera settings? – the thought-process
What would be typical camera settings for this kind of image?
f/16, 100 iso, 1/200 (not faster that flash synch 1/250 anyway)
What lens was used? Approximate focal range?
24-70 f/2.8
What was done (if anything) for additional light?
I would say flash cobra in a small softbox at the right of the photographer and around 2-3m height
Another option would have been to use a reflector, but here it’s flash ;-)
Take care of the light t° of the flash compare to the sun one. 1/4 or 1/2 CTO gel ?
What care was taken in posing the couple?
Look at each other, make sure one is not casting shadow on the other, have some space between them to make them more thin, have a clean background just behind them (not having the heads in front of the big wheel, this can be achieved by a point of view a little lower than normal position)
I forget to guess the focal one, probably around 30mm
A direct off camera Nikon 910 up close, and then cut out from final image in Photoshop. Or a much more powerful Flash positioned a bit further and out of the frame. 50mm lens from about 13-feet.
Hi,
exposure : ISO 100, 1/250 and whatever aperture matches (somewhere in the f11 area as the sun is blown out)
it seems that there is some compression with the background so I’d say 70-200 VR2 around 120-135mm
to overpower that sun, some serious power is involved, so Profoto it is I guess, and the light look quite hard (on her leg), so no softbox. 1/4 CTO probably
for the pose, I have to admit that I don’t know at all
Pierre
Setting of sunny 16 or 1/250 at f10 and ISO 100
Lens might be 24-70 at the lower end
Flash is camera left. Might need more power than sb910 but if not on manual at full power. Otherwise an Einstien or similar. Bare flash.
Pose back to the sun, ( in frame ) and to avoid shadow being cast from one subject to the other separate with a bit of distance.
Beautiful work Neil. A masterpiece!
Here are my guesses:
Camera settings would be to set the shutter to its fastest eg. 200sec or 250th sec pending on which body is used. Aperture would be either F10 or F11…
Which lens? My guess w old be a 24-70mm @ 24mm focal length.
Additional lighting? Ok, the added light is from cameras right and could be a Bare Speedlight because if a Softbox was used with a speedlight then too much power would be lost to achieve F10-11. If a Softbox was used, then a more powerfull light would be required. Looking at the photograph the shadows look pretty soft so a Softbox could have been used with a more powerfull light…
100iso on camera settings and a 1/2 CTO on Flash to balance the ambient and flash.
Posing? The day is all about the Bride so, the bride would look better with no shadow from the groom on her when using lighting.
… and we have a winner!
Typical Camera Settings: f7.1, ISO 100, 1/250
Lens Used: 24-70 f2.8 Approximate Focal Range: 70mm (based on compression observed)
Additional Light: Unmodified flash above and to camera right (based on overpowering sun and shadow locations)
Posing: Sun behind and to the side. Bride’s leg bent for an interesting angle. No distracting elements behind their heads.
Neil — was it bare or diffused flash, gelled or not?
Justin
Go on then Neil … spill the beans! :)
Mike,
You said that the shadows look pretty soft, but they look pretty sharp to me.
The only sharp shadow I see is the shadow of the grooms nose on the Bride’s forehead. Sand is a good reflector so looks to have filled the shadow areas on the B&G lower body. I’ve seen far darker shadows when a bare speedlight is used. Most of my answers are going by past experiences but, without actually being at the scene I’m like everyone else.
What light and power setting did you use Neil?
Was it a SB900 @ Full Power?
Mike,
In the first photo, there are hard shadows under the groom’s lapel and arm, on the bride’s shoulder, and under their fingers. In the second photo, look for the crisp shadow lines left of his suit vent and elbow. The sun is coming from 11 o’clock, so this light source is high camera right. In fact, his whole body and arm are shading the front of her dress, and I believe that’s his corsage on her neck. There’s even a sharp shadow point of her dress on the sand (inside the larger shadow from the sun). So I’m on the side of bare flash.
Yeah, agree there are a few hard shadows. Like I said in my Answers (above) I also suspected a Bare Speedlight was used and my reasons why.
?What would be typical camera settings for this kind of image?
Max Sync speed, ISO at its lowest possible for F10
?What lens was used? Approximate focal range?
24-70 at 35mm
?What was done (if anything) for additional light?
OCF camera right. It doesnt look diffused so im guessing bare flash as fill. Possibly warmed a little to balance lower sun. Maybe a 1/4 CTO / CTS
?What care was taken in posing the couple?
Clean background avoiding the big wheel and things sticking out of heads.
Avoind shadows on the bride from the groom
couple to remain verticle so a slight sloping background is acceptable.
eye contact with camea and each other
greg … nailed it! Your comments with the posing is spot-on.
I had to make sure there was no bad highlight on her face, and no shadows from him on her.
Hi All,
I’m a newbie here. I posted further details about myself on the forum post titled “post your photography work / gallery / website / portfolio”
I just had a quick question relating to this post and the use of the CTO gel…. What white balance setting would you guys use with a CTO gel with setting or low sun?? I use a Nikon D7000
Appreciate any help.. Thanks
Eon,
I personally don’t use CTO [Color Temperature Orange] as the name implies it gives too warm an effect for skin tones.
Therefore I use CTS [Color Temperature Straw] more suited to skin.
Now, as to the WB you would set, depends on the strength of the gel.
Generally 1/2 CTS is in the 3800K range; Full CTS is around the 2800K range.
You just adjust to suit taste.
CTO would be slightly warmer, therefore slightly less K when setting, but, it’s purely a matter of taste and since CTS [Straw] implies nice warming skin I stick with that.
Here are some links to read.
https://neilvn.com/tangents/gelling-your-flash-for-effect-blue-background/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/gelling-your-flash-for-warm-light-at-sunset/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/mixing-the-white-balance-of-different-light-sources/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/multiple-off-camera-flash-gelling-your-flash-for-effect/
Trev
Trev,
Thankyou very much for your assistance. I really appreciate the links too.
I’m going to get some CTS gels for my sb900 and take your advice
Have a great weekend
Ian