using video light as fill-light for the romantic wedding portraits
Having just photographed my first wedding of 2011, I'm back in the groove of things. Keeping to the recent theme of showing how video lights are used for photography, I'd like to show a small selection of images of Cherryl and Jim's wedding where I used a video light to enhance the existing incandescent lighting at the reception venue ... Read more inside...
The use of video light for stills photography has become ever more popular in recent years, as high-ISO capable cameras made it possible to shoot in lower light without having to resort to flash. The immediacy of video light - the 'wysiwyg' nature of video light - makes it an interesting light source to play with and experiment with on a shoot. The dramatic quality of the light is also quite appealing.
Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of video light out there:
- the traditional Read more inside...
Wedding photography - Dealing with the videographer's light
With wedding receptions, we're most often working within a very warm spectrum. There are tungsten (incandescent) lights all around. (**) There is candle light. There might be twinkling lights as decoration ... and there is the videographer's light. The videographer's light will be Tungsten balanced, even if it is an LED video light that they are using. (***)
So while a wedding photographer might be using a lot of flash to dominate the lighting .. and settle for Cloudy or Flash WB, there is often a conflict of interest Read more inside...
photo sessions - Shawna - using a variety of photographic lighting options
Shawna is the delightful model I used while I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. She helped us out during the mini-workshops I offered, as well as some photos of my own. I've posted a few photos from these already, but thought it might be interesting to show a further selection of images and discuss them ... Read more inside...
It's easy enough getting nice clean open light with a single on-camera speedlight when shooting indoors. By bouncing your flash with the idea of getting directional light from your flash, you can effortlessly get portraits like this. As usual, I used the black foamie thing to flag my flash and get more light on the one side of my subject's face. In this case, more subtly so than some other examples on this site.
We were working in the same location here as shown in the previous article where I photographed Shawna using only the available light that was Read more inside...
Photography: Direction of the light - using available light
This striking photo of Shawna illustrates something that I want to underline: at some level, our consideration of the light that we're using remains the same, whether we're using available light, or flash, or video light or some other continuous light source.
We need to consider the direction and quality of the light we have or are creating. We then either need to adapt our lighting, or adapt our way of shooting our subject, to complement our subject. So let's look closer at the light / lighting used for this photo ... Read more inside...
lighting the romantic portraits of the bride & groom
Scouting around the location during dinner time, I peered over the edge of this spiraling staircase and thought it would be a good idea to get some light on the couple, seated on the couch. I posed Melissa so that she lounged back with her head on Dennis' lap. There is no way to get light on them from my position with on-camera bounce flash, and definitely not if my intention is to get light only on them. It needed off-camera flash.
To add some variety, I also thought of a few other things to try with the lighting, using Read more inside...
The previous time I photographed Anna was at a pin-up photo session. I had the opportunity again to photograph her and other models again last night ... but in a completely different style and setting this time. The Valley Hudson Click group arranged a Haunted Fashion theme for this photo session. Read more inside...
When possible during a lull in the wedding reception, I like to sneak the bride and groom away for a few minutes to do romantic portraits. Since time is usually tight, and the couple wants to enjoy as much of their reception as possible, I like to work efficiently. Jessica and Michael had their reception at a venue where I hadn't worked before, so during dinner time, I quickly went around the venue with my assistant, to scout a few places to photograph the couple.
In the basement of this venue, I noticed the light shining through gates ... Read more inside...
video light for photography - positioning the light
A light source like a video light is comparatively unforgiving when you look at how easy it is to get beautiful results with flash and a large soft box. The smaller light source (video light) needs to be positioned with more specific intent than the larger soft box. Read more inside...
