This topic - balancing flash and ambient exposure - seems to one that many newer photographers struggle with. The big hurdle seems to be the basic starting point - how do you decide on the exposure for each?
I'd like to explore this topic a bit with this post. The trigger for this was a question that someone emailed me regarding an image in one of my books on flash photography. Instead of answering the question directly, I thought that a wider answer might be more illuminating. We're still on that perpetual quest Read more inside...
edited on Dec 08, 2010 :contest winner has been announced, with feedback from Josh about this photograph
When we've previously featured photographs that we tried to reverse engineer, there was a great response by readers of the Tangents blog. Similarly, many participated in the recent Photoshop contest. So I've decided that we should combine the two. Maybe even make it a regular event.
The contest then is to reverse engineer this photograph in terms of the lighting.
The winner gets a $50 B&H gift Read more inside...
With the formal portraits of the bride & groom, and their families, I usually set up off-camera lighting. But I also try to bring in some variety to the portraits - and I shoot on-location portraits of the bride beforehand, just after prep. It's a good idea to get as much done as you can, earlier on in the day - just in case the time-line gets compressed and things don't quite follow the original plan. You'll be much happier then for having some solid portraits in your pocket.
In this example, I wanted a few portraits of Michelle Read more inside...
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 Read more inside...
