Tangents

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Overpowering the sun with Off-Camera Flash – What are my settings?

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Overpowering the sun with Off-Camera Flash - What are my settings?

Teaching a class on using off-camera flash at a photography convention, I took a group of attendees outside on the street with two models. Then I stepped them through the thought-process in how to get to your basic, fail-safe, works-everytime settings for off-camera flash. We specifically looked here at camera and flash settings to match / over-power the sun. Regular visitors to the Tangents blog and those who have read my books on flash photography, should know the algorithm off by heart. There's a specific  Read more inside...

Photo session – Modern Gypsies – floating bubbles

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Photo session - Modern Gypsies - floating bubbles

Another from the most recent publicity photo session with the Modern Gypsies, with two of the girls in French period costume ... inside plastic bubbles. Seemingly an easy setup, it took a few quick adjustments to the off-camera lighting while they were enclosed in the plastic bubbles. Time is very limited! Let's start off with the test shots, and see the progression from there ...  Read more inside...

photo session – Modern Gypsies – PinkMan

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Pinkman!  More from the recent extended photo session with the Modern Gypsies.  After the photo session with Martin on stilts, we moved to one of the many colorful areas in Brooklyn where we started with Dread Eye. Working in the same spot, Michael Saab fitted his character, PinkMan! out with jumping stilts. Absolute lunacy! Working in such bright light, I thought the best approach would be to cross-light the sunlight with off-camera flash ...  Read more inside...

photography: direction of light & change in background

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Positioning your subject - direction of light & choice of background

Taking cover from the rain under an awning during a photography workshop in New York, we ended up in this spot against a wall that was painted black.  However, looking along the wall at an angle, the black paint of the wall reflected the light from behind. This completely changed the character of the background.  Since the available light was low level, and not flattering, we added some light from an off-camera flash in a softbox. Shooting nearly completely in line with the flash, the light on Catherine was  Read more inside...

Metering for off-camera flash? – start with the ambient light!

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Metering for off-camera flash? - start with the ambient light!

In the tutorial on balancing flash with ambient light, various scenarios are listed in where we start with our camera settings. My advice is that we invariably have to start with the ambient light. That will anchor our decision to an extent, and will determine how the final image looks. This photo is from a photography workshop I presented in Birmingham, UK in 2009. In the afternoon session we used softboxes with manual flash to photograph the two models. And yes, the models did indeed stop the pedestrian  Read more inside...