There's that algorithm that I most often use when shooting on-location portraits - find an interesting or complementary background, that also has good light on my subject. If there isn't good ambient light, then I add light. Then, my subject's positioning and pose is adjusted so that the photograph comes together.
Find an interesting or complementary background, that also has good light on my subject.
If there isn't good ambient light, then I add light.
Then, my subject's positioning and pose is adjusted so that the photograph Read more inside...
You can get great lighting with just on-camera bounce flash when shooting indoors, as shown in this related article - Lighting with bounce flash. But at some point you might want more flexibility and consistency. Or you might run into problem scenarios with bounce flash, such as colored walls and ceilings. Or you might run into a situation where you can't use any bounce flash at all, and the available light isn't ideal. Then it is time to step it up with off-camera flash.
Starting out with off-camera flash photography might seem Read more inside...
Softboxes with speedlights for on-location lighting
Off-camera flash is the easiest way to create dynamic lighting - and using a speedlight with a softbox, is on-location lighting at its most elegantly simple. For most of my on-location portraits, I like to travel (fairly) light, and my lighting of choice is a speedlight, wireless transmitters and a softbox. The softbox is either held up by a light-stand (which I weight down with my camera bag), or held up by an assistant (with the softbox on a monopod.)
I like TTL flash - it often gets us there faster than manual flash. But for Read more inside...
One of the most frequent (but easily corrected) mistakes I see when photographers use off-camera flash, is that they didn't position the flash in relation to their subject. They simply place the flash to the side (and often at a too-extreme 90 degree angle from their own position), with the flash too low in height.
Your subject's pose and their position most often dictates how you should place the flash.
We perhaps instinctively expect a light source to come from above somewhere, because that is where the sun is, or the light is coming from a Read more inside...
Off-camera flash: Rim-lighting and the intentional use of flare
For these promotional photos for aspiring model twins, Carina and Carolina, we went to a park. There are certain things I look for when working on an location, that I know will immediately give me a better chance at successful portraits. My book, Lighting and Design for Portrait Photography, looks at exactly that thought-process throughout the 60 chapters in the book.
The technique here should be quite obvious by now:
A long lens (a 70-200 used closer to the longer end), compressing the perspective.
Shooting Read more inside...
These are good times for photographers who love using off-camera flash. There are more and more options coming out for us to choose from and use.
B&H has rebranded their own version of a popular series of flashguns. The Bolt VB-22 bare-bulb flash (B&H) looks like the Cheetah Light CL-360, and the Godox Witstro AD360, and the Neewer AD-360. They all seem to have similar spec. So if you've been browsing for any of those options, B&H has the Bolt VB-22 flash at a competitive price.
For the photo at the top, I had my camera set Read more inside...
High-speed flash sync (HSS) with the Profoto B1 flash
The already impressive Profoto B1 flash (B&H / Amazon) became even more awesome in Dec 2014 when high-speed flash sync (HSS) capability was added through a firmware update.
The photo above was taken at 1/2000 @ f/1.4 @ 100 ISO. I wanted that super-shallow depth-of-field, and I wanted the light to be more flattering than you'd get from a bare speedlight. In this case, I used a Profoto RFi 1'×3' softbox (affiliate), with the Profoto B1. (I kept both baffles on the softbox.)
The summary: it Read more inside...
Gelling your flash, and post-processing for deep blue skies
The warm light from the nearly-setting sun, accentuated with gelled flash. Towards the end of the recent photography workshop, we were shooting on the rooftop - the warm tone of the sunlight contrasting beautifully with the blue sky.
To punch it even more, we added gelled flash via an off-camera speedlight in a softbox. We had to gel the speedlight of course, to make sure the blue color balance of the flash didn't kill the natural light. We used a 1/2 CTS gel here which brought the flash's WB down to around 3700K. (This Read more inside...
The material covered, and the gear used in the flash photography workshops, are constantly being fine-tuned and adapted with each workshop. With the first workshops (around 2006) centered around bounce flash photography. Over time the workshops expanded from that fairly simple premise, into what is a more comprehensive on-location lighting course.
The past two years there has been a surge in the various brands and types of flash. For example, Canon used to be just the 580 speedlights and wireless system. There's now the 600EX Read more inside...
This is one of those images - a portrait which is simplicity itself - and yet there is something about it, with Anelisa's riveting gaze and her pose, the muted complimentary colors - and the photograph just falls together somehow in a way that makes it one of my favorite photos that I've shot in a while. Even the lighting is simplicity itself - an off-camera flash in a softbox. But this didn't need anything more complex than that.
Perhaps it is the juxtaposition of the rough texture of the wall, and the soft look of her skin Read more inside...
