{"id":1659,"date":"2009-10-07T22:56:33","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T02:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetneil.com\/tangents\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2020-06-13T19:38:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-13T23:38:11","slug":"bridal-portraits-with-on-camera-bounce-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/bridal-portraits-with-on-camera-bounce-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridal portraits with on-camera bounce flash"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bridal portraits with on-camera bounce flash<\/h1>\n

With the\u00a0formal portraits of the bride &\u00a0groom, and their families, I usually set up off-camera lighting.\u00a0 But I also try to\u00a0bring in some variety to the portraits – and I shoot on-location portraits of the bride beforehand, just after prep.\u00a0 It’s a good idea to get as much done\u00a0as you can, earlier on in the day\u00a0–\u00a0just 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.<\/p>\n

In this example, I wanted a few portraits of\u00a0Michelle in the hotel’s foyer.\u00a0I specifically\u00a0had her\u00a0stand in a place where the overhead tungsten spotlights didn’t fall directly on her, but there was obviously enough spill light to give a bit of a\u00a0color cast.\u00a0 So she was relatively in ‘shade’ compared to the brighter background.\u00a0 This was done on purpose, so I could use flash to light her properly.\u00a0 In this case, on-camera flash in TTL mode.\u00a0 And to make sure I don’t get an ugly color cast in adding “blue” flash to the warmer tones of the tungsten+daylight mix .. I gelled my flash with 1\/2 CTS gel and had my white balance set to 3700K. I changed the WB of the RAW file to 3300K in post. Here is\u00a0more about\u00a0gelling flash for Incandescent light \/ Tungsten light<\/a><\/p>\n

I bounced my flash to camera left, and used the Black Foamie Thing<\/a>\u00a0to shield any direct flash that would’ve fallen on the bride.\u00a0 I specifically want indirect flash for softer light.\u00a0 The moment that your subject can see any part of your flash tube, there is direct flash … and that would spoil the effect that I am after here … soft indirect light that is still directional.<\/p>\n

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My settings:\u00a0 1\/100th @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO
\nI can very happily shoot formal portraits on the Nikon D3 at 800 ISO and still be sure of great image quality.\u00a0 As far as aperture goes, I need a shallow depth of field to isolate the bride against that background.\u00a0 Therefore an aperture around f3.2 will do nicely.\u00a0 My shutter speed was chosen so that I was assured of crisp images with a vibration reduction \/ image stabilized lens.<\/p>\n

Here is the image without flash ..<\/p>\n

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Adding the cold tones of flash to that warm light would’ve resulted in ugly lighting .. something that can’t be fixed in Photoshop.\u00a0 Your best options is to use a gel of some kind on your flash to bring your flash’s white balance closer to the white balance of the ambient light.\u00a0 I am not really after specific accuracy here.\u00a0 Just bringing my flash’s WB much closer to the existing WB solves most of the problem already without having to delve much further into analyzing the colors.<\/p>\n

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Summary<\/h2>\n

Working with time constraints, I still wanted to have flattering light on Michelle. I didn’t set up any lights. \u00a0I simply used my on-camera speedlight with some thought to direction of light and adding the flash (exposure and color balance) to the existing light.\u00a0 Simple, fast .. yet effective.<\/p>\n

I also took great care in how I placed her\u00a0against the background.\u00a0 You have<\/strong>\u00a0to consider your background in your images for greater impact.\u00a0 It is a very specific decision in how I place my subject against a background when I have a controlled situation like this.\u00a0A change in position, and some directing of the bride .. and a range of images in that setting is possible while shooting at a fast tempo!<\/p>\n

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Gelling your flash<\/h2>\n

Since I frequently gel my flashguns to turn the WB of my flash much warmer (usually for \u00a0Incandescent light),\u00a0I use these gels that I cut up and\u00a0<\/span>tape to the top of my speedlight\u2019s head<\/a>. One of these sheets (which aren\u2019t expensive), will give you a lifetime supply of these filters. For me, these gels are an\u00a0invaluable part of flash photography.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tape the gels down on your lens hood<\/a>\u00a0when not in use.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tYou can buy gels through these affiliate links:<\/p>\n