{"id":8638,"date":"2011-06-29T05:02:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T09:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=8638"},"modified":"2020-06-13T19:29:47","modified_gmt":"2020-06-13T23:29:47","slug":"using-on-camera-bounce-flash-outdoors-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/using-on-camera-bounce-flash-outdoors-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Using on-camera bounce flash outdoors at night"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Using on-camera bounce flash outdoors<\/h1>\n

With wedding photography, when doing the night-time romantic portraits of the couple, the pressure is usually on. The only opportunity to whisk the couple away for a few minutes, is during dinner time, when the party is at a lull. The pressure is on because you have even less time than you had during the earlier part of the day, and you also don’t want to lose the attention of your couple who wants to get back to their guests at the reception.<\/p>\n

I usually scout a few places before-hand, getting a clear idea of what I want. When setting out with the couple, I rely on bounce flash and on video light<\/a>. There is rarely time for carrying around a soft-box. You need to move fast, set up fast … and still come up with the goods.<\/p>\n

With this wedding from the past weekend, I wanted to capture two specific portraits of the couple with the outside of the venue as a backdrop. I would normally have used video light here, but I had the idea that I wanted the compression from a longer lens … the 70-200mm f2.8 … and then the person holding the video light would be in shot. So the solution was to get flash in there. Where we were working outside there, I fortunately had part of the building to bounce my flash off.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"On-Camera<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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On-Camera Flash Photography – revised edition<\/h2>\n

This book is explains a cohesive and thorough approach to getting the best from your on-camera speedlight.<\/p>\n

Particular care was taken to present it all with a logical flow that will help any photographer attain a better understanding of flash photography.<\/p>\n

You can either purchase a copy via\u00a0Amazon USA<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Amazon UK<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0or can be ordered through Barnes & Nobles and other bookstores. The book\u00a0is also available on the Apple iBook Store, as well as Amazon Kindle.\nAlso check out the Amazon Kindle store.<\/p>\n

Learn more about\u00a0how\u00a0the cover image<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was shot.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

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Here is a quick grab-shot with my camera which had the 24-70mm f2.8 on, so that you can see what I bounced my flash off – that part of the building over where the guests arrive.<\/p>\n

Because I had to bounce my flash partly forward, towards the couple, I had to flag my flash<\/a>. Black Foamie Thing to the rescue! As always, the idea with using the BFT to flag my flash, is to block any flash falling directly on my couple. This way I can get soft indirect light, similar to using an off-camera softbox.\u00a0Of course, I had to be at fairly extreme settings on my camera to make this work in this case.<\/p>\n

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Camera and flash settings & photo gear\u00a0used (or equivalents)<\/h2>\n

camera settings: 1\/60 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO; TTL flash
\nThe lens was zoomed to 70mm for this specific image.<\/p>\n