Make Light Real

Neil June 27th, 2008

Continuing my explanations from the gear I use - today again the small softbox:

So I was out on an engagement shoot and had done all the normal stuff and wanted a little something extra…

But the simple daylight angle was not very flattering and the busy environment of the playground rope piece made for a very messy image – cool – but a little too messy – what could I do quickly to improve the impact of my couple in the space…

Here I am climbing around searching for the right perspective….

Read on to see the final shot and read about my camera settings making it….

This was shot at ISO 100, F8 and 1/250th of a second with a 15mm fisheye lens.

The small soft box in a large environment creates a pool of light.  With such a wide angle lens I was able to obtain a vignetted feel highlighting the engagement ring and the couple with soft directional light in the midday sun.  To darken the background I chose a low ISO and a fast shutter speed which has the effect of lowering the contrast of the ambient light.  I increased the output from the TTL flash head to +1 EV for the flash output, transforming the flash light from fill to the main exposure source.  A quick tweak in photoshop could dramatically increase the contrast without blocking the shadow tones if I thought the client would like a more dramatic look – so I’ve created a very flexible capture.  As I listen to the shadows, I note that there is a nice Rembrandt caress across both their faces.

• Exposure , Hear the Shadows , learning , Photographic Flash , Photography Lighting , Shoe Flash Technique
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