Location Shooting Using Speedlights

It's been quite a while since my last post. Time flies when you're having fun! It's been even longer since I shot on location using my speedlights (flashes). So, when we finally had a decent spring day, I figured I better get out there and practice with the speedlights. 

When I need some practice, I want to work with someone who is familiar with my shooting style because I like to play around with different techniques and approaches. So, I asked Harbor Marais to test shoot with me, and she accepted my request. I'll go over a few of the shots from this shoot. You can see others here.

I kept it simple in all of these shots, and used one key light with a second light for fill. There is about 1/2 stop difference between the key and fill lights.

This first shot was made as Harbor rested on the railing of a covered bridge in a local park. It was taken around noon on a partly cloudy day. I didn't want the background blown out. In fact, I wanted it slightly under exposed. So I adjusted my shutter speed so it let in 1 stop less light. When you use flash, the shutter speed is your primary control of ambient light.  As I processed the photo, it had an old time feel to it, so I added the vignetting and color adjustments to accentuate this feel.

The second shot was taken under almost the exact same conditions, but under a highway bridge rather than under the covered bridge. Here again, I wanted the background slightly under exposed and out of focus. I probably under exposed it by 2/3 stop. 

For this shot I positioned Harbor in the direct sunlight with the sun to her back. This effectively gave me a third light to work with because the sun acts as both a hair light and a rim light. I also wanted to be able to see more of the background for a sense of place, but I didn't want it to be in complete focus. So, I shot this with an f 5.6 aperture. 

The last shot was taken with Harbor in the shade. I wanted to practice balancing the light on Harbor so it was approximately equal to the light falling on the background. I also wanted to background to be out of focus. I opened my aperture to f 2.8, and brought my shutter speed up to 1/800 to achieve this balance. This is known as using high speed sync. Most cameras sync their flash speed at a maximum shutter speed of 1/200 to 1/250 of a second. When you a have a camera and flash setup that permits you to use high speed sync it makes it easier to get this effect with smaller apertures. 


Here's the video I put together from the shoot. Enjoy!









That's all for now. I'll try to let so much time go by between posts. Then again, I've been having a ton of fun, so we'll see! 


John