Crossfire Lighting

Crossfire Lighting.

Good morning everyone. Today I am going to show you a great way to simulate the sun in a photograph if you have no sun. It may also be suitable it you are photographing on an overcast day and your client may have wanted to have a backlit photograph with the sun shining through onto the hair.

This is the lighting setup that you could use when shooting for this type of photograph. You could use two strobe units or if you only have a single strobe, adding a reflector can help light the face as well.

Your background can be any background,just ensure that you select a background that does not detract from your subject. Using a shallow depth of field will also help in making sure your subjects stands out.

To get  great sunlight effect against your subject hair. I would suggest using a light meter and look to obtain an exposure of f11at 1/250 sec on the back of the hair. You will have to shoot in manual mode. Your sync shutter speed will depend on the type of camera that you have.

Your key light should be approximately 2-stops lower at approximately f8. Using your light meter you can adjust your strobes accordingly.

The tricky part when using the reflector though would be to ensure that you have enough light bounce from your hair light at the back of your subject. Make sure that you have the reflector close enough to your subject and try changing the reflection surface. Use silver or white and try an obtain the results you desire.

Here are two images. One with the strobe lights and the other with the reflector. See if you can identify each setting.

 

There is a distinct difference. The entire look a feel can change giving your photograph a completely different “feeling”

I think it all comes down to what equipment you have to work with and what your client would like to achieve.

It is a simple setup that can work anywhere. Indoors and out and also great for any location shoot because you need the minimum of equipment.

Have a great day everyone. Keep on photographing.

Denzil

Ps: Please let me know if you have any suggestions or would like to see something you are working on in this Ambassador blog.

Get More Confidence with Outdoor Flash Photography

My current class, Portraiture, has been seriously testing my skills with specific instruction and although I am feeling more confident about using my strobes I am still facing some issues on how much knowledge I still lack in problem-solving photography obstacles.  I have been scouting locations and scheduling extra shoots not only for added practice but also to cover myself for when I make those inevitable errors like forgetting to reset a setting--I have actually done a few shoots where my Auto-Focus was set to manual and I never caught it until I caught previews of noticeably-blurry photos--no one else noticed it either, but I still felt so disappointed in myself.

In an effort to get better results with my on-location, outdoor shoots using flash I had to do some extra research to help me understand what it really means about strobes being controlled by aperture and ambient light controlled by shutter speed and how to effectively use flash photography outdoors during daylight hours.  I recommend reading the entire article here but I will highlight the points that I found very informative.

An Introduction to Outdoor Flash Photography

If you're like me and knew so little about the field of photography, the challenges these classes offer to get us real-world experience should be accepted as a means to acquire or hone our skills.  Many of these assignments will provide us opportunities to venture out of the studio where we face even more elements for consideration.  Good time management is very important as well as understanding your environment.  The studio gives us greater control but how do you set up your strobes during the day..?  Using ambient light and likely a reflector card would be the first go-to, maybe even a speedlight, when shooting outdoors during the day, but effectively using flash photography outdoors can be both an invaluable skill and fun to experiment with.  This Nature photographer here cannot resist the urge to be shooting outside so it was important for me to learn how to be able to combine the two for portraiture -- Double bonus!

The first problem we face is balancing the mixed light.  You have natural ambient light and flash to consider so make time to do a custom white balance using your gray card.  

Next, since we cannot control the sun we can effectively control the strobes to light the scene.  It is often noted that we should avoid shooting when the sun is high but rather shoot early or shoot around sunset.  Sometimes we cannot avoid it so the best approach when using strobes is to first set the exposure on your camera to match the available light.  You will need to keep an eye on your shutter speed so that you are metering for an exposure that is within your sync speed.  This will help you determine the aperture at which to meter your strobes.  It is important to take test shots beforehand to obtain the correct exposure balance before you start shooting because natural ambient light can change pretty fast.  You will also need to determine the quality of light you want to create by using modifiers appropriately and also getting creative with how you use them such as for bouncing light for use as fill light as you will see later when discussing cross lighting.

 Depending on how much you want to over- or under-expose the background will determine the level of drama you want to create.  This is where we learn what it means about what shutter speed and aperture control.  Changing the shutter speed slower than sync speeds typically around 1/200th will control the exposure of the background.  Slowing it down will brighten up the background thus lessening the contrast and opening up the shadow regions.  The aperture will control the subject and how over- or under-exposed it is.  Say you metered for f/8 @ 1/200th and you are ok with the illumination of the background but you want to emphasize your subject by making them brighter you would open up the aperture to f/5.6 or f/4 or something similar and let more light in.  If you wanted them a bit more under-exposed you would stop down the aperture and close it down to something similar to f/9 or f/11 while the background remains constant.

Something to consider about light placement is outdoor cross-lighting.  This is where the lights face the direction of the sun and the model is captured in between--something comparable to shooting under the mid-day sun with no shade.  It is highly recommended to have the sun illuminating your subject and your strobes fill their shadowed side or you will end up running into issues with them squinting.  Follow the same instructions for metering and checking the desired exposure.

These tips will help you achieve more effective outdoor lighting and  increased success when using your strobes outside.  As with pretty much everything we learn, practice does indeed make perfect and hard work almost always pays off.  Let your passion and curiosity inspire you to be the best photographer you can be.  Do you have tips about flash photography outside or questions I might be able to answer?  Please leave a comment below!  

Works Cited

Eftaiha, Diana. "An Introduction to Outdoor Flash Photography." photography.tutsplus. Envato Pty Ltd., 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 8 Aug. 2014. <http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/an-introduction-to-outdoor-flash-photography--photo-4272>

All images are my own and from my recent experiences using my strobes during the day.