I see there’s a lot of conversation lately about supplemental lighting and thought it would
be fun to show some examples of how I approach the subject. There is much more on this
topic in my tutorial, “Exploring Light, Discovering Style.” There are fifteen lessons with 3D motion graphics and all the technical details you could possibly want. And at a ridiculously reasonable introductory price, I might add!
The following images are from a job I shot this past Tuesday. Our upcoming tour will feature instruction and tips about location lighting, so on this job I decided to challenge myself to do a full-blown editorial bridal shoot using only those inexpensive and accessible lighting instruments that one might expect any photographer to own and carry. The location was beautiful, but it also presented the same old challenges a wedding shooter must face and overcome; dim or unflattering available light and no time to spare.
The perfect opportunity to demonstrate some Available Magic!
Everything I'll post was produced with either Canon Speedlite or Frezzolini Mini-Fill Sun-Gun. I did mount my Canon 580EXII speedlites on our lovely little Magic Slippers and light stands, and I did allow myself the use of light modifiers and reflectors where needed. The Magic Slippers were equipped with Missing Links and I used the Bruce Dorn Asymmetrical Stripbank by Westcott when a softbox was appropriate. I used both telephotos and wide-angles, sometimes at great distances, so I synchronized my flashes to the camera by way of Pocket Wizard radio transceivers.
I'll start off with an illustration created using two Speedlites for the "Father-Daughter Dance." I wanted an available light look but needed a brief "action-arresting" flash duration. This is non-intrusive work when you do it well. The key is to place the Speedlites well-away from the dance floor and a bit under 180 degrees apart. By positioning myself perpendicular to the line between the two lighting instruments I can get a beautiful double backlighting effect.
Backlighting such as this can get very silhouette-y if you pump out too much power, so I always keep the my Speedlites' Manual output dialed way down. This, combined with a higher ISO and a lower shutter-speed, will keep the flashes' illumination low enough to allow the ambient light to maintain a decent "fill" effect. In the close-ups, I liked the drama of a near-silhouette and didn't fight for quite so much fill...
The Sun-Gun of choice was a dimmable Frezzi Mini-fill. Mine are normally equipped with a 50 watt 4700 Kelvin lamp, but I knew from a pre-scout that most of the interior was lit with décor-style 3200K "pin spots." A quick change-over to 100 watt, 3200K lamps and I was properly prepared for the ambient light found in my working environment. I also chopped-down a piece of "Schedule 40" PVC pipe that had an internal diameter similar to the exterior diameter of the Frezzi. This DIY "snoot" eventually got hot enough to melt and sag rather sadly, but not before I was able to make good use of its light-shaping characteristics.
These examples are captured using two lamps; one with a silly little Frezzi Softbox (don't get sucked in, they're too expensive - just use some Tough Spun diffusion) and the other with my home-made snoot...
Back to the original set-up of two 580EXII Speedlites...
Once the lights are set, they become the functional equivalent of "house lights" and we can work in just the same manner as if we were working with available light from existing ambient sources. The only difference, and this is an important distinction, is that we must use our capacity to imagine the unseen and use our mind's eye to conceptualize and anticipate the effect that will occur when the strobes fire. It sounds, as our President would say, "complimacated" but it actually becomes easier and easier with practice. This capacity to pre-visualize is, in fact, the foundation of creative light placement. Once that little light bulb goes off over your head and you suddenly get it, you can walk into any situation and imagine and then make your own inimitable magic.
Okay, so maybe that sounds like a bunch of artsy-fartsy mumbo-jumbo. It ain't. An understanding of the relationships between light placement and subject area is fundamental to all handsome captures. Once you see these relationships in an ambiently lit environment, all that remains is to move around and exploit the riches. That's what I did in the following shots. Notice the careful use of bounce from the bride's dress to subtly illuminate the face of proud Pappa...
So, the preceding images were a couple of examples of what can be done with two simple instruments placed approximately 180 degrees apart. The following is an example of two lights placed approximately 90 degrees apart. In this image, I have lowered one unit to function as a backlight for the veil and the other has moved ninety degrees towards the backlight to "Key" the couple in a short-light fashion.
Notice that I once again take advantage of the natural bounce characteristics of light. The bride's face seems much more romantically-rendered by simply avoiding direct illumination and allowing the bounce light reflected from the groom to do the job with subtlety. The reddish cast you notice is from the stage's red-gelled "curtain warmers." If this had been an available light shot, the flesh tones would have been fire-engine red. My white light flash took the curse off of the theatrical spots without totally killing our sense of place...
Oops, I failed to mention that all my speedlites were gelled with Full CTO gels to drop their color balance from 5200 Kelvin to 3200 Kelvin to match the prevailing color temperature of the theater. I wasn't worried about killing the warmth of the background "practical fixtures" because they were all dimmed and probably burning somewhere around 2500 Kelvin....
The nature of every shot changes dramatically based upon where I stand. I've said it before and I'll doubtless say it again many times; photography is all about where you stand - both literally and philosophically.
I don't put a lot of stock in formulas, by the way. Short, broad, split; I never heard those terms used during my time studying at the feet of the great cinematographers I had the pleasure of directing. Most of the contemporary Masters that I had the pleasure of knowing seemed to work intuitively and with out any great allegiance to formula...
As with anything worth mastering, they are no real shortcuts to wisdom. I could go into the differences between enhancement and dominance in lighting but that is fodder for another time. Keep an eye on next month's Rangefinder Magazine; I understand that they will be excerpting a lesson from my tutorial, "Exploring Light, Discovering Style." Click through to our webstore, order the disk, and start building a competitive advantage over your competition! A mastery oflighting is the best possible way to expand your creative vocabulary.
Isn't it interesting how styles emerge? As always, the looks are not based upon the tool, but rather upon the particular perspective and deftness of the person who is wielding it. Give ten people the same lighting tool and you will get at least ten different interpretations of its usage. As it should be...
It makes you think about how our artistic voices might develop over a greater arc of time, doesn't it? Imagine how much less interesting the careers of the great painters would have been if they hit an early and successful plateau and then ceased development.
Mastery of lighting techniques is to photography as a mastery of language is to literature; if you get a handle on either one, you'll be a much better storyteller. The theme here was Great Gatsby, by the way...
-Bruce
