HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR LIGHT SIDE

I love, love, LOVE using my lights. Indoors or out, in the shade or in full sun, I use at least one in almost every single portrait session. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are tons of gorgeous natural light portraits out there but for me and my style, using lights is the way to go! Here are my top tips for using off camera flash

Why do I have such a strong love affair with my lights?

1. It lets me shoot anywhere, any time of day.

How many times have you had a session where it was really gloomy outside or you had the light run out before you were finished with your client? Sure, you can crank up your ISO; but at some point, there just isn’t enough light. When you use Off Camera Flash (OCF), you create your own light! This particular photo was shot about 15 minutes after sunset.

2. It allows me to keep the sky blue and saturated.

When using natural light, if you expose for the subject, the sky almost always gets blown out. If you expose for the background, the subject becomes underexposed. By using lighting, you can have the best of both worlds!

3. I can change the mood of a photo with ease.

This is one of my favorite reasons to use lights! I love to offer a wide variety of looks to my clients and OCF helps me achieve this. These photos were shot within minutes of each other. By making minor changes to my camera settings, I was able to give two completely different looks with minimal effort.

While drama isn’t always good in your life, adding it to your image can really improve it. I knew I wanted super dramatic lighting during this session with a senior rep of mine. By using my lights, I was able to isolate her from the background and only highlight the areas I wanted to.

4. It help you stand out from natural light photographers.

Again, I’m not knocking natural light photographers. Some days after lugging around all of my gear, my back and I wish we only had to deal with a camera! However, there are way more natural light photographers out there than those that use lights. By adding lighting into your bag of tricks, your images will stand out from the rest.

Use Off Camera Flash

Unless you are at an event and have no choice, get that flash off of your camera! The light that comes directly out of the light is harsh, puts tiny little pin pricks of light in the middle of your subject’s eyes and almost always gives that “deer in the headlights look”. When you take it off camera and add a softbox, the light become softer, more flattering, and depending on the type of modifier you use, will add a nice big catch light in your subject’s eyes. Look at the difference between these two photos. The one on the left was shot back in 2010 with a speedlight on my camera. She’s a beautiful girl but those little dots of lights in her pupil kill me! The other photo was shot last October. What a difference OCF and a large softbox makes! Her eyes look absolutely gorgeous!

Using off camera flash is easy and shouldn’t intimidate you. All you need is a speedlight or a strobe, a trigger/receiver to fire it wirelessly, and your camera. You’ll also want a light stand and some kind of modifier to diffuse the light.

For Soft Light, Use the Largest Softbox You Can

The larger the softbox, the softer the light becomes. This helps avoid shadows. I have several different types of softboxes that I use but one of my favorites is a 30×60. Yes it’s big and a bit of a pain to move around, but the light that comes out of it is insanely beautiful!

Use your lights in manual mode

I know this may seem intimating but trust me, it’s super easy! You just adjust the power of the light up and down depending on how much light you need. It’s the exact same principle as adjusting the exposure on your cameras. Move it one way, you get more light, move it the other you get less light.

The biggest thing to remember is the aperture controls the light power and the shutter speed controls the ambient light. The only exception to this is if you’re using high speed sync on a light. Then the light power is controlled by the shutter speed as well.

If your subject is too bright due to the light raise your aperture; too dark lower it. If you want to have more ambient light showing in the photo, lower your shutter speed. If you’d prefer less light, raise it up to your camera’s max sync speed. Adjusting your ISO will also affect the ambient light in a photo.

Invest in a light meter

I used lights for about two years without using my light meter. I would take a shot, look on the back of the camera and then make several adjustments to my camera settings and the light settings until everything looked about right. So much time I wasted! With a light meter, you push one button and it tells you exactly what your settings should be! It even tells you the percentage of light coming from the light!

EXPERIMENT A LITTLE, THEN EXPERIMENT A LOT!

If you are interested in learning off camera light, there’s no better time than the present!

Grab your camera and triggers, and set your light to manual mode.
Set your ISO to 100, your light power to 1/64th power.
Place your light about 4-5 feet away from your subject.
Adjust your aperture up and down and notice how the light hitting your subject differs.
Adjust your ISO up and down and see how that changes things up.

You can also experiment with moving the light closer and farther away from your subject. Overtime, you’ll start to understand the how the light power, ISO, aperture, and distance all work together to make super incredible photos!!

If you’re interested, check out my other tutorials here!

Ready for more in depth learning?

I offer one on one lighting and editing classes. Whether you’re brand new to using lights, have a speedlight you’ve never pulled out of the box or use a few strobes but aren’t getting the results you’d like, this is your opportunity to figure it out once and for all!

For more information, click here or contact me to schedule a class.

Ali Johnson is a portrait photographer specializing in senior portrait photography in Charlottesville, Crozet, Keswick, Albemarle and Fluvanna County VA