Pete Barnes - Wakefield Wedding Photographer » tips

Photography Tutorial – Off Camera Flash

Pete Barnes — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:25:09 +0000

Finished shot edited in a retro style Off Camera Flash Tutorial

Hi folks, thought I would post a Photography tutorial about using off camera flash, I have got a wedding photography post to do but have been meaning to do this for a while so thought I would get to it. My models for this tutorial were the two Danbos (Big Dan and Little Dan), they are a photogenic couple, not overly talkative but Consummate professionals, they get the job done. This is the finished shot but I’ll post some setup shots and how I got to the finished article, after the jump.

OK, I don’t do many indepth tutorials so if this isn’t overly clear just add some comments and I’ll try and answer some questions. The gear I used for this was a Canon 5DII with a STE2 for controlling the flashes. You can use radio poppers or pocket wizards but for this tutorial I am doing everything in TTL which pretty much means the camera decides the flash levels. You can add exposure compensation to the flashes if they are too bright/dark. If you use Pocket Wizards you have to set flash powers manually, which is an important skill to have but that’s another tutorial! Other gear I used were 2 580EXII speedlights (430’s would also work as they have slaves for the STE2) I also had a lumiquest big bounce on one light and a home made grid on the other. I also used some gels which are just coloured plastic that change the colour of the light.
First thing I did was set my camera to M (manual) set the shutter to 1/200, aperture to f/2, ISO100 using a 50mm. The aperture was wide (f/2) as I wanted a thin depth of field. With a relatively fast shutter and low ISO I knew I would have very little ambient light coming through, so any light had to be provided by the flashes.

1. Test shot to make sure I have no (or little) ambient light Off Camera Flash Tutorial

Next I placed my models and lit them from a softbox (lumiquest big bounce) pretty much overhead, this would provide a nice soft light, this main light stayed here all shoot.

2. First Flash put in place, overhead softbox for diffused light Off Camera Flash Tutorial

I wasn’t overly happy with the angle and wanted to get a bit lower, no problem as they were on my desk but this would usually mean lying on the floor with the camera at ground level, if you had to do this outside the chances are it would be raining!

3. Change of angle to get a lower shooting position Off Camera Flash Tutorial

I don’t know where that burst of pessimism came from, how can you be negative when dealing with Danbo’s? Anyway after I was happy with the general setup I had to do something about that cluttered backdrop. Although the thin depth of field had blurred it out it was still noticeable and would only take a few seconds to move aside, it was only pens and paper. If this was a wedding the chances are it would have been a few people completely unconnected with the wedding just milling around in the background, for some reason they believe their presence somehow enhances the photograph, I beg to differ. Anyway back to the tutorial.

4. Scrap the cluttered background Off Camera Flash Tutorial

So with the background cleared I could have probably left it at that but I decided to bring in a 2nd light to act as some rim lighting on Big Dan. I must stress if you can get away with using one light that is perfectly fine, I just couldn’t get away with it this time.

5. Brought in a 2nd flash for some hard backlighting, which for some reason is in shot?!? Off Camera Flash Tutorial

Sometimes having the light in the frame works, a trick I have used during a few first dances but as the light is relatively large compared to the models, it being in the shot is just slack.

6. Backlight moved but I didn't like the shadows big dan cast on little dan Off Camera Flash Tutorial

After moving the 2nd light I noticed it made big dan cast a sharp shadow all over little dan’s face, not pretty. So I decided to turn the 2nd light on the back wall to create a spot light effect. I zoomed the flash to 105mm and added a homemade grid which really focuses the light, as seen below.

7. Decided to fix an grid on 2nd light and aimed it at the back wall Off Camera Flash Tutorial

I then changed my mind once again (or used my creative license) and decided I wanted to cast a shadow of them both on the wall so I moved the 2nd flash behind me and to the right.

8. Moved 2nd light to perhaps cast a dramatic shadow of the couple Off Camera Flash Tutorial

I recomposed the shot to put my subject to the side and make sure both shadows were included in the shot, otherwise it just looks like I used a dirty great on camera flash resulting in a dirty great slightly off centre shadow, which made me gip.

9. Repositioned the shot to make sure the shadow was captured Off Camera Flash Tutorial

As it seemed quite likely by this point that I was going to make this into a tutorial for my blog I thought I would gel the 2nd flash, I use a pale blue gel, my inspiration being that Man City were playing as I was taking these, I’m not overly interested in it but as we won 3-0 I thought I’d incorporate it into my photography (honest).

10. Added a pale blue gel to 2nd light to get some colour into the scene Off Camera Flash Tutorial

That Blue was a little too pale for my taste so I dialed down the exposure compensation on flash 2 to -1 this would dive a darker more saturated blue.

11. Brought down exposure compensation on 2nd light by 1 stop as it was too bright Off Camera Flash Tutorial

For some reason the softbox on the first light was creeping in to frame so I raised it up using the box set of Alfred Wainwrights Lakeland Fells, sure I have light stands but this was right there.

12. Moved first light as it was getting in the shot Off Camera Flash Tutorial

There was still a bit of unwanted shadow being cast but I wasn’t really liking the shadow cast by the couple idea, it seemed to just make a big diagonal line from bottom left to top right which wasn’t the best in terms of composition (I could have just swapped the Danbo’s round making some interesting triangles but I wanted to revisit the spotlight on the wall idea.

13. Scrapped the shadow idea but kept the gel, went back to lighting the back wall for a spotlight effect Off Camera Flash Tutorial

I thought I was on the right path with my original idea it’s always good to explore creative avenues if time permits, it’s not as if the Danbo’s had to get to there next engagement, they are plastic dolls that just live on the shelf. Anyway I was quite happy with this now but the slightest detail of little Dan not looking straight at big Dan was very important, I got the impression he was just doing a half baked impression of Rain Man.

14. Repositioned little Dan's head so it was actually looking at big Dan Off Camera Flash Tutorial

And that’s pretty much it, I imported it into lightroom where I toned it to give it a vintage retro style because I am quite into that at the moment. The whole process only took about 5 minutes but there are quite a few steps to get a pretty simple image but the more you as “what if I do this or that?” the better you get. I’ve posted the scene as it was in the end, I have no idea why I didn’t use the studio, sometimes it’s good to just have a mess about with the speed lights. I hope this tutorial has been informative and hopefully will give you a bit of inspiration to get out and take some shots. It’s worth noting that for those who don’t have a wireless transmitter, multiple flashes or a speedlight softbox, you could achieve a similar shot just with one flash and an off camera cord, I think canons one is about £40 and retains the auto TTL functions if you don’t want to get into manual flash. You could also get away with using a white piece of A4 paper or a big empty milk carton instead of the lumiquest big bounce.
If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to post them.

15. The setup Off Camera Flash Tutorial

Inspiration

Pete Barnes — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:03:40 +0000

No photos to post today so I feel a bit stingy but the weather has been pretty shocking of late, we were a bit spoilt with all the snow and clear blue skies last week! So I thought I’d write a little bit about some of the sources I use for inspiration when I can’t get out to take photos for whatever reason.

Talk Photography – This is a forum I’ve used quite a lot in the past not only for inspiration but it’s also great learning resource. It really helps develop a critical eye for both others photos and your own, this becomes very important when you are out composing photos. There is always a little voice saying “what would that lot on TP make of this?” There is an issue of some people being overly critical and believe me, photographers are the most critical when it comes to, well, photographs. You sometimes question their validity to criticise but everyone has an opinion, if you can learn without taking too much to heart you will develop as a photographer.

Stumbleupon – I’ve only got into this recently but it’s great, you basically register and put in your interests (photography) and start stumbling. I’ve got a toolbar on firefox now where I just click and it’ll take me to some obscure site showing great photos, you can even say if you like it or not to get it noticed by others. I’ve found some great photos and resources just by stumbling.

Flickriver – This shows some of the best photos out there on flickr for a particular day, and there are hundreds, daily! It’s across a whole range of subjects so there is plenty of inspiration. Definitely worth a look.

Twitter – Again I’m kind of new to twitter but it’s a great way to meet others with the same interests, there are loads of big photographers who twitter a lot and the info is really good stuff. Other photographers are great for inspiration, just to look at the sort of images they are putting out, how they light and compose images. I always think looking at photos is a great way of learning, you absorb them somehow and they come back to you when you are out with the camera.

Flickr Maps – Flickr is great for photos but there are quite a lot to wade through and some of them have, ahem, limited appeal. The maps tool though is great, especially if you want to get out and don’t have any place in particular to go to. I put the map on an area I’m interested in (usually about a 10 mile radius of my house) then just search for landscapes, if an interesting shot comes up I see where it is on the map and get down there. It’s important not to go and try and replicate a shot but it helps open your eyes to landscapes that could just be on your door step.

It’s not always easy to keep inspired and more often than not you can go out and come back with nothing, but hopefully some of these links will inspire you to go out and get some shots. To quote Ansel Adam:

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer – and often the supreme disappointment.”

I’ve posted one of his shots below, he knew his way around a camera!

The Tetons and the Snake River

Smiling Bride

Pete Barnes — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:53:00 +0000

It’s wedding season again! We got this one a couple of weeks ago at a great wedding in North Yorkshire. I’m currently experimenting with textured overlays as they can give quite interesting effects. You can build up a library of photos of interesting texture, be it brick walls, wooden tables etc. and try overlaying them in photoshop. All you have to do is paste the texture onto a new layer and set the blending mode to overlay (I start with overlay but some of the other ones give different results) Reducing the opacity and masking areas also helps. These can be a bit hit and miss but it’s just a bit different from the selective colouring we see quite a lot of. The image itself was taken at ISO200, 200mm, f/2.8 at 1/1250.

The black and white I’ve posted was a follow on from the technique I was working on a while back taking a slightly out of focus image and adding a little film grain to get a retro reportage style shot that would otherwise have been binned. This would also work with a lomo or cross processed style of processing. This was taken at ISO200, 78mm, f/2.8, 1/200. For the grain I use silver efex or alien skin’s exposure, which also has coloured film effects.

2 Minutes of Sky

Pete Barnes — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Last post 24th March! If I knew what the date was I’d be shocked, I know we’re close to some religous shebang that has something to do with chocolate and bank holidays. Anyway I went out the other night as the light was looking pretty good so I arrived and set up and the light went straight to hell so I thought I’d do a few more long exposures. I did a few at 10 minutes but didn’t like the results, this one was exposed for 120 seconds, f/16, ISO100 16mm, and if these setting seem familiar it’s because I was taking photos of a tree and they are the only settings I allow for tree photos Not much else about it really, the 10 stop gives off a little magenta hue for long exposures but if you shoot RAW you can have a little diddle with the white balance when you get home. I quite like how the outer leaves were blurred but the stable branches stayed sharp, gives it a etheral quality. Have a good weekend everyone.

Another Long Exposure Landscape

Pete Barnes — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:17:00 +0000

This is another one from the same shoot as my last post, the weather hasn’t been the best lately but I think it’s brightening up now so I will hopefully get out this week. Not vastly different from the shot I previously posted, this one is in portrait as I wanted to include a little more sky.
It was taken at ISO100, 21mm, f/8 30 seconds. I zoomed in a touch as I tend to get a little vignetting at 16mm when using a lot of filters. The flat water again comes from the 10 stop filter allowing for a 30 second exposure. I always try to shoot at ISO100 and had to use f/8 as that was the longest speed without going into bulb mode, I could have done 1 minute at f11 or 2 minutes at f16 plus, if I’d have gone to ISO50, this would have taken me to 4 minutes. Unfortunately I was getting hungry and the car park was closing!

Long Exposure Sunset

Pete Barnes — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:06:00 +0000

I was out taking this at a local water sports lake and I had a couple of points I thought might be useful to remember for this blog but have forgotten them! I think I’ll have to get a ball head for my tripod at some stage, I have a three way head at present and they can be a little cumbersome, especially when composing a shot a few inches above the water. To make things even worse I had to look through the view finder upside down, not the most accurate way of getting the horizon level. This was taken with the 10 Stop filter that I’m using a fair bit lately. As these are so dense (in terms of light transmission) you have to compose and focus with the filter off the camera and then slide it into the holder, although I find it easier to take the filter and the holder off and just snap it on for the shot. I also had a graduated filter to prevent the sky from blowing out, very easy when including the sun. A good idea if you are using these long exposure filters is to get your exposure right without it on then just add 10 stops of light So say 30 clicks of increasing your shutter speed, or if you get to 30 seconds and don’t want to go into bulb mode but have only done 6 stops (18 clicks if your camera goes in 1/3 stop increments), open up the aperture 4 stops (12 clicks). It seems a little difficult to get your head round but once you do it’ll make things a whole lot easier and you’ll always use full manual, for landscapes anyway. This was taken at ISO100 19mm, f/14 for 30 seconds. There is a little lens flare to illustrate my last point, ALWAYS clean your lens and any filters between the camera and subject, be it UV filters, ND filters or Grads, any dust when shooting into the sun will refract it and make the shot only good for blog tutorials or healing brush practice!

Trees and Masts

Pete Barnes — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:10:00 +0000

I had a feeling we’d get a decent sunset this evening but I couldn’t have been more wrong, a mite disappointing to say the least!
It was pretty windy up near Emley Moor Mast so I took the opportunity to get my 10 stop filter out and see if I could get a bit of cloud movement, notice the complete lack of interesting sunset in the background, that’s breaking the rules for ya! The mast one was taken at f/5.6 ISO100 19mm 30 seconds.
The tree was taken about an hour earlier, I was using the fence as a leading line and side lighting from the low sun. You wouldn’t believe it if I told you but when I was approaching there was a big mean looking cloud behind the tree that would have made a decent shot but alas it vanished and left me with a fairly plain blue sky.
The important lesson is not every outing is successful and this is why it’s so rewarding to eventually ‘get’ a shot, I’m told golf is similar but I don’t believe it for a second.

The Glass Floor

Pete Barnes — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:24:00 +0000

I was doing some studio portrait shots yesterday and thought I’d have a go at this technique I saw a while ago. It’s easy enough to do and gives a decent effect. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out how it’s done, probably not a great idea if are photographing subjects with skirts on, or Scots in kilts for that matter. This was taken at 45mm 1/125, (studio flash) f/8 ISO125, I increased the ISO by 1/3 because they were a little underexposed and I couldn’t be bothered getting up to increase the flash power by a 1/3. A quick Q&A for you, I could have also opened up the aperture to 7.1 instead of the ISO increase. Remember when lighting with just flash the shutter speed is irrelevant as long as it’s under the cameras x-sync (usually around 1/200th).

You guessed it, a tree…at sunrise!

Pete Barnes — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:59:00 +0000

Hey folks, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind for photos this morning so it became more like a what not to do on a photo outing and if you can still come away with something half way decent you are doing ok. (Remember, it’s what not to do, and I did them all!)

Set off with no plan of what you intend to shoot.
Take the bare minimum in terms of equipment, filters and polarisers just take up space and you won’t need them.
Leave yourself no time to get to where you wish to take photos.
Walk the least distance possible but through bogs that only 50,000 horse power tractors can get through, if possible wear brand new Italian motorcycle boots, oh and clean jeans!
Don’t worry about checking what ISO you were using last time, it’ll probably be a nice noise free 100 anyway.
Take a haphazard, almost child like approach to crossing muddy puddles, with equipment depreciation these days you can always just get a brand new camera should it come off the tripod as you skip over the half lit puddles.
Spend no time thinking about composition, you’ll just over complicate things, is a straight horizon really that important?

This is the result, I’m amazed I managed to remember to take the lens cap off! I got away with being a little lax this time because I was familiar with the surroundings and the equipment. The timing of the shot is critical, shots 10 minutes either side of this one would be moved to deleted pretty much as soon as I got them on the computer. For anyone still following this was a HDR so the shutter varied from 5 secs to about 1/25. ISO was 100 (I do check this without thinking now, despite the above point 5) Keeping ISO’s low is extra important when doing HDR stuff, f/16 and 16mm.

I’m adding another shot to this post as I think I prefer it to the HDR look, I’ll probably change my mind back as soon as I post it!

1 Strobe, Choose your background

Pete Barnes — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:18:00 +0000

Hi folks, I’ve been playing with my pocket wizards again just experimenting with exposures with one flash off camera and some light coming in from the window. This was quite a quick setup in the living room with no clear backgrounds, I have done a shot to demonstrate what was in the background (a couch!). I didn’t have any willing subjects so I had to use my wii guitar.

I think ambient exposure was about 1/100 at 2.8 ISO400. From this I can now choose if the background can be blown out white or Black, obviously for a white background there also needs to be something lighting your subject or you would get a silhouette, in this case the light came from the window.

So to blow out the background I had my flash pointed at the ceiling at 1/4 power, my camera set to 2.8 ISO400, 1/200sec, the window light exposed the guitar and the flash blew out the background.

Now to make the background black I had to eliminate all ambient light so I set my camera to 1/200 (I couldn’t go any quicker as this is the 5D’s x-sync speed) ISO100 and f16. The drop in ISO and aperture would also reduce the effect of the flash. The flash was now lighting the guitar, it was still at 1/4 power but I set the zoom (on the flash) to 85mm to reduce the spread and had it coming in from about 45 degrees to the right, this was important as I didn’t want any spill onto the background, not to mention the horrible sharp shadow it would have produced. Instead of increasing or decreasing the power of the flash I just changed the distance between flash and subject and thats about it. I did a very minor tweak in lightroom to ensure the blacks were black and the whites were white but nothing else.