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

Motorbike Photography

I had quite a few shoots over the weekend so I unwound a little by taking some photos, strange I know! I’ve noticed from some of my web traffic that the motorbike photography gets quite a lot of visitors, not surprisingly looking for the Yamaha XVS 1300 midnight star, it would be handy if they were getting married but I suspect they see the photo and are drawn in expecting a top notch review of the bike and are probably a little disappointed when all they get are a few camera techniques. If you are one of these visitors, no review needed, you should just go and get one of these, I love mine!

Anyway, on to the photo. It was taken in manual (ISO 100, 24mm, 1/160 at f/5.6) This would have produced a very under exposed shot, probably on a level close to the uppermost bricks. However it was lit with a 580EXII and a 430EX either side of the camera, about 45 degrees to the bike. The lights were unmodified and therefore quite harsh (note sharp shadows near the tires, also both going inwards indicating 2 lights) but this gave the spectral highlights in the chrome I was after. It also produced a nice dramatic vignette with the bricks behind. The only problem with this is I got harsh shadows on the wall from the handlebars being lit predominantly by the light on the right. These were cloned out in post production as cloning with bricks is very easy, you just have to remember to pick a brick that has a similar tone but without a great big shadow running through it.

Editing was done in lightroom and then in photoshop. I had seen quite a good photoshop video from a photographer called Calvin Hollywood, he has done quite a few youtube videos about techniques he uses to bring out details in shots, so I thought I’d try some, plus he sounds a bit like the terminator which can’t be a bad thing, unless you are Sarah Connor! Anyway instead of going through all the steps like a recipe book just check him out on youtube if you get chance and use the techniques as a starting point and see what you come up with.

I did have to use web resource that I haven’t been on for a while as I was trying to do some Depth of field calculations. Depth of field is a term used when talking about how much of a photo is in focus and is not an easy concept to begin with but it soon becomes second nature. Portraits are a good example of photos that have a very low depth of field, they (usually) have a nice background blur with just the subjects face, or more specifically eyes, in focus, this draws in the viewers attention. Landscapes on the other hand usually have a large depth of field so everything is in focus from the foreground to the back ground. There are many factors that you can change to alter the depth of field, the main ones being:

Lens aperture – Lower the f number the smaller the DOF, so f/2.8 has a much shallower DOF than f/16)
Focal length – Wider focal lengths have higher DOF, so 24mm has a larger DOF than 200mm)
Subject distance – As the subject gets closer (or the working distance decreases) the DOF becomes less

Sensor size also plays a part with larger full frame sensors having less DOF than smaller crop sensors but this is not a variable that can easily be changed.

Anyway the simulator I was using, which explains things visually better than I have above is Here. With this DOF simulator you can see the current depth of field and how changing things like aperture and focal length can effect things, this is very useful if you need to know how wide your DOF will be if you have settings X,Y and Z. The site it is on, Liquid Sculpture, is also a great site with some fantastic water drop shots, well worth checking out.

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