My first personal blog post
Date – July 2015
Location – Edinburgh
Mastering Light – Off Camera Flash
Ok guy’s just a heads up – I’m not the best at writing so I usually have Farhana help words flow better. I plan to keep this sort and to the point.
I’ve been doing wedding photography since 2010. Whilst editing my work, I analyse my photos. I have learnt what works, what doesn’t and what could have been better when it comes to the camera settings, framing and lighting.
Since last year I’ve wanted to share what I’ve learnt and help other up-and-coming photographers out there as I could not have the knowledge I have now if other fellow photographers hadn’t shared their knowledge.
About three years ago I bought my first off camera flash triggering system (pocket wizard TTL system for canon, highly recommended as its radio triggered and has amazing range as well as TTL). Since then I have done a lot of research on how to get the perfect lighting in different situations be that indoors or outdoors; they both meet different challenges.
Over time I have also realised that the bare flash can lead to strong shadows on the subject, therefore I decided to invest in a few different diffusing systems such as Garfy Fong diffusers, umbrellas, octabox’s and the like. I plan to blog about in the near future so keep an eye out guys.
So this shoot was just a week before Huma’s Wedding (you may have seen some preview shots on social media – it will be ready to blog in a couple of months), as I wanted to try out different lighting techniques for the couple’s shoot which we planned after the wedding.
I am a strong believer of the old saying
“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”
For this shoot we used a two light setup with the Rembrandt lighting technique with some key light from behind.
Equipment used:
- Two Canon speedlite 600ex-rt
- Lastolight Octabox
- Manfrotto light stands
- Canon 6d
- Canon 24-70 2.8 mkii
- Canon 70-200 2.8 mkii
- Gitzo tripod
Unfortunately, I haven’t got any pictures of the setup as I keep on forgetting. I will work on this and try remembering next time I plan a practice shoot. Guys feel free to comment and give me your thoughts on what you think of the photos. Any feedback is good feedback and would be much appreciated.
