As I was flipping through all of the Oscar contending movies the other day I kept looking at the movie poster for the Artist. It’s a striking black and white image that really captures the feel of lighting that Hollywood become known for during a certain period of time. I have always loved the look of these images, they have such great contrast and with the deep dark shadows

If you want to learn more about what Hollywood lighting is check out an intro here: Hollywood Lighting .

Photo Credit: BartNJ

Photo Credit: DraperStudios

Photo Credit: Alex Strand

Photo Credit: TJ Scott

image18 by ShutterCraze

Also here are some classics from the master of hollywood lighting, George Hurrell. He was the head of the MGM portrait gallery in the 30′s and photographed all stars including Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo and Marie Dressler. See more of his work and prints for sale here: http://www.hurrellphotography.com/

If you are interested in learning more about this style of lighting and how to set it up just let me know in the comments below and I can create some articles.

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An Introduction to using off camera lighting

If you have followed this site for awhile you know how much of a fan I am of off camera lighting. I really do hate to place my flash on camera and will only do so in certain situations where I am moving around a lot (like covering the entire reception and moving from table to table at a wedding). When you take your flash off camera you start to create more dimension in your images and the creative possibilities are endless. For weddings I use off camera lighting as much as possible and am still able to setup shots very quickly and be mobile by using small speedlights. If you know your subjects will be in a contained area like the first dance for a bride and groom it’s the perfect opportunity to take that flash off the camera and start to get more creative shots.

If you are new to off camera lighting and don’t even know where to start here are some key things you will need to know (or gear you need) to get started.

– The easiest thing to do when starting out is simply buy a extension cord for your flash that will allow you to still have your flash plugged into your camera but gives you control to move it a few feet away from the camera. By using a off camera shoe cord you can basically move your flash a few feet off camera. You can basically just hold your flash with one arm and start to see the big different that makes in the image. This is a great way to start to see the difference that moving your flash a few feet off the camera axis can have. It’s also a really inexpensive way to start to get that flash off camera, you can pick up a simple off camera cord on Amazon for about $20 here.

– If you are a canon or nikon user both companies make decent flashes like the Canon 580 Ex II. These aren’t the most powerful flashes in the world and do have a pretty advanced ETTL system to automatically calculate exposure for you. They are fairly expensive though and if you want 3 lights to get creative with can set you back a good amount of money. For a nice manual flash I have used the Vivitar 285 units for years now and do really like these for the price. One good thing about learning to use off camera lighting with manual lights is it forces you to change the power of the lights up and down to get the exact results you are looking for and really think about the ratio of light. With ETTL sometimes we can get lazy and just accept the light that the flash automatically pushes out. Check out a review we did on the Vivitar 285 flashes.

shoe mount clamp

– Once you start using a few lights for a location shoot you also want to have some portable light stands to use to position your lights. Since these flashes are lightweight you can get away with a 7 foot light stand that is fairly inexpensive. These usually run anywhere from $20-$40 and will do the job just fine. What you also will need though is a shoe mount clamp to connect your flash to the light stand. These also run about $20 and look for one like this Photoflex shoe mount clamp that have a hole to attach an umbrella.

– I am a huge fan of softboxes for my monolights that I use. Although monolights are great for portraits and fairly portable they don’t travel as well as a nice small speedlight. But over the past few years there have been a lot more manufactures making attachements and accessories for speedlights and you can now get portable, small softboxes for any small flash like the Canon 580′s. Photoflex makes a great small softbox that even comes in a kit with a shoe mount, connector and stand. You can check this out here for more info: Photoflex Litedome Small Softbox Kit. Even though these softboxes are small they still aren’t cheap, if you are looking for a more affordable way to soften your light then an umbrella is always a good tool to have. An umbrella is usually under $20 and a nice white umbrella can give you a nice soft light to your images.

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pocketwizard Flex TT5

Thats just a brief outline of some of the tools needed for using off camera flash for your photography. Stay tuned for some more in depth articles and real life examples coming in the future! You can always subscribe to our posts at the top right of the page by putting in your email address to receive updates, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all updates. And as always if you have any questions just leave a comment below or on our Facebook wall!

Once you have your flash off camera then it’s time to get creative! Also check out a few of our other off camera lighting articles here:

Creative lighting for first dance photos

Using off camera lighting for wedding photography

Off camera lighting

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Not all shade is created equal. Learning to see all of the very intricate differences in light and the quality of light can be one of the best things to learn. I am continually learning to see light in a new way and constantly have to train my brain to see things as the camera would. Shooting a lot of weddings every year I find myself looking for shade often to shoot portraits. But just like I said at the start not all shade is created equal. Before going into what I look for in a shaded area first lets talk about why I shoot in the shade sometimes.

One of the benefits about a nice area of shade for group photos is that you have a consistent light. Everyone in the group is in the same light so you will have a consistent image without someone in a strong shadow or hightlight. With big groups you always have to watch all people to make sure that one person isn’t the only one in the sun and is going to be totally washed out. You can try to block the sun with something but for larger group shots you might not have something big enough to block the sun. So I am always on the hunt for a large area of shade. When looking through I pay close attention to how dense and dark the shade is, sometimes you can have a deep shade that it isn’t really flattering to your subjects. So what to look for when trying to capture a group shot in the shade? There are 2 things that I always try and look for with this type of shot.

One is always a question we should be asking ourselves when shooting. Where is the light coming from? See where the sun is coming from and how that is impacting your shade. The location, angle and strength of the sun will all play a important role in the density of the shade you are in.

What is surrounding the shade? This is so key, what is around you that is impacting the light? If you are outdoors in an urban environment with buildings what is across the street? Is there a huge light colored building that is basking in the sun and bouncing that sunlight back over to your shade to fill everything in? Perfect! Look for opportunities like that where you have large objects nearby that are bouncing light back to you.

In this image there was a fairly small strip of shade. The key that really made the light work was that the sun was overhead and a little bit behind me. It was bouncing down on a really light colored stone that bounced the light back up and into the shade filling in all of the shadows and creating a nice light. A good trick if you are shooting somewhere without a reflective ground surface (like on the grass) is to bring a large white sheet with you. Place it in the sun right before the edge of the shade and let it act as a reflector to bounce light back into the shade.

Do you have any tips on photographing in the shade? Leave us a comment below, lets start a discussion.

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Awhile back we polled everyone on what some of your top things are you want to learn more about in 2011. There was a wide range of answers but the #1 thing people wanted to learn more about was lighting. For my own work I love to get creative with lighting and am happy to create some tutorials and articles on lighting this year for everyone. So I can see what type of articles are most important when it comes to lighting please answer this poll below.

Thanks! — Mark

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Sometimes I think people can get way too caught up with the gear of photography. When you start getting into lighting you can really start getting gear crazy, you want multiple lights, radio slaves, light modifiers, etc…. Sometimes though keeping your lighting ultra simple can be your best bet and still allow you to get some amazing images! Whenever I am working a wedding I am always looking out for dramatic lighting and love spotlights and other very direct lighting that venues often times have.

This photo is an example of a very quick and easy shot that we got that required no lighting or anything to setup. I was photographing a wedding at a restaurant. It was actually a daytime wedding and the reception was at the main restaurant around 2:00 in the afternoon. In one corner of the room they had this little woven fabric hanging from a tapestry bar. It was a pretty cool texture to use for a background and they had it lit with just one strong spotlight. Even though it was still day and the room had a lot of ambient light I knew that with the power of that spotlight we could create a dramatic image. Setting up this shot was simple, I had to have the subject look slightly up towards the light to avoid any hard shadows under her eyes and set my exposure for the light on her skin. I don’t have the time to get a light meter out while I shoot, so all I do normally is zoom into the area I want to meter and get an exposure from my camera. So I would focus on her face, see what the exposure is there and then manually set that in my camera. That will give you the correct exposure but also since there is such a different with the light on the subject vs. the light on the background your background will become much darker. In this case since it was daylight and there was plenty of light coming in this helped me to get a nice dark and dramatic background where the subject can just pop right out of. If you would have just let your camera average out the scene it would have made that background more true to real life so it would have been much lighter and then the subject would have been way too light and blown out.

You can also change how dramatic the light is by simply having your subject move the angle of their head. The more the subject is facing the spotlight the flatter the light. The more that they turn away from the light the more dramatic the shadows will be. If you want something very dramatic like Hollywood lighting then just turn the subject slightly away from the light. Also check out our post on Hollywood lighting from awhile back here: Holllywood lighting for photography

It only took a few minutes to shoot and we captured some great images of the bride that were very dramatic, all done with existing light during the day. Here is a shot of my wonderful assistant modeling for me as we tested out the light beforehand.

For those interested here are the tech specs for this shot:
Canon 5d
ISO 800
50mm 1.4 lens
1/40th second @ f/3.2

This post is sponsored by Collages.net

I mentioned awhile back how the first dance and some of the dancing at a wedding as one of my favorite times to shoot (creative wedding reception lighting article here). The reason is with a nice dark dance floor is the the perfect opportunity to get creative with lighting. One thing that I love to do is use the videographers light backlighting the bride and groom to create a cool light. Sometimes it is just a backlight for the effect and I still will use my flash as the main light, other times I will use it as a dramatic side light with no other flash. It really depends on the effect I am going for and how much ambient light I have to deal with. Here are a few images from a recent shoot where I used the videographers light for a nice effect.

The first shot my flash was turned off and I only used the room light for my main light. With the ISO of the 5d I can shoot at ISO 1000 or above and still get a good file and I usually shoot these at f/2.8 or lower so don’t need a ton of light to get my subjects exposed. I always figure out my exposure before the dancing starts (at the middle of the dance floor) and set my exposure to manual. Then i’ll shoot some frames with the videographer in a different part of the shot. I might have their light right in between the couple or barely on the side of one of their heads or even totally to the side. Each spot the light is at will have a pretty big difference on the effect of the light so experiment. But remember to experiment after you get the shot nailed, first get the good shot you know your client will want. Then have fun!

Sometimes I’ll have my external flash units on and just use the video light as a little accent behind them or on the side. That is what I did here, I framed the videographer in just to add a extra dynamic to the shot. The subjects will be exposed perfect from your main flash and the video light just adds a visual element to the shot.

And this final example is another one with no flash at all, just exposed properly for the subject and then framing the video light in between them.

Have a dance shot you love? Post a link to it in the Facebook comments section below.

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