Summertime Fill Flash

Summertime is such a great time to photograph outdoors. The sun stays high and bright for longer hours,which gives you more opportunity to shoot. One of the things that happens in this strong, bright light are deep shadows.  A deep shadow from a building on the side walk or on the side of a building is really interesting. But what if the deep shadow is on a face, especially where the eyes are?

I had this happen to me recently on a photo shoot in Dumbo, NY. I know that the sun is at it's highest pint of brightness and strength from 12pm-3pm. My client insisted on shooting from-12pm-4pm. So I brought my silver reflector and my speed flash. My model had heavy lidded eyes so when she faced me and the camera, her eyes looked like two black holes.
 
So I took out my silver reflector and tried to fill in her eyes. But my reflector was too far away to fill in her eyes, face and neck. I then attached my speed flash to hot shoe on the camera. I dialed the flash to minus 1/3rd. I fired off a test shot and there was too much light. I then dialed my flash down to minus 2/3rd's and the image was what I was aiming for-fill light on her face, eyes and neck without over powering the rest of the image.

The rule of thumb is to set your fill flash up to minus 1/3rd to full stop for high summertime light. If you are photographing a person, the tone of their skin can play a factor in your fill flash setting.
Late day or early morning summertime light is slightly different light, brightness and strength. You fill flash settings will be different in those situations. You will have to test your flash settings before shooting. Clothing or shiny surfaces can be highly reflective with light from a flash so your settings may have to be adjusted. Be sure to bring that silver reflector-you may be able to have the reflector close to the subject and use that bounce as your fill light. Bring your sun screen!

5 Tips for Family Photography Sessions

1. Use a light modifier that is flattering to your subject. Skin tones need softer lighting for better portraits. Harsh lighting will give you sharp shadows under the eyes and nose or make the skin look unflattering.

2. Use a lower ISO. SKin tones are better reproduced with a lower ISO number. The higher the ISO, the higher the noise and pixels,which can make skin tones look spotty or grainy.

3. Have patience. Groups of families may take some maneuvering to get into place or have their attention looking towards you. Breath, be firm in your direction and showing patience will go along way with your clients and your portraits.

4. Smile. Clients want to have a good experience with you, in addition to a fabulous family portrait they will cherise. Pouty or grim faces can result in sad subject faces. You set the tone for your photo shoot. Bring your happy face and your subjects will bring theirs.

5. Shoot and shoot more. Groups of people are multiple eyes blinking or lips moving at the same time. Take a few of images of one set-up to make sure you have that one image in that set-up. The next set-up, do the same. Making sure you have more than one choice in each set-up will save you major headaches with your client.

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes images are great way to showcase your talents as a photographer. It is also can be a separate, fun story that can be a nice addition to your photography project. Yes, you have a lot to deal with on a photo shoot. Everyone is looking to you for direction and planning the day's event. Not to mention, you have to set up your lights (or instruct your crew/assistant),while getting your camera ready to capture your first image.

©Lisa Ramsay

Pick up your camera while your team is getting ready or prepping your model. I love make-up,even though I do not wear much myself. But the colors, textures, materials they come in and the different tools used make for a great still life image. Move around the team, shooting high and low. Look for still lives, action shots or even special moments or interactions between the crew and talent.

©Lisa Ramsay

Give yourself and assignment to create a series of images that tells a fun story of what went on during your photo shoot. Be playful and be patient! We all have smartphones and are ready to pose with those camera phones. But shooting with your camera takes patience and skill. Anticipation is key, along with a quick finger on the shutter release, in some cases. Listen for clues to the team's personalities. Help your viewer experience the space you are shooting in with a gorgeous atmosphere photo. Stillness in photography cam be exciting and evoke many different opinions or feelings from your viewer.

©Lisa Ramsay

Location images can also help with post production if you need a reference for a background or use the image as part of your editorial story. A location image can help set the tone of your series or give your viewer a new appreciation of space,color or texture.

Lighting for White Clothing

One of my favorite type of photography looks is white on white. Photographing white clothing with a white background can be ethereal, striking, siren and energetic. It also can be very tricky to light correctly. Before you even start shooting or testing your light, take a look at the white clothing in the existing light you have. Does the white clothing shine or have a sheen? Is the fabric flat or have colored undertones? what is the skin tone of your model, if you have one. Do you want to blow out any highlights? Do you under expose while shooting and bring up your mid range and highlight details in post? These are just a few questions I would ask myself before setting my lights up.

If I had the option to set my strobe lights at a brighter setting for the background while keeping my front light at the right exposure, then I will have my white clothing stand out with a brighter white background. Sometimes, I can not light the background but still have to shoot white on white. In that case, I will underexpose my subject by a stop, stop and a half and bring up the highlights and mid range tones in post. Why do that? I do not want extra work in post production but I want to be sure my highlights and mid range tones hold up. Clothing, fabrics or plastic can be very reflective or suck in light. Your light modifier will also play a big part on how your white on white is created with ease or frustration. Do you need to soften the light or have a more direct light source for your white item? Testing your modifiers with your white items will help you decide which way to go. Sometimes a blown out highlight can add division to your image. It is up to you if that blown out detail is worth saving or not. I would experiment with different types of white items with different types of lighting. Make sure your main subject has the correct lighting and exposure so it can stand out from it's white background. Shadows, texture and shapes can help shape your subject and entire image. Look for ways to use these when shooting. 

Winter Light-Winter light can be so gorgeous and very frustrating at the same time. Why is that, you ask? well winter light is not as strong as summer light. the kelvin temperature numbers are lower and the sky color can be more cyan or blue. But winter light can also be very beautiful for skin tones and early day landscapes/cityscapes. I was a photoshoot recently in Manhattan The client wanted to shoot outdoors and since it is December, I suggested we start

to photograph right away. We started the photo shoot at 9:00am. The light outside was with deep shadows and white in color. Use the deep shadows to add sharpness to a person's face and to also shape their face. Shadows can also be used to be part of the subject. I had to use a fill flash for facial shots so the face would not be so dark in the shadows and eyes. When we moved to a more open location and as the sun was starting to move in it's orbit, the colors of the sky changed multiple shades of blue with hints of green,cyan. The client’s skin tone was so gorgeous in this light. The warmth of the orange/yellow just popped their skin tone.

the light changed so rapidly. Fill flash on half the images and natural light on the rest. My color balance was on cloudy. I had over head clouds to deal with. Your camera color settings is so important, especially when shooting outdoors in changing light. Checking your exposures during changing light is a given. Cold weather can change a person's skin tone because of the lack of warmth. Being quick with your captures and having your subjects move will help your outdoor photo shoot. A sense of play with your subjects can go a long way. Fun images that are playful will go over big with your clients. Take a few rounds of exposures for jumps in the air, to cover your bases. With winter  light that changes so rapidly, you should be shooting with exposures that will reflect your client's skin tone and mood.