My last workshop was on location and the weather was very typical for a British Summer ...very changeable and at time very wet ...which gave the perfect backdrop for instruction and to allow for plenty of practice working with variable light.
Here are some illustration of what we covered:
Managing contrast with a the use of some reflected light:
The main (sun) light came in from the right of our model (Sophie) which created a fairly strong shadow to the left, this was filled using a large reflector to the left side of the subject to balance things out more.
Diffused light in the shipping with a large reflector to lift shadow:
Although the light was very neutral due to the roof having some diffused light panels in it, there was very little light on on our subjects face, the use of a reflect bounced some of the light from outside back up to fill the shadow around the models face.
Using portable flash to fill in shadows:
1. Before the sun came out:
2. After the sun came out:
The same as above with sun putting some rays into the image (via breathing gaps in the roof) although these light shafts give more interest to the image it would have been improved further if this light could have been diffuse a little.
A very poorly lit indoor scene - making flash look like more ambient lighting :
I know the workshop attendees will have got some better images of our model Vikki than this, because this was just our set up shot, but what it illustrates is that even in what was a very poorly room you can create a look that appears like there are several windows working for you.
Two portable flash units where used for this image the one to the right of Vikki was bounced on to her using a large reflector, and the one to the left was direct but diffused by a soft box, although this was our main light and was able to put in to a very good position, by placing it high up at about 45 degrees to the subject some, of the possible harsh shadow has been minimized.
A very poorly lit indoor scene - making flash look like more ambient lighting :
Two portable flash units where used for this image the one to the right of Vikki was bounced on to her using a large reflector, and the one to the left was direct but diffused by a soft box, although this was our main light and was able to put in to a very good position, by placing it high up at about 45 degrees to the subject some, of the possible harsh shadow has been minimized.
Balancing ambient light with flash:
There is a very large amount of natural light coming in to the right on both off these two images, to reduce shadow to the the left of our models (Magda & Sophie) a flash was used on low power, just enough to fill the shadows a little giving an overall pleasing look to the images.
In the the image of the two models their faces are turn even more towards the light to avoid one putting a shadow onto the other.
Thank you for looking at these photo tips. If you wish to attend one of my location workshops please go to my studio blog to see when the next is:
Studio Blog