Following on from the success of our previous Creatively Advanced Off-camera flash Workshop recently, it was the turn for an Introduction to Off-camera Flash Workshop Day.
This is a very popular workshop which is held at our studio in Linen Green and surrounding area, and we again had a great group of photographers attending..
Typically this workshop is divided into an am/pm split between studio and location time. In the morning we look at all the technicalities relating to flash and off-camera flash in particular. In the afternoon we avail of the great and varied locations the Linen Green complex outside of the studio has to offer, and especially ideal for lending itself to more contemporary urban work. , This gives the attending photographers the opportunity to put everything into practice for themselves. I do always stress though that my total priority is to give attending photographers a good grounding in how off-camera flash works. I’d much rather enable them to repeat it by themselves in their own photography as opposed to them leaving at the end of the day with great pictures and still baffled by how it all works. Hopefully they get both though 🙂
Model : Evelina
Makeup : Catherine Fleming Makeup
Hair : Christopher Kirk
Here’s some pictures and discussion from the day which as you may anticipate is mainly technical relating to off-camera flash.
Some behind the scenes to start with. This was almost immediately when we moved out of the studio, and this shop front is a few steps directly across the street from the studio. In fact I was able to photograph a few of these with the camera tethered into the computer which was still in the studio behind us.
This series above shows the thought process. As the attending photographers will testify to, it was challenging light with an intense afternoon full sun rapidly darting in and out of cloud. As can be seen in the behind the scenes photo at the top, we picked this area because it was in shade from the full sun. The shade wasn’t constant unfortunately and exposure was affected constantly by whether the sun was in or out.
The top photo shows the chosen exposure for this shop front shutter – deliberately under exposed. Next in the middle photo the flash was turned on with it having been carefully positioned and lighting modifier fitted. Lastly in the bottom photo our model, Evelina was brought in.
All photographers are involved with every step in the setup.
Just across the car park is this contemporary glass facade to the side of a restaurant. Similar to above this lends itself well to being under exposed and off-camera flash added.
(Left no flash – right with flash)
Next we looked at using off-camera flash as subtle fill-flash. With the bonus of the sun out at this stage we positioned Evelina so she was in controlled light and to use the sun as a back light on her hair. Working with a shallow depth of field on a longer lens made the car park behind an acceptable background.
This is a rear shutter to one of the Linen Green shops. Two off-camera flashes were used here.
This is a flatly shaded terracotta coloured wall until off-camera flash is added (see below)
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Before and after flash at the chosen exposure.
This was our final setup of the afternoon. As the sun was still out it was an opportunity to look at fill flash at the extreme using it to overpower harsh hard shadows created by full sun. (See below).
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The photo at the top is an initial setup one and shows the dreadful shadows being created by hard, direct sunlight before the flash was added (bottom photo). The top photo was also deliberately under exposed by about another stop before flash was added as per the bottom photo.
One of the attending photographers asked about adding another flash behind our model. It worked very well in visually separating Evelina’s dark coat from the dark background and also highlighted her hair.
This is an old rusting disused steel oil tank in the furthest most point of a back car park and definitely a part of The Linen Green the public never see!
We hold these off-camera flash workshops regularly along with several other workshops. If you would like to attend or discuss dates then please get in touch. Full details can be found here.
