Understand Photography
Once you are really understand exposure, taking your speedlight off your camera can produce some dramatic and gorgeous images!
Off Camera Flash on Location
I used Cactus v4 triggers - the transmitter on my camera, the receiver on the bottom of the speedlight. I then attached it to a monopod, which I had my assistant point it at the little boy. I used no diffusers - just the speedlight pointed at the child, a little off to the side. The camera setting were -1EV, which means I exposed one stop under the zero on the meter to darken the sky.
Our “Outdoor Portrait” workshop is our second most popular workshop, with DSLR Exposure as our most popular. You can be creating images like this just by taking those two classes. We work hard to simplify, simplify, simplify the technical part of photography! It’s really not as tough as the techies make is seem!! LOL!
Check out calendar to register for our workshops. They are reasonably priced, hands-on, simple and fun!
http://www.meetup.com/UnderstandPhotography/#calendar
This portrait was the same day. I exposed for the background (meter on zero). My speedlight was on the monopod, about 5 feet from the child. I was about 15 feet away, using my long lens to blur out the background.
That’s another benefit of off camera flash; you can have your light source close to your subject, even if you are not.
- ~Peggy Farren is the founder of Understand Photography Training Center. She’s been a portrait and wedding photographer for over 17 years.
I love off camera flash. Do you use a light modifier on your speedlight? thnx
In this case, I did not use a modifier. However, my next blog post will be about photographing a family portrait with an off camera speedlight, shooting into an umbrella. Stay tuned!