I’d like to show you some off-camera lighting tips with recipes today.
Today is all about JUMPING!
This particular night we got to have dinner at our friend Carey’s house, and it was a blast!
Carey has a big ol’ trampoline in her backyard. Let’s just say a few of us went crazy on it. 🙂 Can you imagine who that would be?
Notice Blaze crying in the background with Brian. Do you know why Blaze is crying? Because Brian was bouncing to hard and flipped Blaze. 🙂
But this shot is my favorite one!
We were using Carey’s new Alien B1600 light. These lights range in price and you can find them at Alienbees.com. I think her light was around $360. But without the light, this is what the pictures would have looked like.
So now for the Off-Camera Lighting Tips Recipe!
We did these shots at 7pm. We still had plenty of light outside, so we had to be in Manual Mode to trick the camera for this type of dramatic lighting. We wanted the camera to think we didn’t have any light outside and that’s why we needed the off-camera lighting.
Our ISO was 100 so the color of the sky would be as blue as possible. The Shutter Speed was 1/250. When using strobe lights like this, you’ll want your Shutter Speed at 1/250. Now the Aperture was a little tricky because we don’t want it dialed down low like I usually like. Remember, the lower the aperture gives more blur in the background. These shots don’t have any thing to do with getting blur in the background. These shots are all about dramatic lighting with strobe lights.
Since these shots are about dramatic lighting, we want our aperture to be really high–maybe F11 or F16. We want the little hole that the light come through to be super tiny. This means if we took the photo without the off camera lighting, the image would be really dark because the aperture is so small. But that’s okay because we want the off camera light to be our main source of light. Does this make sense? If you’re feeling confused give yourself some breathing room because it is a bit tricky when you’re not familiar with it. But don’t let the confusion keep you from thinking it over and mulling it around because playing with light can be so fun!
We had one light for the images above. But Carey got together a couple months ago with an awesome photographer named Rob Benson. He is a master at off-camera lighting and for the shot below used three lights. Wow! Take a look at what drama he is able to capture! Is that the coolest soccer kid picture in the world!! Â And be sure to check out his website (it’s hyperlinked to his name)! It is SO COOL!!
If you’ve enjoyed my off-camera lighting tips and would like more help with lighting, shutter speed, aperture and all that good stuff, check out our crazy fun DVDs!
I love off camera lighting! It’s great for so many applications. We’ve been using it for backlighting brides and grooms and sometimes the bridal gown. That slight rim of light can be so pretty. And it Really confuses people as to why we would light a subject from the back…until they see the picture.
Wierd! Ive been thinking about off camera lighting recently and LOVE this post!! I do remember that soccer pic from her blog and saw what the sky REALLY looked like – totally different and dramatic! Enjoy the rest of your time there! 🙂
Wow, those pictures are amazing (especially the soccor ones). I am continually amazed at what is possible with a camera and the gear and technology out here. What I love about this is the idea that it isn’t limited ONLY to super-high end photographers with endless gear… that I could learn this stuff too.
Now to get my stepson to start playing soccor so we can have pictures like that too. 😉
Super cool! I really love the fun you can have working with off camera lights! Alien Bee’s are awesome I dying for the ringflash!
Love the picture of blaze! And that Soccer pic…WOW!
I love the lighting! WOW! I have so much to learn and lighting does freak me out a bit. Thanks for the great post!
I’ve been reading about polarizing filters to help add saturation and definition to the sky and to landscape. Do you ever use one? What do you think?
So was the picture of Blaze before or after daddy flipped him? Oh, so cute! But what we really want to see is Mamma MeRa jumping for JOY! Hope you got in on the bouncing fun too! Amazing lighting affects…skies the limit!
WHOA! What a great post! Incredible shots. Me Ra, on Robs photos, if you don’t have a pocket wizard, can you tether two lights to fire from the camera? And was his sky photoshoped in or does that kind of lighting produce that dramatic sky??
I learn so much here….THANKS! Caron
I love those pics. I had always wondered how off camera lighting worked. I think it is so cool. My favorite pic is Blaze jumping, its so darn cute. Makes me want to jump. It was great meeting you this weekend. Enjoy the weather, now that the sun has come out to play.
I love the soccer ones, the lighting is fantastic! Wonderful work! =]
Great questions friends! Hopefully I’ll get them all answered.
First, the shot of Blaze jumping was BEFORE Brian almost bounced him off the trampoline brining him to tears. 🙂
I decided to not do any jumping and safe guard my back. But Carey did a freaking front and back flip which I took photos of, and she has NOT sent them to me! You’ll have to harass her on her blog for those. She is a superstar mom when it comes to flips on trampolines.
We don’t use polarizers or any other filters on our lenses. I prefer to shoot at 100 ISO as much as possible. Carey also taught the workshop ladies to use Matrix Metering when you want blue skies. Try that out for metering. Works great!
We didn’t use any pocket wizards for this. We just had a cord that plugged into Carey’s camera and had one of the neighbor kids holding the light off to the side.
If you wanted to fire more than one light, you’d probably need your pocket wizards to do that.
Not sure if Rob photoshops his images, but I know there was dramatic clouds in the sky which adds to the image. And the lighting set up really hits a new level of drama. But what Rob did in post process, I’m not sure.
Hope this is helpful!!
xoxo
Hi everyone!
For the soccer pics that day with Rob, the clouds were awesome. You can see in the “blah” picture of mine, that without the light, they look really lame. But when you tighten up your aperture (dialing in a high number) you let so little light in that the sky takes on that dark appearance. You can see some more that I did at my son’s soccer team blog that I do: http://www.farpostblog.com
To fire more than one light, you don’t need a pocket wizard or radio trigger. With Alien Bees, they have an automatic “slave” function where the 2nd light will “see” the light from the flash unit that has the cord connected to the camera. The problem is that if you’re outside, this is REALLY unreliable, and if the two lights can’t “see” each other, that 2nd one may not fire. Sunlight screws that up a lot. When I did the soccer kid shots yesterday outside, the 2nd light only fired about 60-70% of the time in that “slave” mode. I’ve ordered some radio triggers, but they haven’t come yet…grrr! For now, I’m running that sync cable from my camera to one light, then letting the 2nd light see the 1st one fire so it can fire at the same time in slave mode.
It’s fun stuff for sure! Playing with light placement and power amounts is fun, but only with subjects who have patience for that (my 9yr old son was getting ticked at me after a while yesterday!). I’m looking forward to playing MORE! And yes, we should have gotten MeRa on the trampoline!
~Carey
forgot to say…. Rob did VERY little Photoshopping to those files. Maybe a TAD of a contrast bump, and that’s it.
The lights & the sky made the images work. Love that! I did VERY LITTLE on those soccer pics on Mat’s team site, too. I think I used a little bit of Kevin Kubota’s Amazing Detail Finder to bring out some sharpness on the balls & faces, a little contrast bump, and that’s it.
oh, and on the picture of the coach, you can tell that it’s one of the pictures where that 2nd light didn’t fire. (the coach’s name is Karlos, and I make fun of him for not spelling it with a C like everyone ELSE, so everything that’s supposed to start with a C gets a K with him — hence, Mr. Kool)
enough babbling! gotta go watch LOST!
Who’s Manuel and how did he get his own mode?!
Thanks for the blog Me Ra. You gives us de gems.
T-TOWN 4 LYFE!!
Nice images! Off camera lighting changes everything and gives you the most creative options.
One clarification though. Matrix metering does not give you blue skies. The “type” of metering (matrix, center, spot) is not what is important but using the meter to underexpose the sky by 1.5-2 stops. Then just add enough off cam light to light the subject.
Underexposing the background is what will help maintain color and detail.
As will adding a warming gel to the main light and setting your white balance to the color of the gel (3800 K or lower). This will bring out the blue in the sky and add nice warmth to the subject.
Keep on rockin
Eric
Me Ra,
Thanks for the idea of using flash on the trampoline. I’m a “mom photographer” who is working up to something beyond that. I took some pics of the kids on the trampoline that stunk as far as lighting & color. Then I read your post and used by speedlite (that’s all I’ve got) and took some that I like a LOT better!! They are on my website.
Anyway, thanks for helping me get some pics that I dare say, LOVE! 🙂
Michelle