For the most part at reception, I use one on-camera and one off-camera flash. But today I'm going to talk about how you can get creative by turning off your on-camera flash and just using one off-camera flash.
I love the dramatic look you can achieve by doing this. The photo above was taken outdoors as the couple left the reception and you can see that the scene was back-lit by my off-camera flash on a light stand. My settings for this image were: ISO 200 f5.0 1/60sec. I definitely could have gone even lower with the shutter speed since there was no other light on the subject other than my flash. But I love the effect that was achieved by back-lighting the bubbles.
Here's another image that was lit from behind by my off-camera flash. It just offers a different feel than if I was also lighting the subject from the front with my on-camera flash.
I love the dramatic look you can achieve by doing this. The photo above was taken outdoors as the couple left the reception and you can see that the scene was back-lit by my off-camera flash on a light stand. My settings for this image were: ISO 200 f5.0 1/60sec. I definitely could have gone even lower with the shutter speed since there was no other light on the subject other than my flash. But I love the effect that was achieved by back-lighting the bubbles.
Here's another image that was lit from behind by my off-camera flash. It just offers a different feel than if I was also lighting the subject from the front with my on-camera flash.
My settings for this next image were: ISO 250 f5.0 1/30sec. I was moving my camera with the low shutter speed so there is a little bit of motion blur where the flash wasn't reaching but I love how it adds to the feel of the image. I also love the way the shadows act as leading lines to the subject.
For this next image, I noticed that the angle of the off-camera flash was perfect for capturing a shadow of the couple on the wall behind their table. So I turned off my on-camera flash and got creative with the toasts:
This next image was admittedly a happy mistake. My on-camera flash chose not to fire so only the off-camera flash lit up to crowd I was shooting as they reacted to the cake cutting. I love how the parents of the bride are lit up dramatically in the right side of the image. My settings were ISO 400 f5.6 1/50sec.
If you use a set-up similar to mine, with one on-camera and one off-camera flash, it's easy to switch on the fly between using both and using one or the other. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I use both. But sometimes, someone walks up to me at the reception and wants a quick portrait. I might not have time to move them somewhere in relation to my off-camera flash that would make for a flattering portrait. So what I do in order to shoot the portrait with just my on-camera flash, is I hit the "Gr" button on my on-camera speedlite, then select the B flash and hit "ON/OFF" to toggle it off momentarily. Other times, when I'm wanting to create a more dramatic effect using just off-camera flash -- like the images in this post -- I switch off my on-camera flash by toggling to the Menu 2 settings, then hitting this button to tell my on-camera flash not to fire:
This set-up is super-flexible making it easy to get creative!
If you found this post helpful, and are interested in learning more, click here to opt-in for my free video series -- 6 Hacks to Eliminate Boring Low-Light Photos and Get You Creating Reception Images you LOVE! In it I share my best 6 tips for shooting with flash. If you are intimidated by flash and wanting to conquer it once and for all, this is a great place to start!
If you found this post helpful, and are interested in learning more, click here to opt-in for my free video series -- 6 Hacks to Eliminate Boring Low-Light Photos and Get You Creating Reception Images you LOVE! In it I share my best 6 tips for shooting with flash. If you are intimidated by flash and wanting to conquer it once and for all, this is a great place to start!
--------------------------
Equipment used for above photos:
Canon 5D Mark III // Canon 50mm 1.2 lens // Canon 24mm 1.4 lens // 2 Canon 600EX-RT Speedlites // MagMod Bounce // 2 Battery Packs // Light Stand with umbrella bracket and cold shoe
Equipment used for above photos:
Canon 5D Mark III // Canon 50mm 1.2 lens // Canon 24mm 1.4 lens // 2 Canon 600EX-RT Speedlites // MagMod Bounce // 2 Battery Packs // Light Stand with umbrella bracket and cold shoe
Comments
