Today I'm continuing a new series on my blog for photographers call "Behind the Image." In addition to the topics that I get questions about and address on my F.A.Q.s posts, I often get asked about what went into creating specific images. As you know, I love to share info and so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this series. So as you browse through my blog, if an image catches your eye, feel free to ask me to feature it in an upcoming "Behind the Image" post.
Last night I spoke to a group of photographers at the Phoenix PUG about lighting. I shared a quick tutorial on off-camera lighting at receptions and talked about my set-up. So in honor of how fun that was, I thought I'd pick an image today that was taken with off-camera flash at a reception. This image comes from Shane & Tatum's wedding all the way back in September of 2007. It was taken at Trilogy at Vistancia in their ballroom during the father/daughter dance.
I love the three-dimensional feel that off-camera flash gives an image. This is an incredibly touching moment between Tatum and her dad and while it would still be a great capture with on-camera flash, the image would look flat and not be nearly as powerful. I'm going to share with you what I did in camera and in post-production that resulted in the above image as the final product.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, hand held, with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 125mm, f4.5, 1/30 of a second & ISO 200.
While I oftentimes shoot with both an off-camera flash and an on-camera flash for fill, in this instance I only fired the off-camera flash. The off-camera flash was set up on a light stand about 20-30 feet away from the subject and about 100-120 degrees clockwise from where I was standing. I had the flash set manually to 1/32 power and pointed at a 90 degree angle directly at the dance floor. I used pocket wizards to trigger the off-camera flash.
This is the image straight out of camera:
Last night I spoke to a group of photographers at the Phoenix PUG about lighting. I shared a quick tutorial on off-camera lighting at receptions and talked about my set-up. So in honor of how fun that was, I thought I'd pick an image today that was taken with off-camera flash at a reception. This image comes from Shane & Tatum's wedding all the way back in September of 2007. It was taken at Trilogy at Vistancia in their ballroom during the father/daughter dance.
I love the three-dimensional feel that off-camera flash gives an image. This is an incredibly touching moment between Tatum and her dad and while it would still be a great capture with on-camera flash, the image would look flat and not be nearly as powerful. I'm going to share with you what I did in camera and in post-production that resulted in the above image as the final product.
In Camera:
This image was shot in RAW with my Canon 5D, on manual, hand held, with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 lens, at a focal length of 125mm, f4.5, 1/30 of a second & ISO 200.
While I oftentimes shoot with both an off-camera flash and an on-camera flash for fill, in this instance I only fired the off-camera flash. The off-camera flash was set up on a light stand about 20-30 feet away from the subject and about 100-120 degrees clockwise from where I was standing. I had the flash set manually to 1/32 power and pointed at a 90 degree angle directly at the dance floor. I used pocket wizards to trigger the off-camera flash.
This is the image straight out of camera:
Post-production:
I opened the image in Camera Raw in Photoshop and took the saturation completely out to change it to black and white:
I opened the image in Camera Raw in Photoshop and took the saturation completely out to change it to black and white:
Then I converted it to a .jpg and used the clone tool to take out the distracting light on the left side. I also used Kevin Kubota's Smokeless Burn action to darken dad's hands and Tatum's hair just a bit. I love this action as well as Kevin's Digital Fill Flash to lighten and darken specific areas of my images. They work like the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop but much more realistically. Then I used Kevin Kubota's BW warm + snappy 1 action that I have customized to around 18% opacity. I use it on all of my black and white images just to give them a little bit of warmth and pop. I chose to crop in just a bit to put dad's face a little off-center and WA-LA! This is the final result:
If you're interested in even more info and tips about shooting in low-light situations, I've done a number of F.A.Q. posts that you can find be clicking on the links below:
Off-camera Flash
Using Shutter Speed
Low-light Focus Trick
Off-camera Flash
Using Shutter Speed
Low-light Focus Trick
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