I was lucky enough to have graduated with a BFA in theatrical production before my breakthrough into photojournalism. My instructors in college challenged me to think dynamically when evaluating an ordinary scene. One of the methods of emphasising a powerful movement or action on stage was to utilize a lighting effect to add strength to the moment by incorporating a back light, down light or a color sequence that emphasized the mood or energy of the upcoming scene. I think we have all chased our own shadow at some point in life. Shadows echo or symbolize another dynamic layer that can act as a giant or supernatural force which provokes our imagination. I have seen this technique used before in many applications but it seems as if the impact is strongest when applied during a sequence in time that comes and goes with the blink of an eye! In my example, this bride & groom are sharing their first dance. I decided that the wall in the background was the right distance away to paint the perfect shadow of the moment as they did their shuffle steps. This technique layers the scene and to me, is WAY more interesting than a typical flash lit shot. Sure, the typical flash lit shot has its place but does it have "flavor"? For this moment, the off camera flash was set to 1/16 power and zoomed to 85 with a throw of about 15 feet. We didn't really care about ambient exposure as the primary concern was a deep rich shadow and also preserving detail on the brides face. I also made a compositional decision to isolate the bride and groom against a the darker background that provides a PUNCH so they stand off the page, a theatrical lighting and layering choice! Folks, I would like you to understand that this technique can get old if you use it at EVERY single wedding... if it shows up in your portfolio every other second, you may get a labeled "cliche"... trust me, it has happened and you don't want to be cliche. Stick with original ideas....so try and use this technique cleverly... Here is another example where we decided to make a photograph to tell the story with a shadow instead of shooting the SAME OL same ol shot of the bride and groom eating the cake. We have all shot this sequence and every time I do it, I am always trying to do something different.... Our client chose this image for the album vs the (safe one) that we also shot :) be creative.... chase shadows.... make fun pictures :) Cheers! matt

KIDS at weddings rock! If you use your imagination, you can make fairytale imagery! When shooting a reception, I'm pretty sure we have all noticed small children playing on the dance floor with no inhibitions..Spinning, jumping, rolling, twisting, sliding and always SMILING. :) PERFECT photo chance... I don't really like to stand anywhere for more than a few seconds while shooting as the shot angle & composition possibilities will start to grow redundant...so, we move around and change it up. With children, the key here is to get on their level. I am always tearing the knees out of my pants because I am on the ground trying to find a new angle...typically from the floor on my knees! Why not spice up the photo chance by mixing your on camera flash with a some edgy light. Since you are shooting at a lower angle, have your off camera speedlight come in from a low angle or a high angle of view. A personal assistant speedlight operator is the way to go! Develop good hand signals and communication skills with your assistant. A little silhouette totally takes this image to a different place. I was trying to light the bride & groom, seen in background... This picture really sparks my imagination. I look at the groom's face and wonder what is going on in his mind as this magical little moment was captured...The brides face shows ear to ear smiles :) ... this was her niece ... speedlight set to 1/4 power on a zoom...I'm guessing 85mm. It is coming in from a low angle over from the right side.. I like how a little spill landed on her dress. My imagination takes me a few places when I look at this shot...are they thinking about having their own children as they watch her spinning by? Here is another one fun image from a first dance sequence. My assistant is operating the speedlight on a boom pole at 1/4 power. I waited for the little girl to skip her way underneath my light and fired off a few frames... The speedlight introduced into the frame adds a layered dimension as well. Here, we just finished shooting the father daughter dance and the same little girl gave us another killer moment in time. My assistant & soon to be wife, www.soltamargo.com timed this shot perfectly! This frame stands out to me because of the multiple layered subjects enhanced by the dynamic side light.. The added light was introduced from Sol's off camera speedlight operator at 1/8th power from floor level. My mind dreams up some cool fairytale thoughts here... Daddy's little girl flashes in front of his eyes.... GREAT SHOT SOL! Have fun with kids on the dance floor...throw in some light, make dynamic images :) Cheers, matt

Photographers have long known about the magical time after sunset sometimes known as the "magical hour" or the "golden hour". In this time, it is said that the colors and the quality of light will be tip top. I am often in the Riviera Maya shooting and that particular coast looks east mostly so we end up waiting for the sky to change colors. I am a big fan of the 30 minutes after sunset and the next 30 minutes after that. This technique will improve your portfolio because it will enable the client to see the setting with the most beautiful colors. Start to set an automatic alarm clock in your brain (or literally set one for 30 minutes after sunset) and go outside and look around. For the purpose of this particular post, we will be talking about examples of where we incorporated nature and some form of architecture that represented the wedding / reception location.... all in a completely different light. My Canon 5d performs beautifully in this situation and I will typically shoot wide open at 2.8 at pretty high ISO's. Usually 800-1250. If you have a tripod (i usually don't carry one) but this will help greatly as you may need to shoot long exposures (1/2-10 seconds). I usually prop the camera on a handrail or on the ground or use a makeshift tripod, set the timer on the 5d and walk away. In this example, I determined my ambient exposure (to emphasize the blue colors) and set the light under this palapa thatch roof hut on the beach. It was the desert & cake table. I felt like the flash provides a contrast against the natural light that gives it a POP. If you are visiting a trade show in the US, Art Leather has a HUGE PANO print of this in one of their 11x14 montage art books as a sample. The print ended up rocking the house out. Here is another one from Cozumel. Sol Tamargo stepped back and gave us a super idea of the ambiance of the evening. I shot this one in the South of the Riviera Maya at the Palladium Resort. I had to walk a pretty good distance to find a bridge that gave me a higher prospective. Use the golden hour of beautiful light to showcase your setting. Add a little flash here or there to give your photo some EDGE. Experiment here. Shoot one with the flash and one without. This way, you give yourself options! Thoughts? Cheerios, Matt

Today's post comes from an amazing team of photographers located in Atlanta Ga, LaCour Photography. I asked my friends to submit an image or two along with a dramatic story to go along with the theme of this blog, creative off camera lighting. Mark Adams has one killer image along with a unique story and tops it off by shooting in one of the most challenging of all shooting conditions: Beach Ceremony at night with NO available light.

Mark Adams writes:

When we were asked to photograph a small, intimate wedding ceremony at sunset in Laguna Beach, we expected beautiful California light. But a few hours before sunset, we learned that the minister's flight was delayed. The bride and groom made the decision to still have the ceremony on the beach at whatever time the minister arrived, which was definitely going to be after sunset. So we were presented with the challenge of photographing a beach ceremony at night with no available light.

Before becoming a wedding photographer, I worked for newspapers and magazines, shooting assignments all over the world. One of the things I had to get good at quickly was learning to adjust to any situation no matter what the challenges and no matter what the lighting conditions. As a news photographer, I simply had to make sure I came back with good pictures that documented the action without interfering or altering the mood. The problem with flash is that it can be a distraction, especially when you're photographing in complete darkness as we were. But in situations like this, there's not much you can do about that pop of bright white light. The ambient exposure was between 20-30 seconds. That doesn't work for capturing expressions on people's faces. But what we did do was simply minimize the amount of flash we used. Rather than shooting a ton of photos and creating a strobe-like disco, we simply waited, anticipated the key moments and shot those moments, which were just a handful of photos.

My assistant stood back near the rocks behind the minister and shot photos with direct flash to get the "safe" shots of the bride and groom's reactions and emotion. That freed me up to try to make a photo that showed the uniqueness of the ceremony. I wanted to make a photo that captured the mood of the moonlit scene. So I steadied my Canon 5D with a 16-35mm f/2.8L USM at 27mm on my Gitzo Mountaineer tripod. I set a base exposure in manual mode for 10 seconds at f/2.8 at ISO 400, which was about one stop underexposed from a reading off the sky. I then set my on-camera Canon 580EX to Master and also set it to not participate in the exposure, and then I signaled my assistnat to switch their on-camera Canon 580EX to Slave. Then I released the shutter.

I shot about three frames this way. The Canon E-TTL technology worked flawlessly and allowed us to quickly set up this shot and execute it swiftly without having to fiddle with manually setting the power on the remote flash. Most of the other photos from the short ceremony (less than 10 minutes) were shot with direct flash, no diffusion, but this photo does a couple of things for us. 1) It captures the mood of the ceremony 2) Shows the ceremony environment and 3) Adds diversity to the wedding album. If all the photos from this ceremony had unique lighting, this photo wouldn't look as dramatic when shown next to all the other images. Just as we try to diversify the type of images we shoot, we need to diversify the type of lighting that we look for or create. But most importantly, this image reflects what I felt being a part of the ceremony and this image is an accurate representation of that moment.