I was BLOWN away recently by an image that Sr. Tony Hoffer produced on an engagement session that I recently posted on FF. The concept is pretty simply and as I told Tony in the comment field, as soon as I could rip him off I would TRY.....Keeping respect where respect is due, I give Tony all the props for first showing me a badass photo.
I've changed the situation a little and went ahead on a wedding day with my tony hoffer look alike...well, its different guys, come on and don't rip on me too hard! On Keelin and John's wedding day, it rained hard....all day, all night. The wedding was obviously moved from the beach to a Chapel... with a leaking ceiling. If it was going to be raining at night, I told myself that I was going to GET wet and my flash was going to do a dance for me that would give me a photo that I had never shot before..... stage was set, dusk approached, and I went swimming.
The first two frames were my "test frames". My thoughts were to meter the sky, still with plenty of available light in the sky. I put the sky about 2 stops under what the meter was telling me and shot a test frame. Shot at 6:34pm. Notice in the first shot on the left I've instructed my flash to be included in my test frame (kill 2 birds with 1 stone). This test tells me a few things: What my ambient is looking like and also if my 1/4 power setting on my flash is enough....
Now, the first frame is not winning me any awards, thats for sure. Remember, its only a test shot. The second frame is my first of the sequence to make sure my light and power settings, flash to subject distance and all the variables are in place... its kinda front focused too...
This is my 2nd shot with them in the rain, and my KEEPER from the sequence of about 30 seconds in the rain. 
5d II, ISO 320 at F2.0 shot at 1/80th. Off camera speedlight triggered by PW set to 1/4 power. This photo is DIRECTLY out of camera, absolutely NO Photoshop or any post production manipulation. We were standing in a lake too, so that helped us out very much. I wanted to make sure that we could somewhat see the ambient tungsten lights in the background for some layering in the frame. My assistant was guarding the flash +PW combo by covering the flash slightly with the man purse thingie he had. His flash to subject distance was about 6 feet.
I think I got a winner....
Saludos,
matt
MORE photo inspiration on our blog: www.delsolphotography.com/blog
ps. thank u tony hoffer :)
Spectacular… I had to pop out of my google blog reader to come and comment—very very nice!
Unbelievable. Beautiful effect. I don’t know how you managed to convince the newlyweds. Nice.
Wow! Amazing image!
awesome! great images!
Fantastic! Great thinking. At first I thought you mounted the strobe on the inside of the umbrella.
I’d put that on the biggest canvas I could find. Stellar job!
Beautiful work!
This shot absolutely rocks dude! I love that they are standing in the water and her foot just adds that extra element of action. Nicely done man...nicely done. Btw..does the groom have shoes on? Can’t beleive they actually did this...I’m sure they’re glad they did though!
Matt, that’s an absolute winner. Not sure if you would be able to convince Belgian brides with this one though, as they all want sun on their wedding day, but I think it’s a stunner!
Well done!
Jürgen
Wow...love this one as well as the original. Nice shot to have in the arsenal if you get caught in the rain. I’m definitely gonna steal… um borrow this one.
Matt, I just LOVE reading your blog! Thanks so much for the help and inspiration! Let me know if you would like to put our latest shoot on here. It’s the Vancouver city shoot on the blog at http://www.triplecord.com/news. I’d be happy to contribute! Cheers!
I’m totally digging it. I like the progression to using a reflective umbrella in order to light the couples’ faces. Rockin’ :)
Wow. How wonderful. Hard to believe one flash did that.
Lovely shot!
Thanks for sharing the settings.
Does the umbrella have a white inside and thus give light to the couple from our angle of view or is there more than one flash ? Just curious :)
Perfect mix between the lighting in the scene and the flashlight!
Excelente imagen! Es un Loan Collection para PPA!
What a beautiful picture! Very rare and I Will say really really edgy, Awesome!
Super duper! Super shoot!
Awesome! Really inspirational stuff. Looks like everything came good for you - especially out of such a tricky situation.
AMAZING shot! I just found out about your company. Extremely inspiring shots! Bring us in your next visit to Florida!
This is for sure the best picture ever. Sorry Elite!...
It captures a lot: Your talent, your vision, fun, my free spirit, nature’s force and love’s strength to name a few.
It was not an easy day, but once we got started it was time to have fun and not care about rain, damaged dresses, nothing!
I know when I first saw your hottie light guy, I gave him a hard time because Sol was not there (I still want to meet her) but see what happened when you got into the moment, stopped trying to give “Sol Tamargo looking pictures”? Thank you for such great memories.
I am a private person normally but I have shown this picture to about 10 people today and they all say that they want a copy and will hope for rain on their day. I told them they needed You. I am happy not to have regular sunny day blue water white sand pictures, these are more me… not regular at all.
Seeing what you did with such a hard day makes me want to congratulate Sol for such a cool husband, thank her for letting me have him away from the family that evening and also want to go back and ask you guys to shoot pictures of my scars.
Thank you all for your sweet posts.
Besos
The leg kick definitely make it even more genius. Awesome!!
Don’t care what they say, I LOVE this picture! And I will try to rip-off your rip-off as soon as I can :)
Thank you so much for sharing details on how it’s done too. Kudos!
UAU! Great material! nicelly done
That is just tremendous. Well done
The Evolution Continues
The original looks about a million times better in my opinion, sorry man
This is insane Güero!, you are the ultimate chingón, me quito el sombrero with this pic, nice ripp off.
DJ
Great shot on Tony’s take! I am still waiting for a rain day here to do the same!
Wow! Simply incredible! Now I want to try this…
That is one amazing shot color me impressed!
I love the picture......It’s absolutely beautiful. I’d rather not duplicate it at Lauren’s wedding, but I do think it’s a winner. You are a genius at photography.
This picture is amazing.
The lighting of course is completely jaw-dropping, but for me what brought this image over the edge is her kicking the water. It took the pose from being your typical “stand there and kiss” pose to something whimsical and dynamic. i don’t know if you told her to do that or she just did it. if it was your idea - brilliant. get ready for a massive wave of people attempting to copy this shot (and tony’s). including me - haha.
matt this is bad a$$. The bounce coming from the umbrella is super sweet!
this is THE IMAGE, awesome pic Pinche guero
HOLA PEEPS, thanks for good SHOUTS :) After swimming all day, walking in really wet tennis shoes and probably killing some of my gear, this was a nice feeling to have at the end of the shoot, knowing this one was in the bag :)
The fill light on them is spill or a soft bounce from the umbrella. A very happy accident :)
Saludos,
matt
Hey Matt:
There’s a lot more light falling on the face here than in Tony’s shot. Is there a second light source, or is that, I am assuming, just bounceback from the inside of the umbrella?
Beautiful frame! Great use of fill on the front too to round them out.
I’m jealous…
absolutely love it!!
Would love to try a shot like that. Not sure how many brides are willing to get their wedding dress wet though. :)
Wow! This shot almost makes me wish for rain on my wedding day. Absolutely beautiful.
yeah...I may have to attempt this. Badass work dude.
Congrats Matt, great photo man!
LOVE IT MATT!!! me gusta!!!!!!! saludos del sol!
It looks awesome Matt
great picture
love it!