Last Saturday I attended an off-camera lighting workshop by awesome photog Ming Chien. For my non photog readers who are unfamiliar with off-camera lighting, it’s basically exactly what it sounds like. Using a light source that is not connected to your camera body. There are many options to do this, but in this case I was using a single flash (strobe) on a stand a few feet away from the subject. How does this help you ask? You’ll see the results in the gallery below. It enables you to get amazing images in dark or bright lighting situations. You can dramatically change the mood of your shot and get images that are not possible in natural lighting.
In most of my shoots I sometimes find it difficult to incorporate an off-camera strobe since it involves extra equipment and so many other factors. When I’m doing a portrait session with clients we are normally on the move and not trying to call attention to ourselves. Unless I have an assistant with me, carrying around the extra equipment, setup time, and worrying about security guards is not that fun. But, there’s no doubt that using this setup can give you some AMAZING shots. In this workshop I tried to step out of my comfort zone from using natural light and practiced using a somewhat mobile single strobe/stand setup. Using natural lighting is still my main form of shooting, but if all factors are right an off-camera strobe is a great tool to have.
Much love to Ming Chien and all the other instructors for sharing their knowledge.
Special thanks to the models, makeup artists, and stylists for sharing their talent:
Carla Hille
Karla Montero
Annaiz Rzepka
Aimee Eyre
Laura Choate
Kay Jo
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