Off Camera Lighting Outdoors

Here are a few examples of how i ve used off camera flash for outdoor portraits and a lighting diagram of where i placed the flash for each.

Off camera lighting outdoors.

Normally when a photographer shoots full body portraits a telephoto zoom lens such as a 70 200mm is used. Now we are ready to figure out the off camera lighting setup. With an off camera flash you now have the option to use any lens you wish to for making full body portraits. Lighting in the simplest possible terms is all about main light and fill light.

Off camera flash is quite an extensive topic. There are so many times when existing light just doesn t give you the result you desire and that flash could be a solution to. Now coming back to the question of full body images with off camera flash. I use high speed sync giving me the ability to use any shutter speed i want w.

90mm lens iso 400 f 4 5 1 20th 183mm iso 400 f 4 5 1 13th. With the backlight i ll either have the light aimed at the couple to give them a glow or i ll aim it at the background to show off the structure more. You might find it helpful to think of your location portrait setting as a clock or compass with your subject in the middle and the camera and light sources arranged. Instead of trying to cover it all in just one article here this page will serve as a jump page to several of the important articles on the tangents blog where the topic is specifically off camera lighting.

By moving your flash off to one side or the other and then combining your flash with a light modifier such as a diffuser beauty dish or small soft box you create a lighting effect far more pleasing than. The sun almost always the main light source outdoors acts like a spotlight when high overhead like a portrait light from 45 degrees up and off axis like a hair light from behind and above the subjects or low and warm colored at sunset. Full body images with off camera flash. Taking a moment to observe and think about these ambient light qualities is the first step in determining how you can best make use of additional lighting from off camera flash.

The flash trigger sensor is a small round window ab. My go to setup is a front light at 45 degrees with a grid and another flash behind the subject. As mentioned by michael scholle at 3 35 note the area he points to does not face your camera.