Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits - Doug Box

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits A nice place to photograph, a nice background, but the light is flat. It’s coming in from everywhere. Notice the dark eyes and lack of direction. Not a bad image, but it could be much better.

Sometimes do your outdoor portraits lack “snap”? You have found the perfect place to pose your subject and the perfect background, but the lighting is flat or sometimes good light is non-existent. So what do you do?

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

Look at the difference in the lighting on the face. Look at the difference in the skin tones. A much more professional and sellable image.

The solution is to add flash, off camera. I call it “Ambient Fill Lighting”. The ambient light functions as the Fill Light. The offcamera flash functions as the Main Light. This will add direction to the lighting.

Another advantage of adding flash, is that it cleans up the colour of the skin tones. One of the challenges of digital photography is colour management. If your light source isn’t good, clean light, like from the open sky, then the skin tones can take on the colour of the light. So if the light is bouncing off the grass or leaves, the light will have a green tint. When you try to correct the colour of the skin, the overall image will take on unusual tones

My theory is, “Don’t fix it in Photoshop, get it right when you make the exposure!” The less work that I have to do in Photoshop, the better I like it! When I signed on to be a photographer, I didn’t envision myself sitting behind the computer for several hours a day. I make my money taking photographs, marketing and selling.

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits Here is the set-up, a small portable flash, a light modifier, a radio slave, light stand, a light meter, a camera and a camera bag to keep the whole thing from blowing over. An umbrella will work unless there is wind. Even a little bit of wind will blow it over and damage the light. Another problem with umbrellas is lens flare. My current set-up uses a 22” Larson soff box, a Pocket Wizard radio slave unit and a Sekonic L-558 meter with pocket wizard transmitter built in. I use two different flash units. A Sunpack 383 when I need a light weight flash unit and I use a Lumedyne if I need more flash power or if I am using it around the studio and weight is not a problem. The soff box is much sturdier and is more aerodynamically designed. I use tent stakes to hold down the light stand. I am working with Larson to develop a location lighting kit – for more information go to www. simplyselling.com.

Here is the procedure:
Step 1. Meter the ambient for example 1/60 @ f5.6
Step 2. Change the meter to flash mode. Use the shutter speed obtained in the ambient reading. In this example 1/60
Step 3. Turn on the flash and read the two together. Your goal is 1/2 stop more than the ambient alone. In this example you want the combined reading to be 1/60 @ f 6.3 (or half way between f5.6 and f 8)

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

Without flash. Flat, unattractive light.

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

With flash. Notice the change in skin tones. No colour correction was done to any of the images in this series.

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

Without flash.

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

Notice the position of the catch lights in the eyes. They are in the 2 o’clock position.

Adding Off-Camera Flash to your Outdoor Portraits

If your combined reading is higher than 1/2 stop more than the ambient reading, turn the flash down or move it back. If it is less than 1/2 stop more, turn it up or move it closer.

What are the pitfalls or problems when using this technique? First, you have no modelling light, so you have to know where to put the light, visually. The secret is to first place your camera where you want it to be when you capture the image. Then, have the subject turn their face where you want it for the image. (Are you photographing a full face view, 2.3 view or profile view of the face?)

Then, you will place the light for the view of the face you want to photograph. This is really not as hard as it sounds. If you want to short light a 2/3’s view of the face and you want the catch light in the 2 o’clock position, there is only one place for the light. A 45 degree angle from the nose.

The other problem or situation to watch out for is the size of the light source. As you know, the smaller the light source the harder the edge of the shadow; the larger or closer the light source the softer the light and shadow edge. I start with the soff box just out of the view of the camera. That will keep the shadow edge as soft as possible. That is why I try not to use the flash with a modifer to soften the light. Alone the plain flash can be too harsh. The soft box softens the light and makes it more pleasing.

For more information about Doug Box, especially his business, marketing, sales and promotion information, visit his web site, www.simplyselling.com

The web site for his clients is www.dougbox.com

The SWPP 2008 Convention was an outstanding success,
we have 129 days to get ready for the 2009 convention - which starts on January 14, 2009

Photo Quote: The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt. - Henri Cartier-Bresson