Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Harnessing the Power of Flash for Extraordinary Wedding Photos
Ever wondered what it takes to go from capturing memorable wedding photographs to creating extraordinary masterpieces? Get ready to unlock the secret - mastering the art of using flash. In our informative session, I, your host, Jason Group, invite you to dive into the riveting world of flash photography in the wedding industry. Together, we will explore its fundamental role and significance, the challenges it imposes, and the benefits you stand to gain by harnessing its power.
This podcast episode is a goldmine of insights, whether you're a seasoned veteran or a beginner in off-camera lighting. It's time to understand how finely tuned flash photography can bring consistency to your style, irrespective of the light available. We go beyond the surface, explaining how flash can help you capture flattering portraits, deal with unpredictable wedding environments, and overcome the obstacles presented by indoor and outdoor settings. Stay tuned as we journey into the art of crafting the ideal lighting that harmonizes perfectly with the wedding's essence, infusing your photos with an intimate, romantic mood or elegance and sophistication.
Hey there, welcome to OPG's Tips and Tricks. Here I'm going to share some quick tips and some tricks that I think you'll find very useful. Let's get right to it. Hey there, welcome to another episode of Tips and Tricks with the Orion Photo Group. Where's OPG, as we like to call it?
Speaker 1:I'm your host, jason Group, and today this is going to be a series of podcasts about flash photography and off-camera flash, and I know I've touched on it a little bit before, but I think I want to kind of go into a little bit of a deeper dive. Hopefully this will help some of the seasoned veterans out there. This will also help the people who are just getting into off-camera lighting or need help with lighting or just need some inspiration for getting their chops when it comes to using flash photography. So I'm going to start with why to use flash, which I know sounds kind of silly. So in the realm of wedding photography, we know that it takes more than a skilled photographer and a high-end camera to seize the essence of these cherished moments. We have the job of doing. Mastery of light is the linchpin which is capable of transforming our wedding photos from ordinary to the extraordinary, and, of course, there's lots of tips and tricks along the way that help us do that, but lighting is a key part of doing that. This is a subject that's been a lifelong passion of mine, and I often liken mastering lighting to the game of golf, and if you play, you know that you never truly conquer it. But undeniably, the more you practice, the sharper your skills may become. Same goes for when you do feel like you mastered lighting or golf and you don't do it for a while. You do get rusty at it like anything else. So today, in this episode, I'm going to focus on unveiling the paramount and the significance of lighting, uncovering the challenges that it casts upon wedding settings and unraveling the abundant benefits that await those who harness the power of flash to triumph over these challenges. And again, this is about getting better and really inspiring you to take your skills to the next level.
Speaker 1:Starting with the importance of lighting, let's begin by acknowledging the fundamental role that lighting plays in wedding photography. Lighting is, without a doubt, the foundation of photography, and in the world of weddings, it's even more crucial. Why? Because it influences the mood and aesthetic of wedding images. While not always essential that flash photography is used, it is a valuable tool for improving lighting or in creating unique effects. So, again, we're really starting at the beginning with this episode, and the next several episodes will do a deeper dive into specifics.
Speaker 1:But setting the mood. Imagine this Soft, gentle light casting across a romantic and intimate atmosphere. This is the magic of off-camera lighting, or on-camera flash as well. Setting the light, which can be achieved with a small softbox for OCF or a diffuser or an on-camera flash, can establish that intimate, romantic mood that every wedding photographer strives for. Conversely, utilizing dramatic directional lighting can infuse images with elegance and sophistication, and having that proficiency and light manipulation powers a wedding photographer to craft photos that harmonize perfectly with the essence of the day.
Speaker 1:Now, again, as wedding photographers, we are challenged with being experts at lots of different lighting skillsets and at different parts during the day, and one of the reasons I wanted to do the deep dive into OCF is many newer photographers will lean on just ambient light or natural light photography or natural light photographer, and yes, you can get away with lots of different stuff, but you are at the mercy of whatever light you have available, whereas opposed to flash photography or off-camera lighting or on-camera flash gives you the ability to have a consistent style and a consistent lighting, no matter what the situation is. So, starting with flattering portraits, let's talk about the most critical aspects of wedding photography Capturing great portraits this is where OCF for me especially truly shines. Having as paramount to showcase the couple of their best, ocs has the ability to smooth skin imperfections, diminish harsh shadows and craft a flattering, timeless appearance that every bride and groom covet. Now again, you can do this well with natural light, and you should definitely mix ambient light and flash whenever possible. Ambient light or natural light is always my first go, to believe it or not. And then OCF is what I do to add or make better, for lack of better words when it comes to that, but it always will give me what I need. And what happens if you don't have great light? What happens if you're in a location that's very dark? You can't just lean on? Well, I'm sorry, that's the light that was available to me. Okay, so the challenges of wedding lighting.
Speaker 1:While the importance of lighting in wedding photography is clear, the challenges posed by wedding environments are equally apparent. Wedding photographers often find themselves dealing with a variety of lighting obstacles. Like I just said, you can't just say I'm a natural life photographer and then just depend on whatever is around. So that's the biggest challenge that we have is wedding photography. We have an inconsistent natural light. While natural light is often preferred, it's not always cooperative. And whether dealing with harsh midday overhead light better known as raccoon eyes excessively cloudy conditions robbing the image of clarity or sharpness, or ever changing lighting circumstances in and out of sun, cloudy days where the sun's coming in and out, you know you can't have one shot where there's bright sunlight and then the next one it's soft light. You need to have consistent images. Indoor variability Indoor venues present unique lighting challenges. These are characterized by mixed artificial lighting sources, dimly lit corners. Achieving consistent and aesthetically pleasing results can be a formidable task. This is precisely where I would rely again on OCF, as it enables me to craft beautiful control lighting with these indoor settings.
Speaker 1:Now, fast-paced moments Again sun coming in and out, of clouds, moving from one location to another, and you know, of course, weddings unfold as dynamic events filled with fleeting moments. Photographers must possess the agility to swiftly adapt to these lighting scenarios without missing crucial shots. So in these swiftly changing instances, I heavily lean on on-camera flash, and learning to master this form of lighting control may be challenging. Again, getting back to my earlier golf reference, but with a dedicated practice one can certainly attain expertise. So kind of going back on that a little bit, my first choice is always OCF, off-camera lighting and quickly changing fast-paced moments, I'll use my on-camera flash if that's all I have available. Sometimes I'll mix both of them. I'll use that on-camera light, off-camera light, ambient light all mixed together. That's my best case scenario, but sometimes you just got to work fast and you just use your on-camera flash.
Speaker 1:Now let's explore some benefits of using Flash. Some more examples Consistency this is my biggest thing. First and foremost, flash delivers consistent and manageable lighting, guaranteeing that every shot attains its optimal image, irrespective of the prevailing conditions. And regrettably, I've observed too many instances again, like I said before, where photographers resort to excessively high ISO settings in dimly lit rooms, resulting in subpar outcomes. And as professionals, it's our incumbent upon us to master at least the basic flash techniques on camera flash to avoid these basic pick falls.
Speaker 1:And I've seen it all the time, either as a guest or looking at work from different photographers, where they just say I'm not going to learn this flash, it's too expensive, it's too hard. They walk into a Saturday night wedding and it is completely dark in the room. Everything's lit by candlelight or maybe a couple of chandeliers in the room, and it's wonderful that we have these cameras that will go up to a million ISO. And just because we can do it doesn't mean it's good light and the results to it are really just very grainy, very warm, and what I like to say is imagine if you could take that warm light and then mix it with some really good light, like on camera flash, with a nice diffuser on top of it, and then you have some magic. And again, mixing these two things is really where the magic happened.
Speaker 1:So, getting back to again, you can use a high ISO, use some fill light. If you've been hesitant about delving into off camera light, this is an excellent point. So maybe you don't use your flash all day. You come to that dimly lit room and you're going to use your on camera light, maybe with a dome, maybe you point it around in some different directions and just use this fill light just a little bit. And this is a great entry point to start and it's a great place to use in a mixed lighting situation. Just think of it as fill flash, don't think of it as main light to impact shadows and give you more evenly lit and flattering illumination.
Speaker 1:And for portraits. It's where your midday light you got those giant shadows in people's eye sockets, affectionately known as raccoon eyes. You can use them on camera flash to fill those in and really sharpen up your images. Same would go for a very, very cloudy day where there's not a lot of it's just very, very soft light. So again, flash gives you creative control. You will have complete control over a lighting situation when you have these different flashes with you, different angles, intensities, different modifiers which, again, I'm going to get into in further episodes and you can use it to release action. How many times are they running down an aisle, couples coming in when they're being introduced, you can't use a high ISO. If they're running into the room and you're shooting at a 60 of a second, you're going to have blurry images. Flash will stop that action. The versatility of flash will give you things like you know, gtl, so you don't even need to think and tell the flash how much it needs to put out. So this is the beginning, the first episode of off-camera lighting, flash photography. Thank you, and listen in for other episodes. So, in conclusion, comprehending the role of wedding photography, and flash is akin to unlocking and transformative potential.
Speaker 1:And lighting is the very foundation of what we do In unpredictable and demanding context of weddings, where we can harness the advantages of flash. That's what makes us the difference between being an amateur, semi amateur, semi pro into a professional and the confidence of being able to walk into a room and say I can handle any situation. It's I often say in jest that as wedding photographers, we have to master various forms of lighting, a test that takes years for many pros in just one genre. For, let's say, a fashion photographer only does fashion stuff in studio. He's a master of that light in studio lighting we have to be a master of that. And everything else Architectures maybe they're good at lighting a room up. We have to be an expert at that. So we deal with outdoor lighting, portrait lighting, indoor lighting, and we have to excel at all of them. And just as a side note, it's been wonderful for me as a commercial photographer as well, because those chops that I learned as a wedding photographer definitely go to other jobs as well, because you just know how to handle any situation. So as we continue to dive deeper into this guide, remember mastering the art of flash effectively serves as the key to crafting stunning and timeless wedding photographs, and that will help you create cherished images for lifetime.
Speaker 1:That's it for today's tips and tricks. Thanks for tuning in. Remember, the journey of becoming a master wedding photographer is ongoing. Flash or no flash in general. I hope this keeps you inspired. Hope you're listening to this on your way to a wedding or coming home from a wedding. Stay tuned for other episodes where I'm gonna get into the specifics of what I think are some great tools that you can use for your flashes. Okay, great, take care. Now We'll see you on the next episode of tips and tricks. Hey, do you have a tip or trick you wanna share with us? Please email me, jgroup at Orionphotogroupcom. I would love to hear your tips or tricks and we'll even send you a nice little award for doing so. Until then, thank you.
