Off Camera Flash: Part I

OCF is a technique I’ve been “working” on for quite some time. I originally bought a set of Radio Popper JrX and thought I’d take the world by storm. 1.5 years later – umm….not yet. Does it really take that long to master it? Nope. Probably not, but I haven’t really been concentrating until the last 3 months or so. Back in October, I upgraded to the Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 system and I love it. Still not super excited though. Then I went to OPF NOLA in January & have been chatting with the awesome Timothy Pham (or TPham as we like to call him). The combination has finally pushed me over the edge! I can’t get enough! I feel like I’m finally to the point where I can see how using OCF can really improve & set my work apart. 

So, why would you need to use OCF? What’s the big deal anyway? There are two different basic scenarios where I find it useful: outdoors & indoors. Let’s tackle indoors first. You know how ugly on camera flash can be? You pop up your flash, fire away, and people have the deer-in-the-headlights look, the darkground is really black and the picture is generally awful? Yeah. This happens because your flash is on the same axis as your camera. Its firing straight at them and washing out any shadows that might give the photo depth. As Syl Arena reiterates over and over in his book The Speedlighter’s Handbook (Best. Book. Ever. Go buy it.) “To create interesting light, you also need to create interesting shadows”. Firing a beam of light straight at a person is going to flatten them out.

When you move your light source onto a different axis from your camera, suddenly you are creating shadows, not removing them. The type of shadow you create depends on where you put your light source (45, 90, 180 degrees) in comparison with your subject. Some shadows are definitely more flattering than others.

The other advantage of using OCF is that you can control the amount of ambient light (natural light – stuff that’s already there) differently than the amount of light from your speedlight. If you are in a really bright room – say there’s a window in the background- when you properly expose your subject that window is going to blow out. Crazy bright, no details, nada. When you introduce a secondary light source, you can dim the ambient light, while using the speedlight to properly light your subject. But, while you are dimming the ambient light, you are not totally getting rid of  it (like an on camera flash would do). The result is something like this:

See how I still have detail in the window, but Cara is properly lit as well? Kind of cool, huh? The trick to this is changing your shutter/aperture/flash exposure compensation to balance the ambient light with the speedlight. It really just takes practice. You also have to watch reflections around windows. See my speedlight reflected in the window? Not super great. I tried shooting from different angles, putting my light in different spots, and finally consigned myself that if I didn’t want it, it’d have to come out in photoshop.

For weddings, I find this technique most advantageous during wedding receptions. Want your photos to be different than Aunt Suzy’s? Add a little OCF and your pictures are going to be above & beyond anything a relative or friend is taking. Here’s a couple of my favorites:

I also really like using OCF for family formals. Typical reception halls (or the JSMB) are not well-lit and so to have flattering photos of the family/groomsmen/couple pulling out a speedlight with a 60″ reflective umbrella can give you some great light. On both photos, see how the light is at camera left- and you can see a small nose shadow, as well as one under the chin. Subtle, yet it gives dimension & depth to the face that would be lost firing the light straight at them.