A few months ago, I posted this content on my personal website, http://sarahjanele.com, but I thought it would be great information to share with my friends here on Steemit!
Have you ever wanted a studio quality image, but didn’t have the backdrop or studio setup to turn to? With this lighting technique, photographers can achieve this style of lighting no matter where they are. All you need is a speed light with a snoot in addition to your DSLR camera and your subject. Let me explain.
If you think about it, you can achieve a completely black image with your DSLR by taking a photo indoors with ISO 100, f-stop around f/16, and shutter speed around 1/200. I’ve done this many times on accident and have had the unfortunate result of a completely black screen on my camera when I was trying to capture an image of my subject. However, this can actually be used as an advantage when trying to achieve studio quality lighting without a backdrop. By using the speed light and snoot, you can direct the flash to only light up your subject, while leaving the rest of the background black. When you do this, you can achieve these types of results: (scroll down)
The following three images were taken in my small apartment with our kitchen lights on. The male model is my husband, and he is the one kneading the bread dough as well. I used a speed light with a snoot directed at my subjects, and enhanced the clarity in all my photos in Adobe Lightroom in addition to other minor hand edits adjusting the highlights, coloring, etc. The general settings for these images are: ISO100, f/18, 1/200.
Caryn Esplin greatly influenced my work as she taught me this invisible background technique and showed me examples of great images created with this technique.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave some feedback below! Thanks everyone!
Thank you for the awesome guide, will try it out for myself.
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Yes you should definitely try it out! Let me know if you have any questions when you get to it! I'd love to see how your images turn out :)
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I have to say this was the best shoot out of all the shoots we did this winter. It's almost time to set up and do another similar one.
What would be a good place to set up for the next shoot?
I was thinking the beach would be fun!
Keep up the Good work!
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Thanks for this quick guide. I will try this myself!
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I'm glad you like it! I feel like it this lighting effect has added an entirely new genre of photography into my portfolio. Good luck testing it out!
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I'm a photography newbie. Speed light & snoot?
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Hey there! Thanks for commenting. So the speedlight I am referring to is just a portable flash that you can carry with you off camera instead of using the flash built into your camera. This allows you to get more methodical about the way you use your flash. Here is a link to the speedlight I have used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PGTOX26/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=caryesplphot-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00PGTOX26&linkId=709ffa0c82cee2ea71ea2b073abb9abe
As for the snoot, they go by many different names, but it's just a Velcro attachment to the speedlight that helps you to focus your light into one specific area rather than having the light hit everything in your frame. Also known as a flash bender. Here is a link to show you an example.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SYIW756/ref=abs_brd_tag_dp?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Hope that helps!
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Super helpful! Thanks :)
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