How I Lit This Shot

I know a lot of people are interested in the process other photographers use in taking/lighting shots. I have been asked a few times to detail my process, so I thought this shot of Jessamyn was probably a good test case to talk through.


I start with shutter speed. I know I’m limited to a maximum of 1/250 because of sync speed, so I always start at 1/125 and work from there. That way I still have room to increase it or decrease it. If I start at 1/250 there’s only one way to go!

In terms of aperture, I pretty much determine this before I take any meter reading. This is simply down to, VERY shallow DOF, shallow DOF, quite deep and VERY deep DOF. It’s not a science and there’s no exact maths that I apply. I’ll just open up or stop down depending on the look I want.

With my shutter speed fixed (for now), and my aperture more or less fixed, I now meter for ambient light and adjust ISO to get the exposure I want. At this point I now introduce flash. Again when I bring flash into it, I position it at the distance I want in terms of softness and always start with it on 1/2 power. This gives me flexibility to dial it up or dial it down.

To get the balance between ambient and flash right, I now have some flexibility:

  • Aperture pretty much stays fixed. If I want to adjust the over all exposure, this is what I tweak
  • To let in more or less ambient, I play with shutter speed. I have a whole stop to play with
  • To let in more or less flash, I can either adjust the position of the flash by bringing it closer or further away effects softness and drop off) or else dial it up or down accordingly.
  • I always try to get my flash right as soon as possible and then play with the mix by varying shutter. This is because it’s difficult to adjust flash as you’re shooting, unless you have an assistant. If I’m shooting on my own, I have to leave the camera, go over to the flash, change it or move it, back to the camera and shoot again (repeat until it’s right)

7 Comments

  1. Frances March 25, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Wow — what a beautiful picture. Thank you so much for the information and picture. I am thrilled that I found your website!

    Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Frank August 14, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    Lovely shot – I love ambient and natural mixed. You didn’t actually lay out how you lit the shot above, I presume you used the low sun as your back light and filled with flash, or did you hide a strobe or speedlight behind her?

    Reply
  3. Ciaran August 15, 2010 at 8:12 am

    Frank… ambient light is natural light. I’m sure you meant you like ambient and flash mixed?

    In this shot the model was back lit by the sun, giving the rim lighting to her and to the fabric. It was evening sun as it was setting which explains the warmer tones.

    On front and to camera right (model left), I used two SB800s directed on to her dress and a 3rd SB800 for models face and torso. As it was a windy day, I couldn’t use umbrellas, so all flashes were bare flashes. I can’t remember if I used the diffusion domes or not? The reason for the two flashes on the dress is because the dress is black and it absorbed an awful lot of light.

    Hope this helps.

    Reply
  4. Kareeb August 3, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    Thanks for the info, I’ve always wanted to take a picture like this.

    Reply
  5. Suraj March 28, 2012 at 10:28 am

    Very lovely shot and the nice info. However, what I want to ask is wouldn’t it be easier if you use a flash meter? Won’t It help avoid so many trial and errors? I also use sb800 and a white umbrella and use trial and error method. So, now I want to own a flash meter. So, please advise, if flash meter would be really helpful, if so, which one would be a cheap and good flash meter? Please also advise which nikon camera you use. Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  6. Ciaran March 28, 2012 at 10:45 am

    First off, I do use a flash meter (we’ll come to that later)

    Most flash meters only meter flash, so they are of limited use when trying to mix flash with ambient. Also, with flash meters, you normally fix ISO and shutter speed (which has no real effect with just flash) and then read of aperture.

    But in this scenario, I wanted to fix my aperture, I needed to use shutter speed to control the mix, hence only had ISO to vary. So a flash meter wouldn’t been of much use.

    My light meter (Sekonic 758DR) actually does meter for both and provide the percentage figure for the amount of flash to ambient. I do use it quite a lot.

    I shoot with Nikon D3s

    Reply
  7. Suraj March 29, 2012 at 9:10 am

    ok..I got it..thanks for the reply….:-)

    Reply

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