Let the Kids Dress Themselves, a blog devoted to showing the best people photography around the world.

Technique Thursday — FLASH

May 16, 2012 By Wendy 1 Comment

Flash scares me. My eyes glaze over when I hear the word “speed lite.” I do everything I can to avoid it. The only way I like to shoot flash is on my lomo or holga. Point and shoot.

I use video light instead when I need light. I can “see” it and it doesn’t scare me so.

So let’s see how they do it.

Wendy Laurel - holga with portra 800 and flash set on manual and adjusted for distance

Kristopher Orr - Bounced flash AND video light. One of my favs in this set.

Chris Thornton - Bare speedlight behind the subject and lit from the front (camera left) with another speedlight through a Lastolite Ezybox. Triggered with a pocket wizard.

Neal Carpenter - The image was shot on Portra 400 and converted to B&W in PS. I mounted an old Canon 540EZ flash on a stand next to the band at 1/8th power. No modifier. The flash head was pointed at the center of the dance floor. I used Pocket Wizards to fire it. Nikon N90 and 50 f1.4 lens. RPL for scanning.

Kate T. Parker - Flash -- speedlight TTL/flash bounced over my shoulder with a Gary Fong Light Diffuser on it.-2.0WB on camera set for flash, but brought down to A+3Nikon D700ISO 125028mm lensf/2.81/50

John Fong - Here\'s a flash photo. Nothing fancy, nothing too technical. It was myson\'s birthday and wanted to take something different than the usualfamily around the cake photos. Or the cutesie natural light photos. Ijust wanted to try something different and something not reallyassociated with kids birthdays so I drew my inspiration from TerryRichardson\'s style of photography. I just set the flash to TTL (used aCanon 5dMk2 with a 430EXii flash), overexpose by a stop or so, thenprocess in Lightroom with a touch of VSCO.

Ken Bruggeman - this is off camera lighting in my studio

Mariana Gonzalez - This picture a 4x5 test shot I took on instant film so I could check if the meter readings were right and how much fill light was bouncing off the wall. I used one monoblock flash unit, placed in a 45º angle on the model\'s right (my left). The unit was standing slightly higher than the the camera, with a white umbrella diffusing the flash light. The model was sitting almost in the corner of the room, so instead of using a reflector on his left, I let the wall be the natural reflector of the flash (I didn\'t have a choice anyways, so I used it to my advantage). This worked out great, and it gave me exactly the results I wanted, with a bit of fill light that softened the shadows of the left side of his face. The final pic is on B&W film and it\'s still a work in progress, for the project is not finished yet.

Jen and Jonah - Shot using two flash units: One on camera, bouncing off the ceiling with a fill card. And the second off camera, behind the subject pointed at the lens.

Amanda Nelson - D700. 22 mm, 1/50, f/6.3, ISO1600. Flash was SB900 modified with Photek 60" Umbrella (http://www.adorama.com/PTHSD60KKIT.html) to camera left. Set to 1/64 power.

Kat Braman - 1 off camera flash @ 1/32, bare (no flash on camera)Eos 3 with 85 1.8Trix 400 Pushed 2 stops2.0 @ 1/125. Another one of my favs.

Chris Bodnar - "I used a slave flash fired with an Elinchrom radio receiver. The flash was set to M and situated in-between and behind the couple to give a sharper outline of them in front of the lit globe in the back. I was at least 60ft or so away on the roof of an adjacent building. I have it in BW b/c the colour of the bulbs in the globe varied, and I felt like it was more appealing in BW … a little more \'timeless\' if you will!" Amazing...

Wendy Laurel - video light with ilford 3200 film on contax

Ryan Johnson - Taken during a shoot i had during WPPI in Vegas with a musician named Davin Hill.They were all shot with the Contax 645 using Ilford Delta 3200 while having an assistant hold my Promaster42 Led videolight.We shot them in his home studio and the videolight was the only light source for the shot.These were developed by me at home using XTOL stock developer and 1:1 dilution times. Scanned by me on a Fuji Frontier SP2500.

That is inspiring. I’m going to have to play with flash and/or video light for backlighting. Looks so good.

Some flash tips: Meter for the ambient, add in your flash and bounce if you can.

The trick for the holga is:

Set Holga to B (bulb)

Focus: 3 people

Set on Cloudy setting

Nikon SB80 Flash on Manual: angle of coverage 35 degrees - set distance at 5-7 feet.

Shoot away!

Links:

Let the Family Have Fun – Jonathan Canlas

May 15, 2012 By Wendy 6 Comments

Jonathan Canlas does it again. He has a way with his family sessions. I wish he could bottle his style and sell it. The closest you can get is his Film Is Not Dead workshop and/or Film Is Not Dead book. Both I highly recommend.

What photography books have helped you?

Let’s Shoot At Home — Intuitive Images

May 14, 2012 By Wendy 3 Comments

More and more family sessions are moving out of the studio and even out of the park or beach and into the client’s home. I love this trend. Stephanie at Intuitive Images nailed this family’s essence in this in home shoot.

How do you get clients to agree to in house sessions?

The lifestyle session is certainly not for everyone. In pre-session correspondence, I try to look for clues that it’s something that they might enjoy. I always try to find out what their intent is with the finished product. If they just want some pictures for Grandma, the lifestyle session may not be a good fit. But if they are looking to preserve a moment, or remember their kids at this age, this peek into their everyday lives can be such a powerful memory to have later on.

Do your clients expect the standard posed family photo or contact you wanting something more informal?

Some of both- sometimes they don’t even know exactly what they want, they just know that their families are growing and changing rapidly and they want to freeze time just a little.

How do your clients find you?

Word of mouth, and online

Do you market?

Nope! I’ve done a couple promotions but 90% of my business is through referral and repeat clients. I have some super fantastic Facebook fans.

And tricks and tips for catching all those moments of real interaction during the shoot?

I think being a mom of three kids under 10 is so valuable when photographing other people’s children. There’s a mommy sixth sense that lets us anticipate a moment, or a reaction. Just like we can see a tantrum or a naptime meltdown coming, we can see a joyous giggle or a silly dance move coming as well. Being a mom has extended my patience, expanded my expectation of everyday beauty, and helped me to really look at moments rather than days. Motherhood is probably one of my biggest creative strengths, and it aids me in photographing people of any age.

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