Portrait lighting with a flash.

[ddeerreekk]

What's the best way to light people 'on the go' (I.e. on the street, random, unplanned shots) using a strobe. I mean the kind that attaches to your camera (or could be used off camera as well).

Obviously there's going to be a blend of flash and ambient light in the photo. Where should the flash be placed? Any advice or links to tutorials?

 

[thenikonguy]

i suggest you look at Strobist for all your lighting questions

EDIT: just found this article.. check out the video http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/09/todays-special-gourmet-speedlights-al.html

 

[KmH]

What's the best way to light people 'on the go' (I.e. on the street, random, unplanned shots) using a strobe. I mean the kind that attaches to your camera (or could be used off camera as well).

Obviously there's going to be a blend of flash and ambient light in the photo. Where should the flash be placed? Any advice or links to tutorials?

For "on the go" I prefer to have my speedlight on a 'smart cord' and just hand hold the flash so I have many more possible angles for the light.

It's very quick and fluid, side light, high, low, left, right, bounce.

Some use a flash bracket so the light isn't dead on the lens axis. Alzo makes a nifty bracket that lets you raise an lower the speedlight pretty easy. www.alzodigital.com

 

[ddeerreekk]

What's the best way to light people 'on the go' (I.e. on the street, random, unplanned shots) using a strobe. I mean the kind that attaches to your camera (or could be used off camera as well).

Obviously there's going to be a blend of flash and ambient light in the photo. Where should the flash be placed? Any advice or links to tutorials?

For "on the go" I prefer to have my speedlight on a 'smart cord' and just hand hold the flash so I have many more possible angles for the light.

It's very quick and fluid, side light, high, low, left, right, bounce.

Some use a flash bracket so the light isn't dead on the lens axis. Alzo makes a nifty bracket that lets you raise an lower the speedlight pretty easy. www.alzodigital.com

I think I'd prefer to go the handheld route. Isn't it hard though to hold the camera and compose/zoom/focus/adjust settings with a flash in your hand?

 

[Samanax]

How about something like this?

 

[KmH]

:lmao::lmao: Great light on the helmet.

 

[KmH]

I think I'd prefer to go the handheld route. Isn't it hard though to hold the camera and compose/zoom/focus/adjust settings with a flash in your hand?

Practice, practice, practice. And, know how to use your gear to maximum advantage.

 

[Samanax]

:lmao::lmao: Great light on the helmet.

There is a guy who built a harness that supports two strobes with umbrellas sticking up from behind him...couldn't find a link or picture though. I think I saw it on Strobist awhile ago but didn't want to go hunting on that site all day.

 

[thenikonguy]

:lmao::lmao: Great light on the helmet.

There is a guy who built a harness that supports two strobes with umbrellas sticking up from behind him...couldn't find a link or picture though. I think I saw it on Strobist awhile ago but didn't want to go hunting on that site all day.

your thinking of the strobist jet pack.. I'm posting from my phone so can't post the link... YouTube is weird on the iPhone as it doesn't show you links... But just do a search for strobist jet pack and you'll find it

 

[Derrel]

Here is a YouTube video of Bruce Gilden



He uses flash a lot, using it on a remote flash cord, using a Leica, and aiming the flash right at people with his left hand while he holds the camera and focuses and ostensibly "composes" with his right hand. He's using a short focal length lens most of the time, probably a 21mm on 35mm film. M-series Leica's have pathetically slow X-synch speed, 1/50 second (yes one-fiftieth of a second)...which was pathetic in 1953 when the M3 came out and was laughable when the M6 cm out some three decades later....his photos have the garish,horrible look of a camera that was never designed to shoot with flash in any sort of daylight,and which might be one of the worst daylight + flash cameras one could buy today, but I digress.

Using the flash off-camera on a "smart cord" or TTL remote cord like SC-28 for Nikon and aiming the flash is a method I have used but mainly indoors,and never on the street.

Watching the Bruce Gilden video for the perhaps the 5th time today in response to your post, I kind of agreed with the first comment posted on You Tube today from a poster named raggedart, who wrote: "what a tool, walking around in a vest and a safari hat in NYC, shooting the same angle and pretty much blindly then calling it art?"

 

[thenikonguy]

now that I'm at my computer.

 

[ANDS!]

As if having a camera isn't enough to say "Hey, jack me. . ." - now let me attach an ever bigger sign to myself.

To the OP, are you flashing people you know or random folks. If you are flashing random folks (good luck with that), just mount the thing on the top of your camera. If you are doing true non-improv'd portraits, make the location work for you. Try angling the light to bounce off a surface near your subject. All the same rules apply in the studio as they do outside in regards to how light behaves.

 

[Opher]

As if having a camera isn't enough to say "Hey, jack me. . ." - now let me attach an ever bigger sign to myself.

Feel that way whenever i have my camera, And yes i will be doubling its size with a flash shortly.

 

[thenikonguy]

As if having a camera isn't enough to say "Hey, jack me. . ." - now let me attach an ever bigger sign to myself.

thats a bonus to not living in a big city.. I don't have to worry about that.. I could leave my car unlocked with my cameras on the front seat if I wanted to (I don't though)

plus I'm 6'5" 280lbs.. so people wouldn't even think about trying to mug me on the street..

 

[kundalini]

This thread would probably been better served in the Beyond The Basics forum. I don't see any relevance to the Beginners' Forum and Photo Gallery.