On location lighting is often an exercise in letting the room do most of the work, light-wise. Speedlites (off-camera flash) are particularly well-suited for location work; they are light, portable, and are self-contained. Many speedlites can be controlled from the camera, via a transmitter – meaning that we do not have to climb up a ladder to adjust power levels on each flash.
Recently, I brought a group of photographers on location as part of my five-week lighting workshop. For this class, three models showed up to have fun with us as we explored lighting at a great local restaurant: Pizzaza We were on the 2nd floor and had it mostly to ourselves. The few patrons that were upstairs actually knew one of the photographers in our group, and that added to the fun.
The magic in this type of lighting scenario is blending the speedlite with the room’s ambient lighting conditions. Flash and continuous light sources operate in two separate realities. The flash is in fact not affected by shutter speed, allowing it to be controlled independently from ambient sources. We can dial in as much, or as little, room light (or flash) into a scene as wished for. Magic.
We began by creating a Base Exposure. This is a series of over and under-exposures that reveal the room’s character. Once the base exposure is established, the key light is turned on (a Yongnuo 560III in this case). The quality of the key light is adjusted: its shape, strength, and color balance. The room’s ambient was a mix of tungsten lights at 3200k and incandescent lights at 2800k. To lower the flash’s color temperature from daylight (5500k) to the room’s warm tones, a Full CTO + 1/4 CTO gels were placed on the flash. All of the lights present in the scene were now speaking the same language…
What a great group – Terry, Jeremiah, Len, Jeffrey, David, Karen, Louise, Christian, Stephan, Stewart… & Sarah and Philippe – Thanks to all!
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