Tag Archives: off camera flash

This shoot was a lot of fun because it was one of the first times I had no idea what the location would look like. I got to improvise a little during the shoot. Sam, the senior in these photos, had a few ideas of where to start. We initially went to a nearby park where we had a close encounter with a couple of deer. As we were talking during that shoot, we decided to go for a more urban or industrial looking atmosphere. Wandering around the small town of Marshfield, it wasn’t long before we found some buildings with the character we were looking for.

Some of these were shot with natural light, and for some I added flash. The flash really made his eyes stand out. Since his facial features looked great with hard light, I shot a few without the diffusion panel in my Wescott Apollo Orb. The flash faces backward in the Orb, so without the diffusion it acts almost like a beauty dish. I have noticed that this hard, punchy light is really popular right now for shooting males in commercial or fashion situations. You can see which photos were shot this way by looking for the crisp shadow in the background from the flash. Ordinarily I try to avoid making it too obvious that the photo is lit by flash, but for these I intentionally left the shadow in the frame. I did shoot a few where the light isn’t as hard and dramatic, just in case the family did not like that look.

Here is a picture of the deer that tried to photo bomb these senior portraits.