Brent and the Blue Suit

The wonderful world of natural light!

Gear bag for this shot:
Sekonic L-478DR meter
Hasselblad H4D-40 with 50-110mm lens @ 50mm
Exposure: 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 100

Hot girls and dirt bikes!

With a combination of a hot girl, dirt bike, and a beautiful sunset in your viewfinder, you can't miss!

Obtaining the correct exposure for this type of shot can be tricky. However, with a little practice you'll get the hang of it. The real challenge in these situations is adjusting for the constant changing of light.

First, meter for the ambient light and set your strobes to that aperture. Remember, the aperture controls the power of your strobe, and the shutter speed controls the ambient light. Underexpose the ambient light by raising the shutter speed on your camera. This will increase the saturation In the sky and vollah, you'll have your shot.

Gear bag for this shot:
Sekonic L-478DR meter
Hasselblad H4D-40 with 50-110mm lens at 70mm
Profoto 7B pack with two 7B heads
Exposure: 1/100 sec @ f/12 ISO 100

One of my favorite ways to shoot outdoors is with the subject backlit. This kind of scenario creates unpleasant shadows, so it's necessary to fill them with light. The way I like to do this, is with a combination of a strobe and reflector. The perfect strobe for this particular situation is a Profoto ring light. It's portable, powerful, and no light stands are necessary. This type of light is omni-directional and it's not really necessary to use a reflector as a secondary light source. However, I like to use reflectors to introduce color and add additional light if needed. When using a ring light, distance is a very important factor in determining your final result, so practice to gain an understanding of the effects achieved at different distances.

The exposure for this shot was metered for the ambient light, then I balanced the strobe to that reading, and underexposed the shutter by one stop to give me more saturation in the background. This technique is what gives the strong color of the grass. The model was lit with the ring light and reflector fill, and there you have it! A beautiful backlit exposure. This type of lighting scenario works well with many subjects. Try it out and have fun!

Nellie

Kelly

Terry

Ameer and Jenny's Wedding