Digital Outback Photography

No no you wont see any images of people kissing in this post but some examples about how well a simply lit portrait can work. (Keep It Simple Stupid) I think all to often we can take lighting for portraits a little to far, with multiple lights flashing and huge light modifiers everywhere, can make people pull the wool over theyre eyes so to speak so you cant get them honest/fun expressions that really make an A grade photograph.

The images in question below were all lit with a single shoot through umbrella with SB900 at our local show. The umbrella was moved around a it but nothing drastic was done. I found my subjects for the weekend (mainly children) seemed to really open up and got some really fantastic expressions. The amount of images  I got from just one set of batteries in the flash was amazing, using a high iso and wide aperture on the camera allowed me to shoot the flash nearly at it’s lowest power which got me over 1400 photos from the one set.

Enjoy

A few times a year I teach some classes at my local community college, this not only gives me the opportunity to get out and meet other people who are keen on photography, but also pushes me to hone my own skills and put a little more thought into my photography. Recently I ran 2 day classes one being Introduction to DSLR cameras and the other being a Photographic portraits workshop. The photographic portraits works shop was a totally new class and it really changed things up for me.

We did  little theory and them moved out to take some images, it was a good day tho show the students the challenges of portraiture as it was really harsh sunlight with nowhere to hide but the shadows.

The first set of images we were playing around with a reflector and finding appropriately lit locations in the harsh sun. The hero type shot above is an example of working with the sun, looking up at your subject gives them a n appearance of power and the bright sun behind really adds to the effect.

This next image was an example of finding appropriate background and lighting, this location was completely in shade and the repetition works well as a background.

In this image we found an old shed during our afternoon walk, this was a brilliant location for a close detailed portrait and the light spilling in through the doors left a brilliant glow in Andrew’s eyes

Bouncing the light of a building as we did in this shot can really balance out the harsh sunlight and work really well, in this image we stood Andrew near a creme colored building and positioned him for a nice light balance.

I had the immense pleasure of photographing a beautiful wedding in the Adelaide hills recently.

The weather all week was spectacularly bad all week, even the day before the wedding on our scouting trip it was terrible with a very low lying fog, which did not do the location any justice. Come Saturday morning what do you know it some blue sky!! This was my first real shoot with my new (2 days old at the time) Nikon D3 and oh my god it did not fail to impress . All in all it was a brilliant day with some fantastic overcast light in the afternoon, and some great indoor shot courtesy of some remote strobes and the D3’s unbelievable high ISO performance.

Huge thanks goes out to Chris for being my humble assistant for the day, and also Jarrod and Grace for giving me the opportunity to share their special day.

Below is a slide show with a very small selection of images from a massive day.

Earlier in the year I travelled to Copi Hollow to shoot Peter and Jane’s wedding, the wedding worked out perfectly and shots came out great.

The day started of with a mid morning shoot with the Guy’s and a few cold beers to calm the nerves, Pete likes the bush scenery so we hoped in the car and traveled 5 minutes or so into the bush for these pictures.

After lunch I headed off to the Van the girls were getting ready at. Deep red dresses and clear blue skies worked perfectly for these images.

The ceremony was held on the grass in front of the lake, awesome place with challenging light.

For the post wedding Images we walked the lakes edge picking the better spots with some great off camera effects

 At last light I grabbed the Bride and Groom for just one more set of shots on the beach at sunset, with a single strobe camera left this shot worked perfectly.

At the end of it all the guys ended up with a stunning looking framed print of the last image, and a beautiful hardcover album.

Now that the challenge is over I’m getting back into blogging some of the previous shoots i have done. My aim in showing these shoots is to really try and get some of my work out there and also to try and share some of the techniques i have used.

Ive recently got a bit more gear to feed my little strobist streak that i have had and found that the flexibility of the portable gear is beyond belief. I have toyed with the idea of off camera flash for quite some time and used it a lot over the past 2 or so years, but i have had a hankering to make a little more of my speed lights lately so got myself some wireless triggers, stands and umbrellas. The results from such little outlay to something i was already doing are just unbelievable the quality of light really shows up on the finished images.

The first part of the session I set the guys up under a tree with strong back-light, this is not a location i would normally choose but though I’d really test myself balancing exposures and light locations. After a few shots I found the shots had a really nice feeling about them, and with the shadow from the back lit tree really adding some interest into what would have been pain green grass. In the gallery below you can see a setup shot, i used a very simple single SB600 speed light shooting through a white umbrella, mounted onto a tripod.

After i had snaped a few frames of in that location we moved on to shooting a little natural light, by this time of the day the sun was low and warm, I positioned my subjects so the sun was at around 60 degrees to their right and shot them on the very same bridge i was married, the high vantage and scattered trees in the background worked really well in this series of images.

Next after a short break for little Brieya we moved on to my place, in a makeshift studio in the lounge room i proceeded to shoot some more shots using this time 2 speed lights and 2 umbrellas, my favorite shot from this is the shot of Beck holding little Brieya there are 2 setup shots in the gallery of this, the thing that makes this image for me is the honest and natural expression on the little ones face.

[Show as slideshow]