Shooting with studio lights
This photo was taken with a very large 60 in moon light. A moon light is a big round fabric disc
made my Alien Bees lighting out of Nashville Tennessee. This model doubles as a ring light and can
be used in a variety of combinations. For this shot I used the large moon light as my key light shoot-
ing at the last light of the day. This large light provides a very large, very soft and very wide light. If
I have tried to use a small umbrella light, the light would not have hit the dress on the floor and her
face at the same time, This is called short lighting in the studio world. This shot is almost a split be-
tween short lighting and rembrandt lighting. Even though I’m shooting outdoors, the same studio
lighting principals can apply. I don’t think much about the technical terms, I just like the dramatic
shadows of this shot.
How do you expose a scene with flash and keep your natural daylight at the right exposure?
Expose your camera to the outdoor daylight setting first, then fill in the scene with your flash. You
want your flash to fire at the lowest setting, and then do test shots, slowly ramping up the flash
power levels until you have an even exposure.
You can see the background was beautifully lit with the ambient light at the end of the day, For this
scene, I wanted to use the lighthouse behind the model to act as a nice white background, using
this one very large moon flash, I covered the model with a nice side light, and used the rest of the
flash to wash the side of the lighthouse wall behind her. I also loved the dramatic light on her face
and shoulders, as well as the shadow on the wall behind her.
I like to think of this as painting with light. Many years ago when I first started out in photography,
I never used a flash, or any extra lights. Now I’m mastering the light and taking my photography
to new levels. When I go to a gallery or view a magazine and admire other photographers, I fully
understand what they did to achieve the light effects in their photos.