Justin Morrison
Justin Morrison
http://www.justinmorrison.co
I am a professional photographer, working in motion and stills. I create portrait, lifestyle and documentary work, and I strive to tell real and authentic stories. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Instagram Linkedin Vimeo

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

2 COMMENTS

  1. JunaPhotography wrote:

     

    Speedlights

    One of the techniques I use to photograph a dancefloor at a wedding is to zoom the flash in really tight and then shoot with a slow shutter speed. This allows me to focus the light on one or two people, and also get some light trails that capture the energy of the moment. Flash photography is often frowned upon by photographers (myself included) because it produces a very stark look, which can be really unflattering, but this stark look has been embraced by a new wave of photographers and has gotten a lot of traction in the mainstream media. If you’re a fan of that style, a speedlight is a great investment.

     

    Off-Camera Lighting

    The other way to use speedlights, the way I use them most often, is off-camera. This opens up a whole swath of lighting options for me. The most basic portrait setup I use involves mounting a speedlight on a light stand and placing an umbrella in front of it to diffuse the light and make it softer and more flattering. In order to activate the flash you need to connect it to a something called a trigger. Your trigger can either be a cord directly connecting the camera to the speedlight or else you can use a radio trigger, which is a combination of a transmitter on the camera and a receiver attached to the speedlight. Most speedlights also have a ‘master/slave’ option whereby the unit mounted on your camera can be used to trigger a unit mounted elsewhere. I personally don’t love this system for my Canon speedlights because it relies on a clear line of sight, and it can be very hit-and-miss.

    Speedlights are incredibly powerful things in terms of what they enable you to shoot, and in my opinion they’re largely underrated by a lot of photographers who prefer to use studio strobes. Studio strobes put out a lot of wattage it’s true, but it’s not often you need as much light as they produce, and the fact that you always need to have access to a power outlet is a bit constricting.

     

    Thoughts….

    • a variation of your light trail technique on my Nikon…. “Rear curtain”.  This shows the light trail BEHIND your subject, not in front.
    • a variation of off-camera is to use a flash bracket…
      • less red-eye
      • less side shadows
    • I found a good diffuser and some wall/ceiling bounces will minimize the directional flash look in images.
    • a variation of a studio strobes are bare bulb flashes such as Quantum.  Running on external Ni-Cad/Lithium battery packs, they can create strong light approaching plug-in strobes…. while remaining portable without needing a 120v outlet.

Comments are closed.