Lighting advice
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Hi Mark it depends on the effect you are looking for. To start you could place the light at around 45 degrees to the subject for a single person and nearer to 90 for a group. Just make sure you do not place it were you yourself will cast a shadow on the subject. I find its better to bounce the light off a wall or umbrella to soften it.
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Phil V
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Hi Taff, I've just looked at your Flickr and there's some gorgeous images. You put a lot of effort into finding really good quality light in nature that creates great pictures.
Using artificial light puts you in control of the sun. Shadows are the key, you could really do with a decent book on lighting, my usual recommendation is Syl Arenas Speedlighters Handbook. Unfortunately it's never going to be as simple as 45degrees at camera left. But if you start with that, you'll see what it does and you can adjust to suit.
The general rules are that we expect to see people lit from above so we lift the flash above the subject, read up on short lighting butterfly lighting etc. Like I said there's no one go to technique, it's about the subject.
If I said, "what settings do I need to get lovely beach scenes?"; would you say "1/30 f8 ISO 400" or "first find your location and plan to be there when the light is interesting"?
You can spend time creating that interesting light now. Don't rush past that bit and think you can make 'interesting' pictures by some other means.
I hope that makes sense.
Using artificial light puts you in control of the sun. Shadows are the key, you could really do with a decent book on lighting, my usual recommendation is Syl Arenas Speedlighters Handbook. Unfortunately it's never going to be as simple as 45degrees at camera left. But if you start with that, you'll see what it does and you can adjust to suit.
The general rules are that we expect to see people lit from above so we lift the flash above the subject, read up on short lighting butterfly lighting etc. Like I said there's no one go to technique, it's about the subject.
If I said, "what settings do I need to get lovely beach scenes?"; would you say "1/30 f8 ISO 400" or "first find your location and plan to be there when the light is interesting"?
You can spend time creating that interesting light now. Don't rush past that bit and think you can make 'interesting' pictures by some other means.
I hope that makes sense.
