I shoot some pretty direct flash, as hard as the light may be sometimes…i kinda like it. I’ve heard talk about photographers that use hard light and it seems that sometimes it may be frowned upon…My take is “who cares”. If you have had a chance to dig through my stuff, you will find a portfolio with some hard light hanging around. I’d say the edgy feel sorta defines my style a bit. You can always migrate to a bounce flash and soften the situation quite a bit but, most of the time, I’m on the fly and have no time for a big soft box.

Occasionally on the beach, we are on the run and walking around with limited supplies. Speedlight and a battery pack with a monopod with a small backpack of extras… I have many photo examples of this type of light, here are just a few to tell my tale

In a few of these photos, I juxtaposed the hard lit subjects against a beautiful background…edgy light with an amazing setting…emphasizing the mood and light’s radiance …All images in this post were shot with a Canon 5d using Nikon Sb-28 slaves triggered by PW, usually with a Nikon Sd-8a battery pack. Everything shot on Manual.

 

Lens (mm): 16 ISO125 F8 1/200 | Slave: 1/2 power I specifically remember setting the flash on the side of the scene, without aiming at anything and got lucky that the light actually spilled onto the subjects. This shot was really a happy accident!

Here is another one from that same sequence, this time I decided to use a rim light to strengthen this moment, emphasized by the wind.

Lens (mm): 16 ISO125 F2.8 1/100 | Slave: 1/4

 

We were approaching dusk and needed a little help from a 1/2 power speedlight and waited for a PJ moment to snag this portrait…ocean waves and the face grab (totally unplanned) just helped me seal the deal on this moment… its TOTAL HARD LIGHT CITY. but who cares.. i certainly dont… my client is a member of several public bridal forums and posted this image as her signature for a while… Hard light sells!

Lens (mm): 16 ISO: 125 F 2.8 1/100 | Slave: 1/4

I shoot at this resort with a rocky shoreline quite a bit, and happen to have a photo example from a honeymooner session, shot by Sol Tamargo… In this case, I was her helper:) The snooted sb-28 is on a monopod with a sd-8a battery pack. Sol took this photo of me because she enjoys watching me work …I’ve included it here only to showcase setup for the above photo, same location.

 

I put this one in there because I like the content…makes me smile! Sol got this one while we were shooting a coctail reception at the beach. Does this guy have a handful or what?
ISO 100, f2.8 1/50 | Slave: 1/64

Have some cool shots? Drop them off at the Flash Flavor Flickr group

Tell me about your hard light city stories
cheerios,

matt

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 11:46 am and is filed under Photographers, Matt Adcock, Sol Tamargo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.