Our job as a documentary photographer is to showcase the mood and ambiance of an event. Often enough, 5-7 hours into a wedding is enough for us photographers to start to get tired and lazy on our feet. Have you told yourself or assistant “hey, we have shot this dancing stuff for hours, I’m going to start shooting less”? Well, I would totally agree that 50 drunk folks on the dance floor can start to look redundant!

I would suggest that the moment this question comes to your mind, OPEN YOUR MIND and start exploring the possibilities of creativity! What a better place to experiment with the flash! Heck, the flash doesn’t even need to be part of your creative exploration as your camera is a wonderful tool to play with.

Because this is flash flavor, I’ve included a few examples of our team using flash to SPICE up our time…

In this photo example, we decided to exaggerate the movement of the dance floor. I chose a moment when the bridesmaids decided to get on the floor and turn circles around each other. The blue color of their dresses helped the photo moment too. I cooled the photo down in PS to blend with the tones in the dresses and such. Our assistant can be seen in the upper right hand side of the frame with a flash stick. The slave was triggered by pocket wizard and set to 1/8th power bouncing off a very tall ceiling, meant to spill enough light on the entire room but not overpower the dragging movement. Its really a mix of the strong ambient and flash.

Canon 5d ISO 250 2.8 at 1/2 second

These two images came from a Greek wedding where they were throwing money at the bride and groom during a traditional Greek dance. I used many different approaches to get some great shots here, but these two occurred when I started “experimenting” with my flash. With the help of an assistant hand holding a slave triggered by pocket wizard, we set the flash to 1/4 power and set the head to a 28mm zoom. The instructions I gave him were to go over to the middle of this chaos and hide from me, aiming the flash in many different places.

For this frame, a 45 degree bounce off the floor, aimed camera left. Notice camera prospective!

Canon 5d ISO 1250 2.8 1/60th

Here, I change camera prospective and the flash is aimed at pretty much the same prespective. Added emphasis to make compositional lines drew your eye to the kid

Cheers!
mateo

Sol: Spanish translation for Sun

Sol Tamargo recently used a technique that I think is often overlooked but when used, the results are beautiful.

We were shooting a bride getting ready in the formal bridal room. We were blessed with open windows and cloudless skies with afternoon directional sunshine peaking its way through the glass panes. I would urge every photographer on the planet to make an attempt to photograph natural light in this situation and reap the benefits of amazing natural ambient light!

BUT, if you have the power of flash, why not add a small amount of flavor? In this case, Sol had her assistant zoom the SB-28 Flash head to 85mm and the resulting spill was minimal. The slave flash was triggered by Pocket wizard at 1/8th power. I’d be willing to wager that the untrained eye would pass this photo over without any regard to how it was shot. Sometimes, causing attention to a subject with the power of the flash isnt necessary… But a kiss of light to match a sun burst from a window will make the photo blend aesthetically.

Canon 5d ISO 200 1/200th at 4.5

And this one all ambient. This photo is equally as beautiful as the flash flavor image above… I love that Sol was thinking about her options here and gave this bride a dynamic set of images!

Canon 5d ISO 200 1/200th 2.8

Pretty simple idea eh? The lesson here is to always think in terms of shooting a subject with all the tools in the tool box.

Cheers!

matt

Flash Flavor has been slowly seeping its way into the printed press! Apparently, someone thinks we have some interesting ideas on this site! I think this is proof that if you add a little flava to your game, the imagery will start to look better!

I’m stoked that we were featured in 3 magazines in December, each featuring our FLAVA…

Check these out:

What is the stink all about? I shot this image with an overhead rig, on a painters pole with a off camera flavor slave dropping red accents to the background! I’ve since tried to do this again, but can’t seem to get it nailed down as good as this one time! Anybody else out there get anything good from trying this technique? I’d like to see it! Drop it in the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool or send me an email with a submission for FF!

Read the writeup on this image HERE

Sol Tamargo was featured in this Ukrainian Magazine last month,opening image all about some Flavor! There are so many amazing photos throughout the whole magazine… I just wish I could read IT! The article features a few other photographers who have some amazing portfolios… Becker, Joe Buissink & Ken Sklute

Congrats Sol!

Flash Flavor is open to submissions. Remember to keep the subject wedding or engagement couple friendly. I’m looking for something that I haven’t done before or a twist on an ordinary technique. Does your photos Will your image WOW the masses? Send it to me! matt at mattadcock dot com.

Gracias!

mateo

merry new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been traveling and traveling and I have landed in Atlanta for a week for a wedding. We are headed back to the Mayan Riviera on the 8th though, this cold weather stuff is not for me!

I wanted to share my new christmas present with you all, a box of goodies that every photographer likes to see under the tree.
We picked up a few more lenses, but I am most happiest about my new 85 1.2 and my new 35 1.4! How much fun and exciting is this!!!!!!!!!!! We are actually training another associate photographer and most of this stuff is for his camera bag…all the zooms and such. But nonetheless, can’t wait to try out my new 85 tomorrow. I am shooting a wedding in a big beautiful church tomorrow and a reception to follow in a HUGE Biltmore hotel ballroom! Images coming soon!

end of the year present

And for a little flash flavor:

I shot this wedding back on 11/3 in Atlanta. Last wedding of the year in US actually. This setup is all about mixing the ambient and your strobes so that you can emphasize keylights on our subjects and keep MOOD and ambiance in the room while at the same time, concentrating on strong compositional choices. The gentleman in the center is the bride’s father and was singing “The way you look tonight” with his buddies, a song that the groom requested that must be “played” by the band.

I set up 2 speedlights on 1/4 power, triggered by my sturdy Pocket Wizards. I had strong ambient light coming from camera right and from the band’s stage lighting. I wanted to balance those lights so that my strobes, set to bounce, could come down a tad softer on their jackets but also bounce far enough to light up the bride & groom, sitting 20 feet away, watching the performance.

Her is the best I could do with my images to tell the storytelling of the evening:

Canon 5d | ISO 500, 2.8 1/80th on ALL frames.

Here is my frame showing the placement of the 2 speedlights. Notice the strong band light coming from behind the speaker. The band’s light was my friend I used a PJ technique to add emphasis to the frame, layering the subject, waiting for the perfect moment where the bride & groom looked at each other with smiles. The bounce light is just barely reaching them and adds a keylight on their forehead…

This one from the other side, using the same layering technique.

Here is a better shot to showcase the results of my lights.

This one was just for fun, shot with my 200. I wanted to isolate dad on this one.

Ok, thats it for now. Hope this inspired you to shoot a room with more than one light, and consider the mood as well as compositional choices to make your storytelling dramatic. Remember, any HACK can put 2 lights in a reception hall. Telling the story is with your lighting and composition by preserving mood and ambiance is the way to go

Please share you compositional lighting storytelling at Flash Flavor Flickr image pool. Or drop us a comment here and show us por favor!

Cheers & have a happy new years!