going to make this short...still on vacation :) I have been thinking about this shot as I was browsing the digital wedding forum the other day, looking at some images from many awesome photographers posting images with strobes behind their subjects or coming in from an angle, adding a halo of light to the frame... I believe this technique is one you can put in your bag of tricks to carry around with you...its one that allows you many many very different possibilities. Include the flash in the frame, just out of the frame...shoot wide, shoot tight.... 1 million more possibilities here.. In this case, I was shooting a first dance... I decided to layer my composition by placing the couple between the shoulders of two of the members of the bridal party... this technique pretty much works all the time...So now that the framing of the image is out of the way, its time to decide where to place the light... I was trying to contrast a soft elegant moment with some harsh strong powerful light and came up with the following photo example...Ethereal almost.. This photo would have failed had the best man's head not been placed in front of the flash...IMHO. I honestly have NO IDEA what my remote speedlight settings were in this frame...I was mixing it up by shooting available, then switching to on camera bounce, and mixing up just about every possibility I had and then decided to switch on the Pocket Wizard and fired away... my assistant was on the other side of the dance floor. OH, My on camera bounce added the exposure on their faces! yep, it is possible to add some on camera flavor ttl style :) Thoughts? Cheers! matt

Ok... still on vacation :) last day. I am in the hotel getting ready for 6 hrs of flying today and 3 or so hours of airport layover. I was inspired by the last post "rim light" and decided to discuss the technique of including the flash burst INSIDE the frame. I have used this compositional technique "what feels like a million times" and each time I do it, I am trying to use the burst to strengthen the moment... I challenge you to ask yourself, literally as you are shooting... "why you are making the compositional choice to include the light in the frame". This technique is one that I am seeing more and more these days, especially on wedding forums that I belong to. If you can come up with a reason that makes the image you are about to capture stronger by including the light in the frame, then go ahead and nail it. If it is a frame that is just ok or so so... then you may want to challenge yourself to compose a bit stronger or wait for a stronger moment. In this photo example, Sol Tamargo included the "light in the frame" technique to emphasize one seriously amazing photojournalism moment, IMHO. A simple choice to wait for the singer to belt out these notes sealed the deal on superb moment vs an ok moment... highlighted by a strobe burst in the frame... I'd like to see some more challenging use of this flash burst... Put side by side with an amazing PJ moment, I am sure that your photo will be stronger. Please share your moments... Better yet, feel free to join my new Flash Flavor Flickr group and drop us a few photos there to look at... Please provide a comment if you feel inspired. If you have similar photos to share, post them there... The key is participation so that we can all LEARN and grow with our shooting experiences. Cheerios, Matt

We use our remote flashes to tell stories about our subjects, and in this case, I was again inspired by the flash inside the frame to post another one of Sol Tamargo's image sets. This post is about using the off camera flash more dynamically when that flash is located directly across from the field of view of your lens. Sol had her eyes on these children the entire time as they played with their toys all night long. I credit her for pursuing a strong photojournalism moment and then going one step further by telling a story with the light. These little guys were playing just as Sol was sneaking around the corner to get the shot. The first shot, you can see the little girl is shooting the little boy, BANG, your dead. I like her choice to light them with the off camera strobe included inside the frame, powered at 1/4 power. She also added some bounce fill from her on-camera 580 to give us facial expressions. We see the flash burst in the frame, accentuated by the BANG of the little girl's gun, pretty much like POP BANG, in your face, your dead. What amazes me is that Sol had the wherewithal to watch this scene unfold and anticipate this little girl's escape from the crime scene. By placing the flash behind the boy's head and putting emphasis on the shadow on the wall showcases the movement and the quickness of the great escape! My jaw drops with her execution of this scene! Way to go Sol... thanks for the inspiration! AND, if you haven't had a chance to hit her BLOG recently, you may want to RSS feed that baby. She has some pretty motivating content. Comments? Thoughts? Inspired? Please post your shots on The Flash Flavor Flickr group Cheers! matt