Have you ever shot people toasting at a wedding? Every shot it from below? Yeah, we probably all have. If you haven't yet, give it a whirl. If you use on camera flash and just blast them with light, it will be less desirable and likely a whatever photo, not getting a lot of interest. This technique will help you visualize how to take a normal / standard exposed moment that you have seen a million times and add a little flavor to it. First step is to make sure you have evaluated the surroundings and know exactly where your ambient light exposures are in relationship to your flash power on your manual off camera flash. In this example, Sol has decided to underexpose the ceiling to contrast the glasses and the shape of the hands reaching out. Its crucial here to make sure that your exposure has some depth to make an impression vs a whatever frame. Sol Tamargo dropped the ambient out of the background and had an assistant with a slave set to 1/16 power, extended on a monopod in the ceiling. I don't know the actual distance, but likely 6-9 feet away. The key to this photo's success is the angle that the light is coming from. I'm guessing it is 35 or 40 degrees from camera left, in the air over their hands. ISO 200 1/200 2.8 | Sol Tamargo

 

The glasses light up, the ceiling goes dark, contrast rocks! I really love the subtle touch of the ceiling lights scattered between the arms. Those lights tie in the background and give this photo a magical feel! I also love the timing of arm coming in from the upper left. Love the fact that you squeezed the shutter before her toast clinked the other glasses. This is an excellent PJ decision that subtly changes the composition to be WAY more likable.

 

Great idea and nice shot Sol! Cheers! Matt

For my operating settings, I've got a few secrets that will help you snap quicker / better exposed photos when your flash is too hot. My wife tells me that I'm too fast for this world so this trick my not apply or matter to some of you. del Sol Photographers all use Manual photo control when shooting our weddings. We have grown close to cameras performance and when shooting, we find it helpful to be able to adjust your shutter and aperture settings while also working some photojournalism in there. I know that everybody will have their own way to adjust these controls... if you open your mind to a little change now and then, you may become inspired. This technique also has a little flashflavor advise built in as well. With a manual power slave flash, your exposure latitude is pretty short, not allowing much room for error with the brightness to darkness of your frame. the closer that slave gets to the camera, the hotter its going to be and vice versa going the other direction getting further away. For example, if you were shooting a group of people who were gripping and grinning, your flash could be 2 times brighter than you thought it *should* be however, drastic measures are needed and quickly inside the camera to make the photo you are shooting that second, perfect! I enjoy rolling my right index finger on the top right dial on my camera, allows me to adjust my shutter. Think of it as a finger-roll technique. If you want to shoot a test but don't have time to test your flash to subject distance, keeping in mind that photo moments happen way faster than you can remember, you aim and shoot. Your light's intensity may be considerably high or low in relationship to how it *needs* to be. Roll the finger on the dial (front or back dial) as fast as possible to stop down or open up. I have calculated that there is a scale of how hard to how soft you can roll the dial, thus resulting in a multi f-stop roll, a single f-stop roll, or a little bit of a f-stop roll.... or something like that. I call that rustic technique the finger roll. Just thought I would share this idea. For me, shooting Manual flash slaves can be a challenge and this technique has helped me in situations where I was totally unprepared with the power settings of my manual slave flash. Here is my secret: Notice the index finger's position, on the shutter control. I give my camera's shutter the middle finger. :)

 

I honestly didn't even realize this until one of my assistants pointed it out to me at a wedding the other week... I don't even know what they heck i'm doing these days, but glad some body has figured it out for me. Thanks Diego for pointing that out! DO you have any crazy camera quirks that help your game? Wanna share? Tell us about it. Cheers! mateo

This is my very first image captured by utilizing the Radiopopper system. Thank you Kevin King for getting these to me, all the way in Mexico no doubt! I am such a bad professional. I ripped the bag open to reveal my new set of RP's just 45 minutes before I walked out the door to a wedding 2 days ago. I ran around my place like a crazy man testing for a few minutes, but really didnt do much pro testing on these units before I unveiled them at a pro gig... shame on me eh? My client will be so disappointed that I tested a new product out at her wedding... Shame on me... here is my first TTL RP frame :) The down light is from a ceiling lamp in the bathroom... the rp slave is located just in below the bride's right arm, next to the sink in the bathroom... I didnt use the RP's too much at this gig, but I did play a little :) More test results coming! Cheers! mateo Edited to add.... If you are a pocket wizard junkie (like myself) TTL is a foreign language that takes some serious time to learn to speak. If you want to use baby steps to learn to speak the RP language of TTL, then try this technique... This is a REQUIRED :) element for those testing the RP who are use to the PW system.... good luck :)