Using Speed Lights Outside

By Tim Webb
March 3, 2010

Being an OCD Freak, I like having full control over my photos, even if it means packing more equipment, such as strobes. I’m slowly but surely moving away from my trusted White Lightnings and making the switch over to Speed Lights for my location shoots.

I shot my first complete wedding with Speed Lights on Saturday, and then I did a magazine shoot yesterday on solar houses with the same setup… an old SB26 (Nikon’s last great film flash) and an umbrella. I’ve never been very fond of using umbrellas, but until I get a grasp on all of this, umbrellas are a lot cheaper than soft boxes made for Speed Lights.

This was a really neat house, that had one complete side covered in solar panels. This made for a no-brainer of a location to do an environmental portrait of UK Architecture Professor Richard Levine.

It was overcast outside so I didn’t have any shadows to deal with. I kept it simple with one light. The formula that I love to use, whether I’m indoors or out, is what I call One Stop Over Ambient, which means I set the exposure of my light to be one stop brighter than the ambient light in the background. This allows my subject to standout against the background. I don’t like going much brighter than one stop because usually my background is an important part in telling the story of my subject.

My Set Up

My End Product

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 am. It is filed under Camera Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.