How To Fake a Backdrop With Flash

Do you fancy those dim lit portraits with the subject's face lit and surrounded by darkness? I'll be you think you need a professional studio, backdrop and a ton of fancy lighting to achieve that same effect huh?

If you know anything about flash photography then you already know that you an fake a black backdrop... But did you know you can fake it even outdoors on a sunny day?

How to simulate a black backdrop even outdoors on a sunny day.

 All you need is your camera, external flash (a speedlight will do) and a light stand.

All you have to do is shut out as much ambient light as humanly possible. Once you have your black ("under exposed") image then you are ready to use your flash to illuminate only what you want to add back in. You are essentially overpowering the ambient light with your flash.

You'll need a camera that has a manual mode. You must be able to control the ISO, shutter speed and aperture to achieve the desired results. Your flash also needs to have manual controls so you can adjust the intensity of the flash.

With the flash being off-camera, you'll also need a way to trigger it... You have a couple options here:
- Hot shoe extension cable.
- Wireless trigger: The PocketWizards are the best money can buy. It opens up a whole new world for you and off-camera flash photography.
- Your Camera & flash's built in slave. That is one of the many reasons I love Nikon. They have made it so easy to fire your Nikon brand flash using only the pop-up flash on your camera to trigger it. My Nikon D800 and Nikon SB-900 work great together.

Now that we have gear covered, let's get into the technique...

First, set your camera's ISO as low as you can. This setting comes from the good ol' film days where you had to buy film with ISOs that were suited for what you were going to take pictures of. ISO 100 was for extreme daylight while higher numbers like ISO 800 or 1600+ were for indoor, dark locations. Using an ISO like 100 means that it will take a lot of light to expose the image. ISO 1600+ need less light to expose the image. For our needs, we want it to be really tough for ambient light to affect our exposure.

 the shutter speed needs to play nicely with your flash. Although the two really don't have any effect on one another you do need to be wary of your camera's flash sync speed. This is typically 1/200" or 1/250" on most cameras. Refer to your camera manual for that info. If you go higher than this sync speed then you will notice a black bar affecting your image. This is from the shutter closing before the flash has time to fully fire.

I leave the aperture last because this setting IS something your flash works with. The aperture is the opening in which the light enters while the shutter speed is the duration of how long that light gets let in... The lower the f-stop (f/4, f/2.8), the bigger the opening and thus the more light gets let in. The higher the f-stop (i.e. f/8, f/16) the smaller the opening so less light enters.

I would recommend your camera to be set to ISO 100, 1/200" and f/5.6 as a starting point... This is a definite balancing act. We are probably maxing out the ISO and shutter speed due to camera and flash sync limitations.* The only things we can tweak now are the aperture and flash settings.

 * fun fact: The Nikon D70 has a 6mp sensor but has an electronic shutter with a flash sync speed of 1/500"! You better believe I own one of these cameras.

Take a test shot without a flash. If your test shot still shows some background and ambient light then the only thing you can do is raise the aperture to f/8, f/11, f/16, etc. As a last resort you can find a little shadier spot to position your subject in. That little bit of shade could be the difference you need.

Now that you have successfully killed the ambient light, it is time to incorporate the flash. You cannot change the settings of your camera at this point. You have locked down your settings to achieve essentially your black backdrop.

The flash has 4 things that can affect it's impact on an image. Two are camera settings and two are flash settings:
- The ISO
- The Aperture
- The flash's power
- The flash's distance to subject

We have ISO and Aperture locked down so we can only control the flash's power and distance between flash and subject.

Put the flash an arm length or two away from your subject to start and then dial the flash's manual power up or down until you have the right intensity of light. Once again, the flash should be in manual mode and you should be working with flash power that is something like 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc...

You will see in the image above that a soft box was used outdoors to literally soften up the light. This also helps to wrap the light somewhat around your subject's face instead of just being harsh with a hard stop between shadow and highlight.

Also, notice the position of the flash. It is on the opposite side of where I am taking the picture and "fanned" out to help with that wrapping of the light around their face.

Feel free to try the same thing indoors. If you don't have a flash then you could always experiment with window light, reflectors and stuff of that nature...

Thanks for stopping by.
~ Michael

Light Painting

Hello everyone. I just wanted to share a shot from a recent wedding that I photographed.

This was all done IN CAMERA! No Photoshop has been used.

Can you believe that the cool swirly blue light was made with my iPhone?

Want to know how this photo was taken? Stay tuned...

Ask Me Anything About Photography

I just found out the Tumblr allows you to ask questions on there and they can even be anonymous if you'd like.
 
Here is the link to my personal Tumblr account. Ask away...

http://bielat.tumblr.com/ask

Looking forward to it everyone.

Thanks for stopping by

~ Mike

Dad. Husband. Photographer.

I seen a question  from someone online who's fear that having children will stop him for 3 years or so from pursuing his work as a photographer. I thought it was a very awesome question and thought I would indirectly answer it ;)

I think it's pretty relevant since today marks my 5 year wedding anniversary with my wife, Becky.

Five awesome years ago we were married but I started my photography business while we were engaged; She in fact, was my biggest supporter and gave me the kick in the pants to do photography professionally. Having that support is the first thing needed to have a successful photographic career.

Fast forward a couple years to 2008 when we had our son, Cameron. My photography business was finally doing really well for us. I was knee deep in it all! I couldn't be as helpful as I wanted with our son and I thought it sucked. But there my wife was a trooper and taking care of it all.

In 2011 we had our daughter, Addison. I learned this time around that being a photographer was great and all, but absolutely didn't want to miss time away from my little girl. So 2011 was when I fell off the map so to speak. I did my weddings and portraits more selectively and didn't update this site nearly as much as I used to.

I did this 110% voluntarily because I realized that being a good parent and husband is most important. Before I know it, my children will be off to school, college and then moved out so I had better enjoy it while it lasts.

Ironically, 2011 was when I really discovered myself as a photographer. It took me 13+ fricken' years to discover my style and what made me tick as a photographer. I wasn't obsessing over these rockstar photographer blogs, I wasn't on forums anymore and I didn't have anything to distract me from myself and my style. I didn't put any pressure on myself to shoot like so-and-so. I was just shooting a ton of family photos of my children just being kids and I had no pressure whatsoever. I shot what I wanted, when I wanted and, most importantly, how I wanted to.

Here are some examples. These are some snapshots that I took last week just using Instagram on my iPhone:

 I am in absolutely in love with these two pics. The first one is of my daughter. Yeah her head is cropped but I know it is her. This was a "daddy" memory. See we just got the kids a swing set in our back yard and her and I were passing the swing back and forth to each other playing. I know it's her. I am capturing the moment and it really encompasses the "mood." It makes me happy when I look at it so that makes it a good photo in my opinion.

The second image was taken a couple weeks ago when we visited Rushford Lake. The kids were about ready for bed so we hung out in the bedroom and watched a DVD on our laptop for a little bit. I snapped this shot real quick, once again using Instagram.

I showcase these two images because years prior, I would have never been caught dead cropping heads or taking dark, ambient lit photos. You know why? Because my "photo journalistic" skills bit the big one. It was only when I second shot for someone I knew or took snapshots that I experimented. As you can see, those are all my favorite shots...

So back from my tangent...
 
Having a wife and children helped MAKE me the photographer I am today... This is nothing to be feared of but rather embraced. I have never been more excited to shoot for my clients then I am right now.

You know what else I learned? How to do $#!% right in the first place. If I have a family and they need me to be a part of their lives then you better believe I am going to nail the shot so it requires little to no time in post-processing. Wow, I am suddenly an even-better photographer.

I cannot wait to see which child takes a liking to photography. I am like a giddy little school girl thinking about it. But even if they don't have any remote interest in photography I want them to at least see that anything is a possibility and that they can pursue what they love, whatever it is, be their own boss and love what they do for a living...

Teaching him young. Here I am showing my son how to use a camera.
Taken on Father's Day 2012 @ Letchworth State Park

In closing, when all is said and done and your time on this Earth is over, do you really want to be remembered as a rock star photographer for 15 minutes of fame or an amazing husband/wife and father/mother?

~ Mike

BorrowLenses.com Review

Update: To celebrate their 5th year in business, BorrowLenses.com has a promotion where you can win a Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800 D-SLR. Click here to enter.

Lately, I have been diving into the commercial and editorial photography business. My personal photography website has started to showcase more and more of this kind of photography.

Now, I am just getting into the business. Not sure how the future will pan out. What I do know is that I don't want to get into debt having to buy myself all new gear. I can just budget into my budget some rental equipment, use it for the shoot and ship it back. Way better than racking up the bills.

Not only is http://www.borrowlenses.com great for commissioned work, it is also great to try new cameras or lenses before you buy. Back in 2008 I made the switch to Nikon from Canon. This was right around when the Canon 1D Mark III was supposedly patched up with the "blue dot" fix and whatnot. I came to a crossroad; buy the Canon flagship model, or jump ship and go to Nikon. Nikon had just released the D3 and it's baby brother, the D700. If I would have known better (hindsight is 20/20) then I would have dropped $200 and tried out a Nikon system through http://www.borrowlenses.com. If I would have done that then I would have saved myself so many headaches.

Maybe 10,000 shutter clicks into the 1D Mark III, it just broke. Nothing worked. To make things worse I was on assignment. So I had to run and get my backup Canon 5D to finish the shoot. Not cool. Canon didn't look out for me (CPS membership and everything) and send me a replacement body until mine was repaired so I just said screw it and jumped ship to a more reliable system.

My first shot with a Nikon D700 was really a "Holy S#!#" moment! I couldn't believe the sharpness and high ISO abilities to shoot in low light. Now if I would have just bucked up $200 and just gone to http://www.borrowlenses.com to try out a D700 before buying that damned 1D Mark III I would have been impressed enough and would have just jumped ship at that point. I could still smack myself because that 1D Mark III was the one piece of equipment that I leased for 5 years. I ended up ditching it in 8 months, still paying for the lease today...

Awesome!

Another example. I have really been into Leica digital cameras as of late. I mean I was drooling over these things. So I smartened up and dropped a couple hundred dollars to rent a Leica M9 from http://www.borrowlenses.com along with a Leica 50mm f/2 lens. Sure enough, the camera wasn't for me. I am so glad I tried it out because I would have been like $10,000 in the hole for something that didn't fit my shooting style.

So if you are considering jumping ship, try before you buy. Maybe you want that new $3,000 lens. Try before you buy. Going on a little vacation for the week and want to bring an astronomically high priced piece of glass? Rent one for the week and ship it back when you are done...

Comment below and feel free to share your dumb photography purchases.

Learn from my mistakes. Thanks for stopping by.
~ Mike

Update: To celebrate their 5th year in business, BorrowLenses.com has a promotion where you can win a Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800 D-SLR. Click here to enter.

$100 Google Adwords Coupon Codes

I get stuff from Google all the time. Most recently, they gave me nine $100 Google Adwords coupon codes. These are valid for new Adword accounts only and will expire on June 30th, 2012.

For those who don't know, Google Adwords is a great way for businesses to promote their website on the first page of Google. This is especially beneficial to those who don't have their site on Page 1 of Google yet.

First come first serve for these Adwords Coupons:
LDPN-X6KR-SNUN-FNPQ-SFQ
LDPN-XULK-UA5L-HL7T-748
3USL-4ZAA08YKC-YH2G06BQ
LDPN-XNJU-PP6B-DXSR-HFQ
LDPNNN-XLC8-Y8DF-85PM-2LG
LDPN-XHRAA-CXHQ-2JM7-LE8
3USL-4Y9X-5RMM-M7C3-FEY
LDPN-XC77-WYUB-VPXT-ZDG
LDPN-X9FX-4WZC-5Q3U-NMQ

Remember these will be valid for only one person and only for new Adwords accounts.

Visit www.google.com/adwords to get started.

~ Mike

Back To The Ol' Drawing Board

Hey, longtime inLIGHTin'ed followers, remember waaaaaayyyyyy back when I said I was going to be publishing some eZines ?

Well good news, I finally got around to do that not too long ago. The only bad news is that I am going back to the drawing board. First, it is taking me forever so a lot of content that was 'new' back then is now sort of irrelevant. Secondly, I am going to be self-publishing the magaizine though Apple's iBookstore.

It will be available for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch as well as in a PDF format in case you aren't an Apple fanboy (or girl).

Very exciting times are coming for The inLIGHTin Workshop and I look forward to sharing them all with you.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Mike

50% Off At The inLIGHTin'ed Store

The inLIGHTin Workshop Storefront got a facelift! For a limited time the first 10 people will receive a 50% discount towards ANYTHING and EVERYTHING in the inLIGHTin'ed Store...

Photoshop Actions, Lightroom Presets (LR4 Optimzed) or even my inLIGHin'ed Photography Business Templates.
Are you in Buffalo, NY? If so then you even get 50% off my One-On-One Workshop Tickets!
Use promo code: "INLIGHTIN50OFF" at checkout to claim your discount.

Thanks for your support!
~ Mike

My New Wedding Photography Setup

I have always wanted to use a mixture of both on and off camera lighting when shooting wedding receptions. However, I never wanted to "experiment" while I was on the clock so I just kept it on the back-burner of something to research...

Then it hit me, I wasn't using my Pocket Wizards to their fullest potential. See, being a Nikon shooter, I have the bonus of all my Nikon-brand speedlights containing a PC sync jack. (Canon users only have it really on the 580EX II and most likely newer speedlights). Before, I was using one Pocket Wizard on camera triggering 1-2 Pocket Wizard equipped studio strobes or speedlights. These strobes / speedlights were mounted to a light stand and helped light up the reception hall. When I snapped a photo, the Pocket Wizard on my camera would wirelessly (via radio waves) trigger the other Pocket Wizards and tell the lights to fire.

The problem with my setup was that every once in a while I would get some bad shadows cast from people dancing and blocking the light from hitting my subject... It was annoying and required me to have a few "choice" places to stand and whatnot.

Then I read the Pocket Wizard manual and noticed that I could easily mount a speedlight on-camera, hook up a Pocket Wizard to that once and be able to fire both my on-camera light AND off-camera lights. I knew it could be done, I just never investigated it enough (Having two kids and crazy work schedule will do that to you).

Products Used:
- 3x Pocket Wizard Plus II Transmitter/Receivers (One for on-camera speedlight, two for off-camera lights)
- 3x PocketWizard PC-1 Miniphone to PC Cables: These connect your Nikon speedlights to the Pocket Wizards
- 2x Impact Sync Cord Male Phono to Male PC (16"): These connect my studio strobes to the Pocket Wizards. Your strobe's input jack may be different.
- Light Stand: Creative¤Light 8' Compact Light Stand
- Light Modifiers: Photoflex Convertible Umbrella-60" / Bare Bulb
- Camera: Nikon D700 SLR Digital Camera
- Lenses: Doesn't matter
- Speedlights: Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash
- Speedlight Accessory for D700 & Nikon SB-900Nikon WG-AS3 Water Guard for D700 Camera's Hot Shoe when used with SB-900 Flash (keeps your flash sturdy when mounted)



RTFM,
Mike

PhotographyBlogSites.com Review

Well I finally have a brand new website for my wedding and portrait photography business. I have been toying around with getting a "blog-site" (AKA looks like a website but is actually based around a Blogging platform - WordPress most commonly) and finally pulled the trigger on it. I have always had a love-hate relationship with my old Bludomain site (mostly hate). Apple iPads and iPhones don't like Adobe Flash so no one could see my site on a mobile device. Maybe it's just me but I use my iPhone and iPad a ton! Also, all you have is one splash page to try and optimize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and it just ends up looking like keywords threw up all over it... Not too classy. Lastly, and most importantly, it seems like everyone and their mother has a Bludomain site for their photography business. The result is a whole lot of people with websites that look alike. Not cool. Now I have a programming degree by trade so I was contemplating making a WordPress blog-site theme myself but I never got around to it. I am busy as it is these days so needless to say it never got done. It was then that I found PhotographyBlogSites.com and I was in heaven. Awesomely unique templates and it gave me everything I ever wanted. So I ended up going with them and I couldn't be happier. My content is ridiculously easy to update so there will be no excuse for having old pics from years ago and I the best part is that it is all viewable on mobile devices! Within days I was higher on the Google rankings, getting more inquiries and on my way to getting the right kind of people to view my site.

So if you were like me and are looking to dump your current website, do yourself a favor and check out PhotographyBlogSites.com. Here is a link to my brand new wedding and portrait website: www.Buffalo-Wedding-Photographer.com. So take a minute and check it out. I'd love to hear your feedback! Thanks for stopping by!

~ Mike

The Beauty Of Digital Photography

There is so much talk these days about the new Canon 5D Mark III, the Nikon D4 and so on... But $6,000 on a camera? Sorry, I can't justify that expense... Just because a new camera has been released then does that mean all other cameras are obsolete?

I have been searching for a backup camera body lately and was debating between another Nikon D700 ($2000 used) or get something else... Maybe a used D3s, D300s? Lot's of choices out there.

It was then that I had an epiphany. It was time to practice what I preach. It's not the camera that makes the photographer, rather it's the photographer who makes the photographer. Unfortunately, I fell into this downward spiral of constantly "needing" the latest and greatest cameras as soon as they are released.

On that note, these same people are practically giving away their old cameras so they can drop some serious coin on the latest and greatest. So what did I decide on for a backup body?

How about a like-new Nikon D70 Digial SLR with under 9,000 actuations for a whopping $213.49!

Plus the D70 has an electronic shutter so I can achieve flash sync speeds of up to 1/500." Not too bad if you ask me. Sure I am spoiled by the large 3" LCD screen but who cares. $200 is $200.

I want to hear all about your "new" old purchase whether it be a camera body, lens or photography gadget. Be sure to leave a comment below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Mike

Site Migration Almost Complete

Hey folks,
I am almost finished with migrating over the inlightinworkshop.com site over to this one... I got a handful of posts to move over and then we should be all set!

Thanks for your patience!
Mike

New Site for 2012

The inLIGHTin Workshop is making the move from WordPress over to Blogger. I am taking the next couple days to port everything over from one site to another. Half the WordPress image files were missing anyways so this will give me a chance to re-do some posts the right way and bring back all those images! I mean what good is a photography site without any working photos to show right?

So yeah just give me a couple weeks to move everything over and then we'll take things from there. 2012 is going to be an exciting time for The inLIGHTin Workshop. Keep on checking back for updates.

Thanks for all your support!
Michael