5 Tips to Understanding and Improving Off-Camera Lighting

Off-camera lighting is often an overlooked subject by professional wedding photographers who prefer natural light, or who are overwhelmed by the technical aspects. Yet, understanding the basics of light, as well as how and when to apply it, is essential to your craft. Orange County wedding photographer Pye Jirsa (of Lin and Jirsa Photography) recently hosted a webinar with ShootDotEdit’s president Jared Bauman to help photographers better understand off-camera lighting as a way to create more dynamic images. (Watch the full webinar here.)

1. Identify your final look before the shot. 
Rather than just setting up lights, think of where you want to go with your final look and then work your way backwards to get to your final image. Natural light is a beautiful thing for weddings, but the amazing thing about learning flash photography and how to manipulate light is that it helps you become better natural-light photographers as well. As we’ve delved deeper into off-camera lighting, we’ve become known for our very distinctive, bold and vivid images—the signature Lin and Jirsa look.

2. Identify light patterns. 
There are five common key light patterns that you should know: Flat, Butterfly, Loop, Rembrandt and Split lighting. Along with off-camera flash, these give you the ability to make decisions during the shoot that can dramatically impact the look and mood of your image.

3. Understand light qualities.  
Light qualities can become quite confusing, so understanding more about them allows you to go into a shoot and know exactly why you chose the lighting you do. The most important light qualities include soft and hard light, which are based on the size of the light source. The smaller the light source is in relation to the subject, the harder the light is. Adjust your light’s position compared to the subject to create your desired look. The other light qualities include diffused and specular light, which create different moods for your photos. If you want to create a lighter mood for your images, use diffused light to achieve the look. For you to create a more dramatic look, bounce the light off of a silver reflector or a “specular” modifier to create more contrast along with stronger highlights and shadows.

4. Master reflectors and flash. 
There are many times when you cannot rely solely on natural light and reflector modification. Reflectors can modify and bounce direct sunlight, but when we are shooting indoors, outdoors during an overcast day or during dusk, then a reflector loses its power. In these situations, you can use your on-camera flash to throw light into the reflector and bounce it onto your subject to create whatever light direction and quality you need. If you need more light and spill control, put a grid onto your on-camera flash to ensure it doesn’t spill outside of the reflector.

5. Understand the power of on-camera flash. 
Because on-camera flash is incredibly powerful, it can be used as a direct flash for various effects, but it can also be easily modified for off-camera lighting. Not only can this save you time, but on-camera flash can create a dynamic and powerful look to your images. So many times, photographers go into shoots not understanding just how powerful their existing tools are. The more you learn, the better you will perform in every type of lighting situation. Start with the basic principles, and then practice using different techniques in different lighting situations. The more you know, and the more you practice, the better you’ll be prepared to handle any lighting situation with whatever gear you have on your person.

Pye Jirsa is the owner of Lin & Jirsa Photography, SLR Lounge and Cloud Spot.