"The Original Tattooed Bride Photographer" Captures Three Badass One-Light Setups

Mike Allebach, dubbed “The Original Tattooed Bride Photographer,” shares how he channels his signature colorful style with run-and-gun, one-light setups. Allebach is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Philadelphia, PA, who specializes in offbeat, tattooed and LGBT weddings as well as “boudoir badassery” sessions.

Photo © Allebach Photography 

Calm Before the Storm
This wedding was held at a mill on the Delaware River in New Jersey, and it was the first wedding I had ever worked alone; I normally work with assistants or second shooters. A storm was quickly approaching and it got so bad during the reception that some of the guests got worried and headed home early. For this portrait, we had to move fast. I didn’t have time to grab external lights and set up.

My on-camera flash, the Nikon SB-900, has the ability to be zoomed manually to 200mm, and that’s what I did, pointing it directly at the couple’s faces. Paired with the extreme wideness of my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, I was able to highlight their faces and bring down the ambient light to match the mood of the incoming storm. It was a quick way to get the “off-camera light look” with an on-camera flash.

Camera: Nikon D700  
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8  
Focal Length: 16mm (crop-sensor lens on full-sensor camera) 
Exposure: f/11 at 1/250 of a second 
Lighting: Nikon SB-900 on-camera flash 

Photo © Allebach Photography

Superhero Swag
My clients tend to write their own rules when it comes to weddings. This was a photo my couple, who had a superhero-themed wedding, specifically requested beforehand, and they wanted it to be the last photo of the night. I wasn’t sure if the youngest member of the crew was going to make it to 10:30 p.m. When we said it was time, he pulled his shirt open to reveal his superhero, and his expression was priceless!
My goal was to bring in some of the ambient light in the background, so I cranked up my ISO to 1600 and put my Einstein strobe almost all the way down in power with a beauty dish attached (for weddings I prefer to use either a two-foot octabox or a beauty dish because they’re more wind-resistant than an umbrella).

Camera: Nikon D700 
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8  
Focal length: 16mm 
Exposure: f/2.8 at 1/125 of a second
ISO: 1600 
Lighting: Paul C. Buff Einstein strobe with beauty dish  

Photo © Allebach Photography

Striking a Match
This groom mentioned he was doing something special with his groomsmen in between the wedding and the reception. When he told me his groomsmen gift was cigars, I immediately thought of this kind of photo. I wanted to convey the idea and feel of a 1930’s film noir scene. I wasn’t sure where on the property they were going to do this, but they wound up doing it out on the sidewalk, in the afternoon.

In order to overpower the daylight and achieve soft-looking light on the faces, I brought my Profoto 2-foot OCF Octa Softbox in close, boomed high overhead and to the camera left at 45 degrees. I’m not a personal fan of high-speed sync on flashes and strobes because you can lose some of the light efficiency. I set my base exposure at f/14 and 1/160, and after taking a quick snap, I loved how dark the scene looked. Originally I hadn’t even conceived of having a lighter in the shot—it was a happy accident when he lit the cigar.  

Camera: Nikon D600 
Lens: Sigma 35mm Art 
Exposure: f/14 at 1/160 of a second  
Lighting: Profoto B2 with 2-foot OCF Octa Softbox

See the full article in the Digital Edition.

Want to see more of Mike Allebach’s work? Check out his Instagram @tattooedbridephotoguy 

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