This past weekend, I went down to Colorado Springs for a photo shoot that Gary Barnhart with Imagery Light set up. I'll write more about the shoot in another post. Today, I want to focus on how just a little thinking outside the box can produce amazing results!
I had never done much shooting combining flash with natural light. I've done a lot of natural light shooting and adding the flash was usually more trouble than it was worth. If I was using just the flash with no umbrella, the results were too harsh. It I was using an umbrella on a stand, it was too unstable or too hard to position on uneven surfaces. Gary pretty much instantly made me a believer with one simple trick: Just pick up the stand and hold it like a boom!
How easy is that? Use one hand to hold the camera, use the other to hold the stand. It's really easy to position the light exactly where you want it, as you can keep the same composition and just move the light a little, since it's in your hand. No more walking over to the light, moving it just a bit taking another shot, adjusting the light some more... Just shoot! If a gust of wind comes along, you don't have to worry about your flash falling to the ground and breaking, or worse, hitting your subject. If you want to make a drastic change to your light, it takes seconds rather than minutes. It's just about the best trick I've learned in a while.
In the picture above, one of the models was holding the flash on another model. I looked up and saw them doing this, so I grabbed a quick shot (my exposure was set for shade, so the shot is a little blown out), but it should give you an idea of what I'm talking about. We had some assistants at this shoot, which allowed us to get a little farther away for our shots. That's the only downfall of this method, that you can't get very far away while still holding the light stand. But, with a little creativity and practice, I'm sure amazing shots are just around the corner for anyone who adopts the "Gary Method" of lighting!
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