So, I am all about that beautiful natural light when it comes to photography! But, I am also a wedding photographer and that means that I do a lot of pictures indoors and in poorly lit areas. So…how do you make your indoor and nighttime images as a professional photographer stand out from the crowd?? Setting up some backlight…that’s how!!
I was recently shooting a wedding and it began to snow outside, but it was completely dark out. My brave bride and groom went out in the cold for a couple minutes to shoot a few shots in the snow! Here is what we got by setting up a flash behind them to create a little…BACKLIGHT!! 🙂
This was the same shot without the flash behind them…
What a difference a little extra light can make! Without that flash behind them you couldn’t even tell it was snowing outside!
So, how do you set all this up you might ask? I invested in the best tool ever for a wedding photographer… two of these PocketWizard FlexTT5‘s to go along with my two Canon 430EX 11 flash’s. The PocketWizard FlexTT5‘s are very easy to use and if you keep your eye out you may even find them on your local Craigslist.
The PocketWizard FlexTT5‘s area basically wireless radio transmitters/receivers that act as a remote for your off camera flash. They work by connecting to your camera through the hot-shoe connection and the system tracks your changes in ISO, shutter speed and aperture and reacts accordingly to make sure exposures stay right on target.
The setup:
First I mount one of the PocketWizard FlexTT5‘s on a light stand using a hot shoe to light stand adapter and on top of the PocketWizard FlexTT5 goes my Canon 430EX 11
The setup above goes behind my subject and then I place the other PocketWizard FlexTT5 on my camera and mount my other Canon 430EX 11 on top.
Then…I shoot away! 🙂
The beauty of the PocketWizard FlexTT5‘s is that they pretty much do all the work for you if you want them to. If you want to learn more about them the Pocketwizard website has some great videos and information on how to use them.
Here are some other shots I was able to capture using this set up…
There are SO many possibilities that open up when you add an off camera flash. You could add an umbrella and shoot through to give some extra fill light or so many other ways to set up these PocketWizards! I am still learning as I go with them, but I am so glad I have them!
I hope you enjoyed reading through this and hopefully it helps you out! Please come by and check out my Facebook page Pixy Prints Photography to keep up on more of my work.
~Rachel
