Category Archives: Technique

How you shoot Black and White

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Michael Willems

Shoot Black and white often… but shoot it in RAW. Why? How? Shoot in RAW Set your image style to B&W so the preview you see approximates what you will get. Then in Lightroom, you can change the weighing of … Continue reading →

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Available Light

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Michael Willems

I am The Speedlighter – but I also of course use available light sometimes. Like in this shot, from my Tumblr feed: That is an available light shot that works because: There is a window with reflected light – not direct sunlight. … Continue reading →

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Bouncing and long lenses

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Michael Willems

When shooting an event, you would usually use a somewhat wider lens (a 35mm, say, or a 24-70) and bounce the flash behind you, upward – you have read this here many times. But when you take candid shots with … Continue reading →

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Portable Studio

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Michael Willems

Your on-camera flash is a portable light studio – provided you use it right. That means: Finding the right balance between that flash and ambient light. In many cases I want the ambient light to be the fill light, so … Continue reading →

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More “simple light”.

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Michael Willems

Here’s student Brittney, in a Seneca College workshop I did the other night: Again: simple light: one off camera flash. From yesterday’s post you will remember that I first thought about the background, then about the flash. In this case … Continue reading →

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Who does the work?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Michael Willems

First question I always ask myself when taking a flash picture is: “who does the work?”. What I mean is: is the light in the image just from the flash? Or just from ambient? Or from both? Clearly : When … Continue reading →

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Challenges… and solutions: Low Light.

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Michael Willems

I shot a classical concert the other day (Mahler’s second symphony). Performance in a church, by Masterworks of Oakville. The church had the worst light: dark, with bright back light. Ugh! Terrible. So what can I do? Not use flash, … Continue reading →

Posted in Light, Technique | 5 Comments

DOF and small sensors

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Michael Willems

You know how small-sensor compact cameras do not allow narrow depth of field (DOF)? That is why you have a DSLR! On a small camera, everything is in focus and you cannot blur backgrounds. Yes… but! The “but” is that … Continue reading →

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Light.. action!

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Michael Willems

I shot a few shots of Kelly, the hair stylist for a shoot the other night. Here she is: Nice. So how did I light that? Here’s how. I used my 1D Mk4 camera in manual mode, equipped with a Pocketwizard to … Continue reading →

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Posted on March 11, 2012 by Michael Willems

Another suggested technique…  following up from yesterday. Try this: have people throw something during the shot. Your flash takes around 1/1000th second at full power. So whatever is thrown will be frozen in mid air. Like this piece of clothing: … Continue reading →

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