How to Balance Flash Outdoors
Cake Smash Lighting Outdoors
Well I don't know where you are right now, but here the sun is out, the birds are singing, and summer is in full swing. Summer in the Pacific Northwest is a glorious thing but honestly it only lasts 3 months and then we're right back to cloudy grey skies and seriously deficient Vitamin D levels. That last bit does not make for a happy winter so when summer is here but you better believe us PNW dwellers take full advantage. I have a fully dedicated studio set aside just for smash cake sessions but in the summer time I much prefer to take my studio lighting outdoors. There's just something about being in the fresh air with the chubby little one-year-old smashing cakes in the grass that makes for a perfect day at the office.
I recently mentioned to a friend and newbie photographer that I take my studio strobes outside and her question was “How in the world do you get flash outside to look natural?” This is something I've not had to deal with in years because it's just become second nature, so I didn't even think to write a blog about it. My friend was right. I remember when I was just learning how to use flash that balancing it with natural light (so that it looked real) was a huge problem for me. I suspect that there are other smash cake photographers out there having the same problem. I've set out to a make an instructional video specifically for smash cake photographers on how to balance flash with natural light. Unfortunately this is our busy season and we are experiencing a huge landslide of paying clients so making videos will have to wait. But it's summer NOW and you guys are probably running into that problem right NOW so I need to give you the information you need right NOW. Right?!
This led me to search out a really good video by Robert Hall that explains the nuances of balancing flash with natural light to create natural looking photos. Robert is a brilliant photographer that has been teaching on YouTube for several years and I really enjoy his straightforward videos. Robert has actually created an entire playlist of videos about how to work with flash and I highly recommend you check out the entire series. It's completely free so the only thing you’re investing is your time.
So go ahead and click below to enjoy Robert’s video on how to balance flash with ambient light. This will help you right now in the summer months when your clients are probably begging you to do smash cake sessions at the local park. By incorporating flash you are going to be able to stop action and get crisp beautiful photos and if you balance the flash correctly you will get beautifully saturated colors as a bonus. I could spend hours going into all the benefits of flash and probably will throughout the lifetime of this blog, but for now just have a look at Robert’s video and try using flash outdoors. It will give your photos a look that the natural light your competition is using won't be able to achieve.
Also while you're watching the video I would encourage you to thumbs up or comment on Robert’s video and if you really like what he's doing definitely subscribe to his channel. In case you don’t know every time you like, subscribe or comment on a YouTubers videos it helps YouTube realize that their content is relevant and pushes them to the top of the search results. This in turn helps keep these guys in business and helps keep you in free information. So don’t forget to spread some YouTube love.
Thanks again you guys for reading this blog and checking out this video about using flash. Don't forget that when you're ready to make the leap to flash we have a pro shop where all of the equipment we use at our studio is available for you to purchase. The reason we only recommend what we use is because over the years we've used a lot of junk and I'm not a big fan of recommending junk. So the only things available for purchase on our website is the stuff we actually use (or have used) because it's the stuff that actually works. Click here to visit the Pro Shop
Once again you guys thank you so much for stopping by and we'll see you next time,
Daniel