Off Camera Flash
Off-Camera flash
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Today I'm going to scare the hell out of many of you. I want you to picture me sitting around a campfire with a flashlight under my chin because what I'm about to say is going to send shivers down your spine. So grab yourself a security blanket and a snuggle buddy and let's get into it!
Today we're talking about off-camera flash!
For those of you who didn't pass out with fear at the mere mention of off-camera flash, I'm happy to tell you that it's a hell of a lot easier than you think. It's also a hell of a lot more affordable than it used to be. In today's blog we're going to go ahead and show you how using off-camera flash for your first birthday sessions can be better than using natural light. Before you light up the comment section, I said it “can be” better than using natural light. I know that it's not always the best solution. Each situation is different and calls for different lighting solutions. So now that I'm done keeping people from a debate on natural light vs. flash, let's get into the meat and potatoes of this blog.
Here at TheSmashCake.com we use artificial light for most of our first birthday sessions. There are times that we use all natural light and there are times that we use a blend of both natural light and flash but for most of the indoor cake smash sessions on our website we use artificial light. In the beginning we used mostly window light to shoot our smash cake sessions and we found it in the summer months that was a perfect and simple solution. But we’re located in the Pacific Northwest and we do get about 8 months a year of rain and cloudy gray skies. As you can imagine when we’re shooting in the winter months it becomes a huge problem to maintain correct exposure.
We also found ourselves correcting the color temperature, because of the light in the winter time coming in through those windows is very, very blue and and nobody really enjoys the look of a blue baby, right? (Papa Smurf doesn’t count) When you’re correcting both exposure and light temperature in Lightroom every picture all of those little tiny tweaks really adds up. As your studio becomes busier you're going to find that your time is really the thing that you're selling. It’s also the thing that most of us don't have enough of. To make more money per hour and have more time with our family we had to condense our workflow. Part of that solution for my studio was using off-camera flash.
Reason One
The first aforementioned way that it saved me time was in not having to correct my exposures in Photoshop or Lightroom. When you are using off-camera flash there is no ambient light, there are no changes. You set your exposure and your flash power and that's it. If you set your lights up correctly every frame is going to be exposed properly and you're not going to have to tweak it later. Now, I don't mind grabbing a slider in Lightroom and adjusting. It doesn't seem like a huge amount of time, but if you're doing editing for multiple sessions in a day and you're tweaking that slider for hundreds of images it really does add up. So by using off-camera flash we’re able to just take that one little step out of our post processing workflow and it has greatly increased the number of clients that my studio can take every year. More clients equals more money!
Reason Two
Off-Camera flash saves me time not constantly having to color correct. If you shoot a lot outdoors you understand that oftentimes light can go behind a cloud or shift or just travel across the sky, changing the light temperature as it goes. The color temperature at 9 a.m. is much, much different than the color temperature at 6 p.m. When I shot all natural light this was something that I had to deal with when editing my images in Lightroom or Photoshop. I know that when you have a fussy little one a first birthday session can take a couple of hours. Sometimes your little one needs a break. If you start that session later in the afternoon the color shift is incredibly noticeable from when you start shooting to when you finish, thanks to the setting sun and its rapidly changing color temperature.
We decided to take all the variables out and just started shooting using all off-camera flash. This meant that we have the ability to set the camera's white balance to the color temperature of the lights we are using and because of the consistent light temperature, nothing ever shifts. When we get back into Lightroom and we notice we need to make a change all we have to do is one color correction adjustment and copy that correction across all the other files. The consistent exposure as well as the consistent light temperature of the flashes really, really I can't stress this enough, really reduces the amount of time you spend editing!
Note:
If you do get the exposure wrong there's a nifty little remote that you put on the top of your camera which allows you to change the exposure of each individual flash head from the back of your camera. No more running around from light to light with a light meter testing each one and changing the dials. You can do it all from the back of your camera and that saves you a ton of time on set.
Now let's talk about something I've been fighting since the beginning of my career. This particular thing has been the bane of my existence for closing in on two decades and has caused me to mutter more four letter words than anything else in my photography career.
Reason Three
Off-Camera flash has been an integral part of me slaying the damn focus beast. When I was solely a natural light shooter I used to love the golden hour but as it got darker if I wanted to keep shooting I had to lower that shutter speed. Everyone knows that a slower shutter speed means you have to hold the camera still and your subject has to hold still. How many of you out there have had any success asking a one-year-old to hold still?
When we used to use natural light for a first birthdays, getting tack sharp images was a huge problem. The slower shutter speeds caused motion blur. I needed to figure out how I could increase my shutter speed and still use off-camera flash so that I still had all the benefits of consistent exposure and consistent light temperature. I just realized I said consistent exposure and consistent light temperature and a lot of your eyes started to glaze over.
I'm going to spare you guys all of the techie gear crap that is just about impossible to read and skip right to the punch.
I found the Godox high speed sync lighting system. I know, I know I just said high speed sync and your eyes are glazing over again. Come on, snap out of it and stay with me.
In a nutshell this lighting system allows you to set whatever shutter speed you want and the flashes will still sync and fire. You guys remember back in the day everybody was using Alien Bee strobes? Yeah those glitchy things would only allow you to set your shutter speed at a 200th of a second in order to sync with the flashes. That meant you were stuck at 200th of a second and for those of you who like to use longer lenses that's problematic because well you have to double the focal length with your shutter speed in order to not have camera shake! Ahhhhhhhhh!
Simply put, with the Godoxs lighting system you get all the benefits of a flash system; the consistent exposure, consistent light temperature and you can set the shutter speed to whatever you want. Personally, I like to set my shutter speed around four or five hundredths of a second so that I can stop the motion of our little ones smashing the crud out of a cake. But if I want to set that all the way up to a 1000th of a second or even 8000ths of a second, it would totally be an option. So with the Godox lighting system you rarely have to worry about motion blur from either the subject or from camera shake. Ever since we switched over to the Godox lighting system our images have been sharper and our focus hit rate has been significantly better. More images for us to sell which means higher sales averages. And less time spent.
If you really want to see a dramatic change in your sales averages combine the Godoxs lighting system with the Sony 70 to 200mm portrait lens. You'll be able to isolate the one-year-old against a very buttery background and which translates into some amazing sales averages. If you want to see what the Godox system and the Sony 70-200 lens can really do you can check out some of our images on TheSmashCake.com, almost all of our images use that lens and lighting combination.
I'm going to be upfront with you guys and tell you that this is going to be an investment. I recommend that you buy it one flash head at a time. Many of the shots that we've done on TheSmashCake.com can be done with only one Godox flash head so you can start with one light and build up. Each light head is $549 at the time of this article but are in my opinion they are well worth the money.
Making the Investment
Before I make a financial investment in gear I always ask myself two questions. Number one - is this going to make my product better? And number two - is this going to save me time? The Godox light system saves me time, makes my product better and has upped my sales average. So for our studio making a $549 investment to bring in retail sales over six figures annually was simply a no-brainer. The best part is once you start using this Godox lighting system for your first birthday work you’ll fall in love with it. You’ll start applying this system to other types of photography. I guarantee you it will change the way you photograph your clients!
So there it is, that's how we light our first birthdays and that’s how we get our look. Don't forget to check the YouTube channel as well.
Thanks again for donating some brain power toward reading this blog and as always I'd like to encourage all of you to get out there and smash it!
- Daniel
P.S.
For those of you not concerned about price I would really recommend you looking into the Profoto B1x system. The color temperature and exposure output is spot-on every time you click the shutter and the build quality is amazing. The B1x system is the ‘buy it once and have it forever’ type but it comes with a massive price tag so for anyone just getting started I always recommend they start with Godox. For those of you who are blessed enough to not be cursed with financial restrictions look at the Profoto B1x system, you’ll be glad you did.