3 Different Lighting Techniques on the same beach shoot with Sony Artisan of Imagery Jason Lanier, Off Camera Flash, Silhouettes, and Natural Lighting

One of the funnest things about understanding lighting is that it truly opens up the possibilities as to what you can produce and accomplish on your shoot.

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When I was a younger and more inexperienced photographer the hard part was to just get ONE of these types of lighting techniques right.

This is why I love shooting with tilt screens!!

Now that I’ve been practicing my craft tirelessly over the last 8 years (no joke, I’ve done SO MANY free shoots to get my crap together) I am able to mix and match what I do on a shoot pretty much at a whim.  This is exciting because it enables me to give my clients a variety of looks from the same shoot, in a quick manner.  So when they get their images they are thrilled because they have so many different options to choose from.

ALL IMAGES EDITED USING LIGHTROOM ONLY

This particular shoot was done down at Oceanside, California, one of the most amazing places to shoot for sunsets.  Please understand one thing; understanding where and when to shoot is actually MORE important than understanding  how to set up lighting. Picking and choosing the best lighting scenarios possible will single handedly make your shots exponentially better.  This couple for example wanted to do the shoot at the beach earlier in the day.  I steered them towards doing it about 90 minutes before sunset so we could get the best light possible…and the results are what you see here.

1. Natural Lighting– whenever possible and it’s optimal, I will shoot natural light.  It’s beautiful, it’s FREE, and it’s in abundance if you shoot during the right time of the day which is typically early in the morning or late in the afternoon.  I usually schedule my shoots about 90 minutes before sunset so I can get the best natural lighting possible. I start shooting natural light until it’s no longer optimal.  The most important thing is to shoot when the sun is at an angle so it isn’t too harsh on your subject.  You’re often going to want the light to be at your side or behind you.
2. Silhouette- one of the most simple and beautiful images you can create is a beautiful silhouette.  How do you do it?  Simply place your subject in FRONT of the main light source and make sure it’s a powerful light source.  In this case it’s the most powerful light source in the universe, the Sun.  Set your exposure for the back light source and your subject will become a silhouette.  Pretty cool huh?
3. Off Camera Flash- using Off Camera flash the right way is usually a blend between the techniques described above.  You’re going to expose for the background like you would in a silhouette and then use flash to compensate for your subject in the image.  The key here though is that you are often able to change your angle and perspective because it’s no longer necessary to block the sun…so this is when it gets really fun to shoot!  The main thing is to find the right angles and perspectives for you to make the shoot as amazing as it can be.  In this example since the sun was almost completely set and diffused by the clouds in the distance I was able to capture it AND my couple, and since I was using off camera flash my couple was in complete exposure. For the shoot I used the Interfit 360 Proflash on a tripod…and yes, the tripod got wet, the gear could have fallen into the ocean…etc.  And no, I don’t really care.  I of course take all precautions possible to not let it happen but at the end of the day in order to get shots that other people don’t have you have to do things that other people don’t do…it’s just that simple.  I really hope this helps!!  Wanna learn more about lighting and photography?  Simply come to one of my workshops! Click HERE to find the one that works best for you..:)