Flashy

FLASHGUNS are now my new favourite thing.

I bought one a few years ago for my own camera but they never really taught me how to use it properly.

This most recent session was my favourite for sure.

We experimented with different lighting environments and how the flash worked with it.  When outside, using the flash seemed somewhat redundant initially.  However, using the diffuser with the flashgun outside made Lucie's skin seem to glow and look flawless.  Using the flashgun in the studio gave a very truthful look, bringing out the true skin colours.

The above photographs were all taken around the same area.  Knowing that faces are more clear with the light shining into them I places Lucie so that she was facing into the sun.  The most visible difference between the top three pictures and the bottom two is the texture of her skin.  The top two were taken without the softbox cap, which meant that the flash reflected off her skin, making it look more shiny.

For the above photographs we changed location, I moved Lucie to the loading bay to try to experiment with different sorts of light.  The loading bay is in a fairly dark area so I had to play around with the f-stop.  Again with these pictures, you can tell where we used the softbox cap as her skin becomes matte.

These pictures were taken on the infinity curve of the studio.  Because of where the flash concentrates, the edges of any picture taken on the plain background are always a bit darker than the centre.

I'm doing a test shoot with some people on Tuesday for my final idea.  Hopefully it will help me to clarify how I want the final 6 photographs to look and how many participants I want.