Fashion photography lighting technique two:

 

How I created the fashion photography lighting technique for shooting natural looking  artificial light mixed with daylight that you can not tell were lit with flash.

 

 

mixing daylight and flash for a fashion photography shoot
fashion photography workshops in France
location fashion photography workshops
studio fashion and beauty photography workshops

With the exception of Image 3, for which the flash failed to go off for this shot, so there is just the available light exposure showing,

 

I rather like it but the image was quite underexposed so a little grainy but still charming effect.

 

Flash power on all 5 heads was set on lowish output to give me a flash meter reading of F4 from the models face, the meter pointing towards the camera position and on low power so the flash recycle time is short.

 

 

Re creating late afternoon or early morning sunlight lighting with flash.

 

Each flash head was directed through the windows from as high up as my stands would go to look like early morning or late afternoon direct sunlight.

 

You have to be every careful re the flash direction the heads are pointing to avoid flare in your lens, also be careful that you do not burn out the highlights too much, especially on the model and the dress.

 

I used a bank of 4 large gold and silver zebra reflectors to right of camera bouncing the flash onto the model. I moved them nearer or farther away to alter the amount of reflected light was hitting my model.

 

 

Camera Settings

 

Shot at F4 at 50th sec, slower shutter speed to allow some of the available daylight exposure to make the flash look more like natural light.

 

 

The right lens for the fashion shot

 

I shot this hand held with a 17 to 55 mm zooms f2.8 lens (my go to lens for most of my work) on a DSLR, can't remember which body. Taking great care to avoid camera shake and model movement whilst shooting.

 

 

Every shoot location may require a different way of lighting

 

Every set up will require different camera settings and power output from your flash heads. EXPERIMENT......

 

Experiment yourself. Please share your results. If you want any advice please message me via my website.

 

 

Fashion photography post production in Photoshop

 

There was very little Photoshop used on this image apart from exposure changes to improve the impact like I would have done in the darkroom, getting it right in camera is challenging but when you achieve results like this its very satisfying and proof of your photography skills.

 

 

See more "How It Is Done":

 

If you want to learn more about how these images are created, apart from just the lighting technique, i,e to learn how to communicating with models, directing a story into your shoot.  It's not just about which DSLR camera and how many pixels it has or knowing a few camera setting, a lighting technique and a have  fabulous model.

 

It takes having creative and new ideas for fashion images, a great team of stylists and hair and make up artists, managing a shoot production, having a clear story in your mind and the ability to direct it into every aspect of your shoot.

 

Check out my photography master classes, workshops and courses in shooting fashion and fine art nudes.. Use the links at the top of this page to the various tuition options to find out more..

 

 

 

Fashion photography lighting technique three:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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