Into the intimidating world of off-camera flash…

Hello readers, both photographers and subjects alike! Thank you for coming to my spiel (schpiel?) regarding the monstrous beast know as the off-camera flash. While every photographer climbs through the photo world in a different fashion, I find that it is relatively standard for beginner photographers to avoid flash, and I understand as it is an intimidating new frontier that I was fearful of as well! And while it may be just that, the world of flash is both conquerable and enjoyable. I will share with you my first steps towards external lighting, and perhaps they will make you feel more comfortable in overcoming one of any photographers biggest steps.

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I had been contracted to shoot a corporate headshot session. At the time I was a little broke, and I needed this shoot to go according to plan. Like many photographers, I generally depended on natural light define how my shoot went. Along with that, though, brought a sense of anxiety regarding the inability to control the setting of my shoot. And so, being hired to do a higher end shoot than normal, I purchased the Godox AD600 Pro, a studio strobe with enough illumination strength to overpower direct sunlight. This brought with it a cost of about $700, a number a preschool music teacher (me) can’t just toss around. I put the time in to figure out how to learn this thing, and I had a two week deadline to do so. I went into overdrive and pushed myself to get the in’s-and-out’s before it was too late.

I took some backyard shots of the Missus, her dog, and our roommate. These were my first runs with the light, and while I wasn’t creating masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, I was actually immediately seeing some quality! For having been so afraid of giving this type of photography a try, I wasn’t expecting to have it immediately deliver images I was actually proud of to some degree.

“There is a quality that is distinctly unique…”

One thing you can notice right away is that these photos just don’t look like natural light photos. There is a quality to that is clearly not natural. It’s a dramatic, refined look. If you take natural light photos, you will see what I mean. The subject in these photos are uniformly lit, there aren’t hotspots or inconsistencies in the contrast or shadows, everything is visible and smooth. It quickly occurred to me though, that this “dramatic” essence to the photos was a quality that could be either emphasized or made to be more subtle. The level to which you rely on the external light in a given photo is up to you as the photographer! The more light you apply, the more dramatic the image, the less you apply, the more natural.

It was quickly becoming apparent that external lighting was a massive realm of photography that made anything possible. I was told by another photographer that “photography” literally means photo - “light” graphy - “writing”.. writing with light! To be in complete control of the light is more valuable than I could have ever imagined before I tried.

As I fell in love with this new and exciting new segment of photography, I pushed to get a hold of it. The photos began to resemble something more professional.

Looking back, my discomfort from the uncertainty that came along with every shoot was justified! There was an important part of photography that I was not in control of, and while to some adventurous souls that may be exciting, but it was not to me! Overcoming this consistent problem was a massive weight off of my shoulders and completely altered my emotions towards professional photography as a whole. Now I bring my light with me to every shoot, and I no longer carry that anxiety that things will not go my way because I now can manipulate any environment to work in my favor!

Learning how to control light made me not only understand how to use a flash better, but gave me a better understanding of natural light as well. The concept of illumination is a deep web that will take a lifetime to master, but dipping my toes into external lighting brought me a little bit closer to… the light..

Anyway, the shoot I was contracted to do fell through. Never schedule your time without a deposit! A lesson for all to hold close, because now all my money was wasted and my time spent learning this new tool was for nothing…

…or was it?

Thank you for reading! While pressing the shutter button to capture a picture may not be hard, as one dives deeper into the photography world, what separates the beginner from the pro becomes more and more apparent. Even today I see photographers who take pictures that I just don’t understand. Hopefully I can help others close that gap. Have a lovely new year!

-Hudson Caceres

@17thstreetphotography