All language subtitles for Look No.3 - The Journalist - Reflections Academy

I call this look the journalist, as it

reminds me of those typical journalist or paparazzi

shots with those long shadows going sideways from

our subjects in photos.

This look may be the easiest to practice

if you're a beginner with flash.

As the flash will be attached to the

camera, it will keep your hands free from

the flash and it will give you probably

expected results most of the time, so that

you can build confidence with flash.

So for this look, as you can guess,

you will want to have your flash attached

directly to the camera and just like with

any other time, you'll want to set your

camera's exposure first before turning the flash on.

You know that already, right?

Ambient light can be fully underexposed or a

bit underexposed, that's your choice, and then simply

turn the flash on and leave it in

TTL mode or maybe tweak it a bit.

As the flash is attached directly on the

hot shoe of the camera, the light will

come from the top if the camera is

in landscape orientation or if we put the

camera in portrait orientation, which is how I

mostly shoot, the flash will pop from the

side of the lens.

If I turn the camera like this, light

will come from the left and if I

turn the camera like this, the light will

come from the right.

And why would this be important?

Well, let me show you an example.

So at the same place and with the

same settings, only by turning the camera this

way or another, I can get two different

looks of photos.

In one, I will have the shadow smaller

and less visible and on the other, the

shadow will be larger and quite more visible.

I personally like shadows to be smaller and

to have them look less like some ghost

next to my subject, so when shooting with

flash attached to my camera, I will always

pay attention to this and I will try

to see which way I should turn my

camera.

I found out that a rule thumb for

a smaller shadow effect would be to have,

if we have the flash on the right

side of the lens, then we should shoot

from the left side of the subject or

if we have the flash on the left

side of the lens, then we should shoot

from the right side of our subject.

In other words, have your flash on the

opposite side of yours in accordance with subject.

This way, a part of the shadow will

hide behind the subject and it will make

it less visible and smaller.

And additionally, if you want to make shadow

even smaller or better said thinner, bring your

subject closer to the background.

This will shorten the length of the shadow

and it will automatically become less visible.

With this flash position, photos turn out to

be cool and it's way easier, like physically

easier position to hold the flash than to

hold it in one hand, to hold the

flash in one hand and the camera in

the other.

And if you want to have the camera

and the flash as one, like in one

rig, but you want to avoid those sideways

shadows in portrait orientation, then I would recommend

getting a flash bracket.

It will allow you to put the flash

in a fixed position above your lens for

vertical shots and you'd be good to shoot

for the entire wedding like this.

I personally don't use brackets because I feel

they are quite limitating and they, like my

flash, will always be in the same place

and, you know, taking them apart, putting them

on together is just a bit of a

mess, so I'd rather have my my flash

in my hand and point it where I

want.

But I've seen many photographers use flash brackets

and come out with great results, so if

this is something that you you might feel

that would be your way, go for it.

That would be the third and now we're

going to the fourth technique I use with

flash and I call it the dynamic party

look.

When you see it, you will know why

it's called like that.