Hello every one.

My tip for September.

USING FILL -IN FLASH to beat the falling light at the end of your days shoot.

If your shooting late in the day with that beautiful gold, contrasty light but you loosing this amazing light because the sun is goes down.

I am often in this situation but still need to shoot pictures that day.

Like on a shoot I was doing in Western Australia last December for a swimwear catalogue. We were shooting our last collection of swimwear for the day but the sun was going down very fast, I still had 4 shots left and they need to have a consistency with the rest of the shots Id been doing.

This is how I got over the problem:

I had my assistant holding a Californian Sunbounce mini reflector, with the gold foil cloth attached, at an angle pointing towards my model, high up to the left side of my position, I aimed a metz flash gun onto the reflector so it bounced lovely golden light onto my modeI.

I set the flash exposure to be approx 1.5 to 2 stops under the ambient light reading taken from my models position.

This is one of the shots taken using this technique.

Example of camera and flash settings:

My ambient reading (taken from the same position as my model) was 125th sec at f5.6, I adjusted the power output of the Metz flash gun to give me a flash reading, ( taken from the same position as my model ) of f2.8 to f2.8 and a half stop.

If you set the power any higher, the fill-in flash starts to take over the ambient light and starts to look like you have used flash on your shot.

This is why I choose to have my flash out put at 1.5 to 2 stops under the ambient reading. Try this yourself the next time your shooting late or your shooting in the shade..

Click on the photograph to visit my web album, there are c150 images on there. If you want to know how I achieved the images, just drop the images in the blog and ask how did you do this, I will tell you..

Most of not all of my images are lit very simply. NOT ROCKET SCIENCE..

Keep an eye out for my next fashion photography tip.

Why not post your own samples of your fill-in flash and tell us your techniques.

See my work http://www.brucesmithphotographer.com

I would like to introduce myself, I am Bruce Smith, I have been a pro fashion shooter for c30 years.

I just joined PPSOP to teach my fabulous online introduction course to shooting fashion photography.

Every week, for 8 weeks, each students will receive a simple, clear, and helpful lesson via email.

The weekly lessons will focus on a single topic.

For example, you'll learn how to:
Lesson 1: Research your ideas from magazines
Lesson 2: Put together your team models and stylists.
Lesson 3: Find your locations, interior or exteriors.
Lesson 4: Briefing your team
Lesson 5: Preparation before your shoot
Lesson 6: Shooting your main assignment
Lesson 7: Image selecting and editing
Lesson 8: Some basic techniques in Photoshop.

Go to the PPSOP web site for more details and signing up for this fabulous introduction to shooting fashion course: http://www.ppsop.com/fash.aspx

A New Book on How To Shoot Digital Fashion Photography

In early October my Fashion Photography, A Complete Guide, will be launched in the USA by Watson and Guptil. The book covers just about every topic you will need to learn to get started as a fashion photographer.
It will be a great companion to my Online Fashion Course with PPSOP.
I am looking forward to class starting. 12th September.

You will be able to order your copy via PPSOP.

Bruce Smith

Wednesday 9th September 2008



Bruce Smith