Light, it’s such an important and potent partner in our storytelling. The subject has to smack the viewer between the eyes in our photograph and light is a quick and effective way of making this happen. We have two basic lighting sources, ambient (sun) and artificial (flash, LED, etc). Ambient light can come in different flavors like full sun, overcast, etc., and each one of these cause us to make judgement calls about the quality and quantity of the ambient light in regards to our subject and storytelling. Here comes the issue we all face, when working with ambient light, when does it need the assist of the flash? What are the qualities and quantities of the ambient light in telling our story and are they sufficient to move the eye through the frame to tell the story? Ever been in this situation?
These RAF Reinactors at EAA AirVenture were killer! Not just their authentic aviator’s gear was spotless, their accents and knowledge impeccable, but they were hilarious! When they arrived at the Texas Flying Legends Museum Spitfire, they came in rare form ready to be photographed. The weather wasn’t doing us any favors though, it had rained and was now sprinkling. Now here are times when overcast light can be a great light for shooting but in this case as you can see in the lower photo, the jocularity is lost. Ya, you can see detail, the subjects and the story, but what about the storytelling? That’s where the light, its quality and character is so important. So, what do you do in this dilemma? If you don’t know from experience, shoot both, with and without flash. But I suggest you don’t go into these kinds of situations not knowing. You do your test before you’re in this pickle. In this case, when I got the D5, 24-70VR, SB-5000 I got my stuffed animal model stand ins out setting them up in various lighting conditions and shot my tests. This is essential. Why? In the case of the reinactors, I walked up and got involved in the drop of a hat. There was no getting in place early, putting stand ins in place, shooting tests so when the reinactors arrived, everything was dialed in. I had to look at the ambient light, know that I wanted to dial in -1 in the body to underexpose the sky to look even more like England, shoot the SB-5000 at 0, get down low with a relatively shallow DoF and make the click. In the final image, the gents on the far right will be removed and that’s all that will be needed in post. So when you go click with that camera, make sure you go Bang – Light!