Adventures in backlighting

May 21, 2011 was the day the world was going to end for some but for Justin and Jennifer it was a just the beginning. It was a real treat to go back to Monroe where I had worked for the paper when I first moved to Wisconsin over a decade ago. And it was also very interesting to go back with a digital camera to shoot at Turner Hall where I had shot my first magazine cover in the days of film. Since my Blog is mostly about lighting modifications and/or technical aspects of shooting I'll highlight, pun intended :P, some of the lighting I used especially backlighting. I knew the venue would be dark and wanted to add some life to it so I set up two extra lights, along with my main camera flash, as seen in the pic below. The goal was multi-purpose to use as fill, separation or rim lighting depending on my shooting perspective. Plus look at that huge black space behind them.


I originally had cross lighting set up but too many kids were playing around with my lightstands so I had to move it to a safer place up front. Ideal? No, but you gotta do what you gotta do and roll with the punches.

here I used natural window light...

things go fast and not always perfect but I had my assistant try to hold a flash on the opposite side of the couple from me as they danced

And I felt the cake ornament should be backlit to show it off

Shooting we we can and where we can't... Guerilla-style!

Where we can't: I've been dying to shoot at this one particular location. It is usually really crowded so had to do it during a down time. Anyone who has seen the One Light dvd knows that someone (security) is always there to ruin/end your shoot. And of course it happened to me. I was asked to leave. But I managed to get a bunch of shooting before that. I wanted to shoot a short instruction vid for my blog but when I got to the location, it was set up for an event. I had to shoot and I had to shoot fast. Not having a voice-activated lightstand, setting up lights will catch more attention. I needed to have a separation from subject and background as it would wash out the warm ambient background I wanted.
Some shots could work knowing the inverse square law and having distance for fallout but that's not always possible.


Shoot through umbrella, camera left. Not what I wanted.


Gridded snoot, camera right. What I wanted :) But you have to watch the harsh shadow it will leave cast on the wall. So you have to plan for cropping it out or shooting it out of frame.

We went and shot at some other places in the building for variety. Couldn't have lightstands so I used my Cybersync Mod to get some off-camera lighting. Shooting with the right hand and lighting with your left doesn't allow you to have the softest lighting but with my foamie diffuser, allows for some great Guerilla-style shooting.

Where we can:


I had back to back shoots planned at the location above. Since I was asked to leave had to go somewhere that would work with a vintage wedding dress. Being a Sunday afternoon around 3, we dashed off to the Capitol building as they allow shooting. Closing at 4, we had little time to get ready/dressed. And even less time to shoot, under 20 minutes. I was working with a wardrobe/stylist so she had to step in as a voice-activated lightstand. I used a portable 15x15" softbox as I wanted to minimize spill and have controlled lighting as opposed to an umbrella. Is it the ideal choice, no. But most of my shooting is done without assistants and on location so I need portability and ease of use. I can put this on a lightstand, hold it myself, or in this case, have someone else hold it.