Comments on: Fashion Photography workshops on location

By: subliminal messages

subliminal messages — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:36:07 +0000

I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one today..

By: Jason Christopher

Jason Christopher — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:45:28 +0000

You’re welcome Bryan. It’s Jason not Chriss
To answer your question which is actually two questions I will start with the easier one. Yes you are getting the black line at the bottom of your image because you are setting your camera’s shutter speed too fast/ high. Depending on what camera you have it can only sync at a certain shutter speed which is probably 200th of a second. I am gonna take a wild guess here and assume you want a blurred out background but you don’t want to over expose your image. Unfortunately there is only so much you can do with 35mm DSLR camera’s. You’re gonna have to close down your aperture. But you can still blur it out if you bring your model farther away from the background and you shoot with a long lens. Im curious as to why you don’t want to use your high speed sync.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:04:39 +0000

thanks chriss for the awesome info..I was wondering how to shoot at wide open aperatures with flash and no high speed sync..I tried it out and i would get these black lines at the bottom of my photo due to a high shutter.

By: Jason Christopher

Jason Christopher — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:25:59 +0000

Hi Bryan,
Thank you for the compliment. I shoot my back lit fashion photos with a pretty tight aperture whether I am using a white bounce card or an off camera flash. I don’t use high speed sync UNLESS there is color in the sky. If there is no color in the sky then high speed sync won’t make a difference. As far as your images being washed out sometimes that is because you are letting too much flare hit the lens in which case you need to either attach your lens hood and or change your position a bit.

To achieve that beautiful back lit look is really just experimenting. I mean that’s what photography is about to begin with. Try different techniques that work for you and write them down specifically what you did and all your settings. I love that look and I will be the first to admit it is very difficult to master and takes much practice. Sometimes I set my flash to over power the sun, and sometimes I set it to under expose. It all depends on what look I am going for. Sometimes I use just a white bounce card and sometimes I just wear a white t-shirt. Sometimes I don’t use any reflectors at all as in this image of Holly she was moving and I just wanted to capture the “rawness” of a woman. When using an off camera fill flash as your main light the image becomes more dynamic as in this image of Holly. So it really is about what you see in your head and then you experiment to achieve that look. If you go through other posts in my blog I explain in more detail about certain photos where I used an off camera flash. This post is very informative about my use of off camera fill flash http://jasonchristopher.com/blog/2007/10/24/on-camera-flash-outdoors/

Thank you for your question Bryan. I offer private photography workshops where you can learn many more photography techniques with a fashion model and make up artist. You can read about it here.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:56:47 +0000

Hello sir, Great work and awesome info on your site..I would like to know if you are shooting the backlit photos in low aperature..I have seen some photos backlit in what looks to be very low aperature..is this being done with highspeed sync? also I have tried to shoot using backlit and sometimes the photo object is just washed out..so this means I need to bring in some off cam flash. in this case how much would you usually set the off cam flash to? for example if I had a sb800.

By: Christopher from DC

Christopher from DC — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:32:43 +0000

Amazing writeup and masterful showing of light good sir. I wanted to also ask you to maybe do a writeup about the business side of photography as in contracts, and even when you start to talk about senior pictures and smaller gigs for upcoming photographers. Thanks again for such a great blog. It truly is helpful in soo many ways.

By: Aziz

Aziz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:11:16 +0000

Hi Jason
i had been looking for photography workshop in LA when i found your website.
i really interested to improve my self but the problem that i always think abt how i can practice what i have learned from workshops
thank you

By: Jason Christopher

Jason Christopher — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:12:17 +0000

Tom thank you very much !

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:43:39 +0000

very nice use of fill in flash into the face and useing the sun as rim lighting!

By: Jason Christopher

Jason Christopher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:05:37 +0000

Hi Bram !

Ok so first thing I want to say is I love that you are trying out my technique. Second thing is if you can avoid shooting mid day, then avoid it. Of course there are many times when you HAVE to shoot mid day because of scheduling. So what does a photographer do when he or she has to shoot mid day ? You make it work !

I want to start with your sample photos first. When using flash or strobes, you don’t need a reflector as well. It’s overkill. So just the flash with the umbrella is all you need. What I do is meter the ambient light facing the model. If you don’t know how to use a meter then LEARN ! At mid day you’re probably gonna get an F/16 which is VERY bright. So that means your flash needs to output at least F/11 and that is asking alot from an off camera flash. Also remember that when using a light modifier whether it be an umbrella or soft box you lose 1-2 stops of power. So you need to place your light source very close to your subject. Remember this is if you are shooting mid day. I would place the light source about 3-4 feet from your subject, just out of frame. You also should be using a battery pack that attached to the flash because you are going to be pumping so much power double AA won’t do it for you. I use a Quantum compact battery that sells for $150 USD.

Now in your examples it is difficult for me to see if you filled the eyes with light because your subject was wearing sunglasses. Do this – shoot again same time location etc. only don’t have your subject wear sunglasses. And of course don’t use a reflector as well. Show me the results afterwords.

Then after this exorcise I want you to shoot towards the end of the day or at least when the sun is BEHIND your subject. I guarentee your results will be much more pleasing. But remember, you won’t always have the luxury of shooting at golden hour so we need to get you to be able to master this lighting at any time of the day.

So to sum up:
1. Don’t use a reflector when using a flash.
2. Place your light source 3-4 feet from your subject.
3. Lose the sunglasses.
4. Meter ambient light and then take a reading from your flash and the output needs to be at least 1 stop below your ambient or match your ambient.

If you do not have a meter at this moment it’s just trial and error which I hate. That is why I STILL to this day use a meter.

Thank you Bram and keep me posted !