Just a few nights ago I went out in Leeds for a photography play date with a few photographers to push myself into night time flash photography. I’m used to doing indoor flash photography but I wanted to push my boundaries and take it outdoors to balance with ambient light. What I learned was that natural ambient light from street lamps, open doors and whatnot are pretty darn great on their own, as seen below.

Afterwards we played around with many different on camera and off camera flash techniques. Here is my favourite of those sessions. I bounced my flash off the wall that I was almost leaning on to create this soft light illumination on my new friend. I really like how this separates him from the background and brings him forward .. almost like it’s 3D and he’s emerging out of the photograph! It’s a nifty effect.

Big thanks go to Tom Poultney for organising us all and getting us out and learning / playing with out speedlights. Also thanks to my new Leeds buddies for letting me photograph them and I hope to go play in Leeds again soon. It’s been great to put it into practise different techniques, reaffirm that I do know my stuff and get a little confidence boost. There’s nothing like raising to a challenge and meeting it full on, getting home and seeing the end photos that I’m proud of!

If you like either of these photographs and wish you were in front of my lens, you know what to do .. come say hello!