When we went to shoot our last wedding, it's safe to say that we weren't sure what exactly was in store for us when we got to Borrego Springs other than we were shooting in the desert! =) But regardless, like all weddings we shoot, we always have to come prepared. Besides all our camera gear, camera bodies, lenses and all, we also bring our lighting gear. So what does that consist of?! Well right now this is what our lighting set up entails: - 2 Nikon SB-25 flashes - 2 10' Avenger Light Stands - 1 60" 60" Umbrella w/ Removable Cover - 3 Pocket Wizard Plus II's - and a 28" Apollo Softbog Again it's nothing fancy smancy but it allows us so far to get the shots we want. So today, I thought it'd be fun to share with you a time that we used OCL or Off Camera Lighting during our last wedding, along with some before and after pics as well as the final shot that I wanted. To make it easy I'll break it down into parts... The Environment: One of the first things we do the day we arrive at the wedding is scope out the diggs of where the Bride is getting ready. In this case, with the sun almost directly over the room, the only place light is really entering the room was through the door. The windows, because of the suns' position at that time, were sitting under shade so...no help there. What was cool about the room, besides the temp, was the fact the the door sat right in the middle of the two windows. The Shot We Want: Being that our best light source was coming through the door, there was no second guessing that that's where the Brides' dress was going... As we waited for all the Bridesmaids to come with their dresses, we start to use the curtain rod as the place to hang all the dresses. There were 8 total dresses, all of which were around the same length. With that said, remember "the situation"? There were two windows on each side of the door so we hang 4 dresses in front of each window. Great right?! Yes and no... Although I liked the way the dresses were positioned against the light coming through the window, there still wasn't enough light coming through. Even at an ISO 800 and my shutter speed at 250th of a sec, it was still too dark. I probably could've just dropped my shutter speed down to say 100th of a second but I didn't want just a brighter shot, I wanted the beautiful yellow dresses to pop! Are you guys still with me so far?! The Challenge: I wanted to get the yellow dresses to "pop" with color and match the illumination of the wedding dress hanging in the doorway. So how do I get more light to shine through the windows?! The Solution: 3 Pocket Wizards (one on my camera, the other two on each of the flashes) and two Nikon flashes sitting on two light stands! With all that said, the solution was fairly simple...let's make our own light shine through the window! We place a light stand behind each window in other words, outside of the room, attach a pocket wizard to each flash and set them all on channel one (same as the PW on my camera as well) so that when I take the shot, both flashes fire simultaneously. This is nearly the same shot as the one above but after a little trial and error... So finally I got the flash to the right setting and distance from the window and here's a shot more along the lines of what I wanted... The Outcome: What's great about this shot that we love is that besides a few minor bumps to contrast, this is how the shot turned out straight the camera! NO PHOTOSHOP NEEDED! =) And lastly, here's the final shot I wanted to achieve from the start, after it was all said and done... Whew! See, that wasn't that hard right?! The secret to all this is the plain old saying "practice makes perfect". Now, by no means have we perfected our craft but the better you know your equipment the easier it'll be to get the shots that you want! Remember there are probably a million and ones way you can use OCL! So let your creative juices flow and give it shot and once you do, we'd love to see and even post your results! Send them to blogit@johnlauren.com. Enjoy your weekend everyone!