Learning to blend lights with Nick, Ben, and Youko

Ben and Nick and Youko

Natural, or available light, is amazing… the problem is, for my tastes, there just isn’t enough of it. I like clean, noiseless photos. I like my pictures at the lowest possible ISO. The small strobes that are so convenient and portable are rarely enough to light your whole scene, so you’ve got to blend. You’ve got to add your lights, blend them with the available light, and create a whole image. To work on this, I asked Youko Sunshine to come out with us for a walk through Shinjuku, and Ben and Nick rocked it. At the end of the day, I was pretty jealous that I was teaching, and not shooting (Full disclosure, I did take a few pictures ). Thanks guys, your shots were all great.

I picked out these two, because they both illustrate nicely the idea of the day, blending available light with strobes. In Nick’s shot, you can see the light of the sky in the background, as well as the kicker lights in the sidewalk. Also, I’m sure all of the light lighting the big LOVE was not from the strobes. You can see the fall off as you get to the edges of LOVE, and it provides a nice gradient. In Ben’s shot, Youko is lit with the strobes, to balance her with the very bright signs of Omoedoyokocho. Well executed, and perfectly on topic for the lesson!