Living near this free backdrop is pretty cool sometimes. Some folks in San Diego shy away from the typical beach location shoot, but I can honestly say it does not get old for me.  Learn how to wrangle your flash and ambient light mixture and the fun really begins. I am still studying this one all the time.

I only had about 10 minutes before darkness really kicked in the other night and it was getting cold so Chris and I worked as fast as possible to get a few extra shots for the portfolio.

I decided to share our method here for getting sunset portraits. We use off camera flash but it could also be done with an on camera (hot shoe mounted) flash if needed. I just prefer the light to not be on the same axis as the lens if at all possible. Looking at the shadows, you can see our light is coming from camera left. Its a Canon 430ex II and we diffused it with a small shoot-through umbrella.

So this is basically the process-

1. Set the camera to manual exposure and ISO 100 (or some other relatively low ISO).

2. Set your shutter speed to your fastest sync speed. (usually around 1/200 or 1/250 sec.)

2. Dial in a good aperture, concentrating on your flashed subject only.

3. Lower your shutter speed to bring in the ambient light. Concentrate on the sky and slow it down till the background looks good.

That’s it! A few extra things to note. Your shutter usually has to be below 1/250th to sync with your flash. (not a problem at this time of night). Don’t worry about having a slow shutter. The flash fires at around 1/1000th and should freeze your subject pretty well (the shot above was at 1/30th and the camera was hand held).

Also, we taped a 1/2 cut of CTO gel on the flash to make it a bit more orange and match the fading sunlight a bit better. You could do that in Photoshop if you want, but why not nail it in the camera if possible?

The ones below were made with the same flash, held at camera right and behind our model Jessica, creating a little faked “sunlight” on her hair. I have been into lighting from behind these days to create a little separation and hair detail. Again, a 1/2 cut of CTO gel on the flash helps imitate evening sunlight. And Jess is doing a good job of acting like she is not freezing.

Thanks for looking! Did some studio work last week as well and am working with talented artists and models in the coming month. More to follow…