In my quest to learn more about lighting and work on some “people pictures”, I returned to the Strobist web site yesterday to poke around and see what all the fuss is about. I had looked at the site a couple of times before but didn’t do a lot of searching and figured it was just another blog. Delving deeper, however, I find that I was totally wrong – there’s a ton of really interesting information hidden away (OK – not actually hidden, but linked in an area near the bottom of the page) there. How could I have missed this earlier? In particular, the Lighting 101 section is exactly what I was looking for. It’s a structured, easy to understand series of articles introducing equipment and techniques for using off-camera flash lighting and has proven to be an absolutely riveting read. Couple that with the inspiration I’ve gleaned from Joe McNally’s fabulous book, The Moment it Clicks (a birthday present that I am reading during the Christmas break) and I’m well on the way to being extremely fired up about trying some flash-and-reflector photography in the near future.

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Red Laces, originally uploaded by David A G Wilson.

Here’s another image from Jack and Noel’s wedding last week. This was grabbed quickly during the reception and shows the back of one of the bridesmaids’ dresses. The lighting was provided by a single on-camera flash bounced off the low ceiling of the reception room and, pretty much by luck, the resulting angle was perfect for bringing out the texture in the laces. I’ve boosted the contrast a little but but, aside from that, this hasn’t had a lot of work done on it.