How to Use Off Camera Lighting in Open Air

Wedding Photographers Zach and Jody Gray show on set how they use off camera lighting in order to reach dramatic sky effect on your portrait photos in open air. They explain about the photography gear they use, for example a Westcott soft box 24x32 equipped with a battery powered 400 W light (you can use a flash light instead); a mono pod which gives flexibility but requires an assistant to hold it; a wireless trigger is .

They developed a 3 step system to get an amazing sky on your photo because if you expose on someone's face, the sky will be blown out.

Step 1 - Shoot at ISO 100 and 1/100 shutter speed.

Step 2 - Expose for your background so that it is 1 stop underexposed by adjusting your F-stop.

Step 3 - Adjust your flash according to the f-stop from the previous step by using a light meter. Make sure your light meter is positioned at the same distance as your model's face for accurate reading.

When you shoot outdoors with a flash, it really needs to be a big source of light with a quite powerful light coming to your subject. A bigger size light source like a soft box gives you very even lighting without harsh shadows on your model's face unlike a speed light without any modifier.

You can keep shooting with the same settings as long as the lighting conditions stay the same.