Light is light!

   One of the most essential things in photography is light! No light, no photos. When you shoot during the day and it's sunny, there is an abundance of light and thus it's fairly easy to make images. The challenge is to avoid to burn out the highlights and trying to get rid of too contrasty shadows (Unles that's your intention.). When we get to the evening side of the day the light amount starts to drop and the darker it gets you start have trouble with low light. What would be the solution? Artificial lighting is the easiest way to cope with lowlight situations. And what could be better than a speedlight or a strobe or two? So easy to add some punch to your images with one flash. When shooting in a fairly dark surroundings in the city there is though one more option to be used when it comes to lighting your subject. About a week ago I had the privilege to do a photo shoot with Emma. The chosen location was the surroundings of a nearby mall. In this shoot we used both the existing light only and a combination of both existing and strobe light. The challenge with the light you find all around you while walking in the streets is that it's usually fairly weak when it comes to photography. The further you go from the light the less it illuminates your subject. You can always open your aperture or you can raise your ISO, both having their drawbacks. One thing you can do, what we did, is to place your subject as close to the light as you can. This way you'll get the most out of the light. Here's a couple of examples...

        You still might have to raise your ISO for this kind of lighting, but placing your subject enough close the light source, you'll get most out of it and you still get to the ISO level as low as possible.

  How about a combination of strobe and existing light? Just choose a shutter speed that allows you to have some of that existing light shown and then illuminate your subject with a strobe as your key light. Simple as that! Here's a few images made this way...

    So in the end light is just light no matter if it comes from the sun, a light bulb or strobe! Whatever you decide to use, know your light and use it for your advantage!