Great photos, you must be good at…

Good at what, Photoshop or Photography? Without blowing my own trumpet too much, I like to think that I’m half decent in both disciplines, but have a look at this photo and ask yourself this... Did Gavin use Photography skills or Photoshop skills to get the finished shot?

The answer is photography, I used off camera flash, but why do I think that's important?

Everyone knows Photoshop can do amazing things to enhance or even totally change an image. "Fix it in Photoshop" is a phrase I hear alot. But Photoshop isn't a fix it tool, it's a creative tool so for straight photography I prefer to get the shot as close to perfect in camera.

I sometimes feel photography skills get under valued.

The photos in this post are all from the wedding we attended last Friday. Taken just after sunset I pulled the Bride & Groom away for a 10 minute low light shoot. I used two locations, the first was the road right outside the hotel which was nicely lit up. The second loaction was under a garden arch and against the nights sky.

The groom is a very talented young photographer which he gets from his Dad. I’ve known the family for years and I also knew they'd understand the camera skills required to get the shots you see here

As a rule I don't show my subjects unedited photos on the back of the camera but ocassionally I will. That way they can appreciate the photography skills and not assume everything is done in Photoshop.

I know someone will ask how it’s done. It’s all about trial and error. I balanced the off camera flash power and the distance to subject with the camera settings to mix flash and ambient light. Google “Strobist” for lots more info.

Here you can see Sam holding the speedlight which is illuminating the bride & groom. A slow shutter speed of 1/15th sec ensured that enough ambient was recorded along with the burst of flash and no, I didn’t use a tripod.