One thing Ive learned is how powerful an image can become when you shoot from a different direction. Here are two photos to show you the extreme difference in what I am talking about. These images are from a recent “light & workflow workshop” that myself & Dan Fields put together. We had a few photographers and for 2 days taught the attendees the power of using off camera lighting and how to build a strong workflow! We’re hosting the next workshop on September 18th. For more information, click here.

While we were shooting, we had a 1 light AlienBee 800 setup with a softbox. The attendees kept shooting from one direction with the light to their right. Just for fun, I captured the same shot. The light was simple & beautiful and captured the essence of the incredible bride.

Some of us shoot from straight on. It looks fine but I believe it could look way cooler and way dramatic from another angle. See the image below.

Now we have the same time of day, light power, and straight from camera image. It looks way more dynamic and I would much more prefer this image over the first one.

One technique I try to use while shooting is before I shoot a frame, look at the scene from another angle. (Pre-visualize) & walk around your subject and see how many different shooting options you have in front of you. I do this now because before I used this technique, I had images that looked okay but I would kick myself for not taking advantage of the other shooting opportunities I had. It’s not up to the lighting or the model to make this look different. It’s up to YOU! Evaluate your surroundings and think “what could I do differently here?”. Once you start asking that question while you shoot, you will walk away with better images. At least that is in my opinion

Last week while I was hanging out with my love Scarlett Lillian, we had the opportunity to take one of Jacksonvilles amazing couples Dustin & Candice out for a shoot in the backwoods area for a shoot with our new lighting rig! The lighting rig consists of a Vegabond Powerpack, Alienbee 1600 and a strip soft box.

I have been shooting with studio lights since my college days and I love to work with it any opportunity I can. When my good friends Zach & Jody Gray were in SoCal a few months ago to teach their lighting workshop, I went up one afternoon and there I learned how to shoot better images in camera but also how to travel with your studio lights onto a location shoot.

I love shooting with off camera light now because not only do you get killer images IN CAMERA (Yes… most of these images were done in camera and had little to no photoshop done to them) but you also get to capture images with perfect lighting. If you want to learn more of this topic then you should check out Zach & Jodys lighting IN-CAMERA workshops!! Click here for more info