Sign In
Register
Help
I wanted to interview Colin Michael because I admired his off camera lighting and the wonderful creative ways he uses it. So I asked him if he would tell us a little about himself and go through some of his amazing work to enlighten us on what equipment he uses and how he uses it. I want to give a big thanks to Colin for sharing his time and talent. Thanks for being such a love cat! I also wanted to note that I asked him to list some notoriety he’s gotten from his images, but he was too humble to write that in. So let me just tell you the first shot is a WPPI award-winning image, he’s more & more getting published by magazines as the months go by, and when he says he’s relatively new to weddings, he means he’s only been shooting them for 2 years! So without further ado lets’ hear from the man…
CM
Well, I'm relatively new to wedding photography, this being my third
year of weddings but I have been shooting commercially and before that
for newspapers since I was in college in 1996. Working for the
newspaper taught me a lot about capturing the right moment and
shooting through a moment rather than just when I though it was going
to happen. Heck, film was free so why not!
After I finished Cal Poly with a degree in Ag Business and a minor in
Viticulture, I went on to Brooks Institute of Photography. My business
degree has been absolutely invaluable. I always recommend to people
just starting out that if you have your choice between photography
school and business school that you go to business school; learning
photography on your own is much less expensive than making bad
business decisions! Brooks taught me a ton about using light to
achieve your vision. During my second year at Brooks I started
shooting commercial work for custom home builders, bicycle companies
and furniture makers. I even did some work for insurance companies
shooting artwork, kind of boring but it was a paycheck.
I still shoot some commercial work for custom bicycle builders,
wineries and a few magazine but these days, weddings and portraits are
what I truly enjoy. I love that I get to be a photojournalist, a
commercial photographer, a fashion photographer and a portrait
photographer all in one day!
I remember the first wedding I shot observing the primary photographer
with his big camera bracket and flash and I was wondering why he
didn't get the flash off-camera? He told me it was just too slow for
wedding work. I shot with off camera flash for portraits and it was
quick as long as I had a good assistant. From that point I started to
try to find ways to incorporate off-camera flash in a way that would
not slow down the flow of the wedding but would greatly add to the
imagery.
I started off trying the infrared system built into my dedicated
flashes but found it way too inconsistent. I then started using Pocket
Wizards and really like them for their consistency. It takes a bit of
practice to master manual flash (as pocket wizards do not allow for
any automatic functions) but once you understand the principals behind
the way light works you can be very quick. It is still better to have
an assistant but shooting solo it totally do-able. Below are a bunch
of examples of how I use different light sources, hopefully this gives
others some ideas of how to make their own lighting setups more
interesting.
1) For this image I put a 580 into a silver umbrella (I use silver rather
than white with small flashes like the 580 for more power) to camera
left at a pretty dramatic angle to the model's face then used a
industrial flashlight to light that dead tree behind her so it wasn't
all silhouette.
2) These last 2 images are from a boudoir shoot just before this year's
WPPI. The setup for this first shot was pretty basic, just a strobe
over the top of the camera by about 2 feet and shifted to the right so
the reflection on the wall is mostly to camera right.
3) Very basic setup here. Instead of using boring on camera flash I used
a high powered strobe bare bulb (no modifiers, not even a small
reflector) with a battery pack and put it up a bit higher above the
camera. I upped the power so that the light from the strobe was 1 stop
brighter than the sunlight making the sky and surroundings darken a bit.
4) There was this beautiful, streaky, light coming through the windows of
thr bar, McCarthy's in SLO, so I carefully positioned each model for
the best light. For the front model I wanted the beam of light right
across her eyes but it was too dramatic so I threw in a flash into an
umbrella to fill the shadows. I then positioned the back model so the
fill was blocked by the front model, creating more dramatic light on
her.
5) Same wall as the last one but we moved the softbox all the way to the
side of the model and then put a "flag" (a flag is anything that
blocks light, in this case a black reflector) on the end of the wall
so the glare wouldn't be on the wall and so the right side of the
white frame wouldn't get too bright. There was a white curtain to
camera left so we got some fill from that.
6) Here's a fun photo from a parking lot. I put 2 lights, one a strobe
with a softbox, the other a direct 580 set 1 stop above the softbox to
create the rim light
7) Not the best example but this is my favorite setup for receptions. I
put one flash either into a corner of the room or an umbrella then put
my on camera flash set to -2/3rd. Shoot together and it makes for some
nice light that has some drama but not so much that you can't tell
what's going on.
8) Similar setup to the last shot but it was getting dark and I didn't
want to loose detail so I stuck a reflector opposite the flash to fill
in the shadow side.
9) Very easy setup with a 580 into an umbrella to camera right. The key
here is to watch out that the bride doesn't get into the groom's
shadow (which she did but it was such a nice moment I wasn't going to
say anything!)
10) We had a great rainstorm a couple years ago so I took Brittney to the
top of some local mountains and saw the potential for a really
dramatic image. The sky was a bit too bright so I put a powerful flash
into a silver umbrella to camera right and set it to 1 1/2 stops
brighter than the ambient lighting. To do this, I set my camera
aperture to the "key" light at f/8. To match daylight I would have set
about 1/80th of a second so I put it to 1/200th (about 1 1/2 stops
less light) in order to bring the background down allowing the clouds
to get that dramatic look. Often, color shifts occur in clouds to
green or magenta so it looks pretty cool. In photoshop I just did a
little de-saturation and added a bit of grain but that's about it.
Check Out Colin Michael's Website at: colinmichaelphoto.com
Attached File(s)
-
cm01.jpg (82.12K)
Number of downloads: 33 -
cm01a.jpg (11.32K)
Number of downloads: 21 -
cm09.jpg (91.32K)
Number of downloads: 19 -
cm09a_1.jpg (10.98K)
Number of downloads: 14 -
cm02.jpg (91.86K)
Number of downloads: 19 -
cm02a.jpg (10.31K)
Number of downloads: 10 -
cm07.jpg (78.32K)
Number of downloads: 12 -
cm07a.jpg (10.67K)
Number of downloads: 8 -
cm10.jpg (86.96K)
Number of downloads: 14 -
cm10a.jpg (14.64K)
Number of downloads: 16 -
cm05.jpg (79.49K)
Number of downloads: 15 -
cm05a.jpg (10.15K)
Number of downloads: 12 -
cm06.jpg (68.63K)
Number of downloads: 16 -
cm06a.jpg (11.34K)
Number of downloads: 12 -
cm04.jpg (91.15K)
Number of downloads: 10 -
cm04a.jpg (11.6K)
Number of downloads: 10 -
cm03.jpg (83.49K)
Number of downloads: 13 -
cm03a.jpg (9.9K)
Number of downloads: 9 -
cm08.jpg (71.47K)
Number of downloads: 17 -
cm08a.jpg (9.88K)
Number of downloads: 13
MultiQuote
