Embracing the Natural Light

As a studio photographer, I want to control the light. ALL the light. I want to shape it, mold it on my models, soften it, harden it, flag it, reflect it, you name it. The majority of my work takes place inside, and I like it that way. Natural light can be controlled, but not to a degree that I want. However, situations arose during our Venice trip that made me rethink my position and (forced me) to conduct 80% of my photoshoots without strobes.

Situation 1

The sitting room in our little palazzo is flooded with light. It would be a crime not to take advantage of that. But even more important – setting up strobes takes time. If the models are in costume and ready NOW, there is no time to set up a strobe. In one case the batteries in my camera trigger were empty. What to do when the model is ready for balcony shoots? There is only one option -  natural light.

Situation 2

Night events in Venice at Carnevale are fun and cramped. At first I was shlepping my trusty Canon 5D Mark IV, 2 lenses, and one strobe with me. I fully intended on handholding the strobe. It turned out that setting up an off-camera flash at a cramped, hot event is madness. So I started violating my log held belief that I should not go above 800 ISO. And you know what? It worked. I used 3200, 6400, even up to 12000 ISO and used the denoise function in Camera RAW. Did it yield tack sharp pictures? Well, no. But it produced a high enough quality for 5x7 prints. The below shot was taken in dim lighting conditions at 3200 ISO at an event where everybody dressed up as Greek gods.

So this was a good experience for me. Would a strobe produce better pictures in the situations I didn’t use it? Sometimes yes, and for some of the shoots I did use all my strobes. But I am now comfortable enough to attend evening events just with my camera and, maybe, a tripod. Daylight events in natural lights are a different matter. I would take a reflector and a scrim screen (in sunlight). In addition, natural light situations need a lot of planning and calculating where the light would be best, but the payoff is less gear to transport and less time to set up.

Bring on the natural light!