Natural Light vs. Flash | Angelsea Urban Photographer

Natural Light vs. Flash – The great debate

Toyota vs. Honda, Canon vs. Nikon, Natural vs. Flash.  You say pota-“toe”….you get the idea.

The image on the left was the result of a misfire on my flash, but during editing I thought it would be a great example of both styles.  Normally if I were trying to shoot only natural light I would have added a reflector to bring a little more light into the model’s eyes, but as this shot was not intended that way, so there is no reflector here.

But some people prefer the finish of the natural light image anyway. In this example, it was a cloudy and somewhat gloomy day, so the colors are a bit drab and the lighting is flat.  She was standing on a white floor, which helped a little and you can even see a little of the floor’s reflection in the bottom of her eyes. Still I would have preferred any extra light to come from the top or the side instead of below.  In any case, the image on the left is just “fine” and would probably still make it through the elimination process as a extra.

The image on the right is what was intended. To show off her lovely face in every detail.  Having the flash off camera, and positioned to my right, slightly above the model. This produces a nice catch light in the model’s eye and nicely fills in those shadows in her eyes.  It defines the colors in her make up and hair, and evens out the skin tone to a nice creamy finish. To finish the image, I added a slight vignette to exaggerate the distance and further separate her from the background.

Now….Do we finish with a trendy or a classic edit? Stay tuned for the next post!!! 🙂