Hi, Hiatus!

Calm in the Midst of Chaos by Joel Locaylocay

My dear loyal readers, I am going to step away from blogging for a while until I figure out how best to represent myself online. I am in the process of learning how to setup my own domain and website, so saying that I am going to be preoccupied would be an understatement as I am very much clueless about how to go about the whole thing. I am undertaking this move because I would very much like to have more control over  my pictures as uploading them on sites such as this one actually grants the hosting company a license to use it (albeit non-exclusively). Essentially, I just want to plan in preparation for my transition into self-employment.

I, of course, will keep on shooting, but will be posting my pictures on 500px for now. I am also keeping my accounts on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, so you should still be able to reach me there for a friendly chat or perhaps commission me for a portrait sitting. As of now, I am still uncertain about the future of this blog, but for now let me just say —

Thanks for reading and I'll see you around. 

The Gift of Flash - 001

Just to be clear, this new series of short posts do not refer to the following topics: the DC superhero Flash (in all his iterations), the multimedia platform from Adobe, and definitely not about a bit of unsolicited nudity. This and the other bite-sized bits of information that follow will talk primarily about the many creative opportunities that are made available to a photographer with the use of off-camera flash.

1. The ability to light glass

I'm not saying that glass can't be lit by using only natural light. It's just easier to light when you have an off-camera light source. One of the ways to light glass is... well, by not lighting it directly. This technique is called bright-field lighting. Essentially, you keep the light on the background and allow the diffuse reflection coming off it to reveal the outline and shape of the glass object. This is best carried out in a more easily controlled environment like a studio, but it can also be done outside of one when the conditions are right.

I was lucky enough to catch and capture the following setup during the department's open house a few weeks back. A shot that I could have easily struggled (or failed) to make without off-camera flash.

More to come...

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For those who are interested in the technical, you can hover your mouse cursor over the picture above to view my camera and flash settings. If you're interested in similar articles and would like to be notified when I put a new post up, either follow this blog (via Google reader) or sign up for e-mail updates on the left navigation bar. Thanks.