Nest Of Scorpions 2011

I recently headed out to the desert in California with some friends and took some time to take photos of the great sunsets out there. Of course, I brought some flashes and thought I'd share how a simple one-flash setup can make for some good-looking shots!



In this first shot, I got the exposure right for the sunset in the background. It was slightly underexposed to bring out the colors in the sky, but it made the foreground completely black. Not to worry, I brought a Vivitar 285 flash (my favorite!) and a 43" silver reflective umbrella with me.





With the flash on a stand just off to camera right, and set to half power, the foreground suddenly comes to life and you can see the people on the swing. The light from the silver umbrella has a great soft look to it. Also, the silver gives you a little more output than a shoot-through or a white reflective umbrella, which is useful when shooting outdoors. By balancing the two light sources - the sky and the flash, you can get a very natural shot that captures all of the colors that you would see if you were there.

Another trick I use is to gel the flash with either a CTO or CTS ("straw") gel and change the white balance on the camera to tungsten. (I use a full straw and set the white balance to 3000K a lot of times) This renders the sky a nice shiny blue and is a great look for shooting people.