I’ve spent so much time these last two years working with off-camera flash, i’ve forgotten my roots: simplicity. natural light is the best light (for portraits), and my buddy Matt and I wanted to challenge ourselves a bit with one-light setups outside. we picked a (photographically) horrible day… cold, overcast and snow covered…and it started snowing! Snow is great for fill light, but it is so bright, and omni-directional all photos are flat, and hard to expose for (too bright here, too dark there, etc).

The photo at top is Matt. We stopped for lunch at the Claddagh Irish pub, Madison (Middleton) wi, Natural lighting and a little reflection off the end of the booth wall (dark teak-like wood). Natural light rocks.

An attempt at Separation. adding a rimlight. Triggered with AlienBee, two nikon sb’s behind.

Simple fill light with on camera speedlite to illuminate his face, which would have been lost in shadow.

Set up flash on a stand, firing with a cactus trigger. I walked around him, he never moved, the lights never moved. this is the difference in what happens in re-composition and what light angles will do.