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Lighting and controling colour advice with Joe McNally

When it comes to dealing with tricky lighting situations National Geographic photographer Joe McNally has seen it all. In this video he shares his advice on using flash and dealing with diverse light sources.

I would take a similar approach to Joe, although I'm more inclined to go full manual from the start as he also does later on in this video.

So here is how I would do it:

  • Assess the scene and establish my camera viewpoint (as Joe does).
  • Measure the ambient light (deciding what I can let blow out and what to keep).
  • Using the settings for ambient light I would then manually set the flash to balance and blend the subject into the scene.
  • Work with reflectors to fill and help shape the light

Note: in a 'normal' shoot Joe would go straight to the solution but here he is shooting along the way to show the process.


Hope you enjoy the video.
Thanks,
Paul
PS. There's a wealth of material out there on the Internet covering just about everything but if you're interested in a personal one to one Advanced Flash Techniques course delivered by me online, then get in touch for pricing and further information.
www.indigo2photography.co.uk

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