Off camera lighting for fun dramatic photos!

I appreciate so much when my favorite photographers that I follow are so willingly and open to write about their mistakes and what they can do different. It boosts my confidence that even the most successful photographers are not perfect. Aside from looking at pretty photos on their blogs, one of my FAVORITE things to do is to pick their brain, or read behind the scene moments and how it is they do what they do. Yesterday, I went to Barnes & Noble after work with my husband and found a really good and educational book written by Bob & Dawn Davis. They really know their stuff and even though some of the things explained were basic, it was still so good to read it from another photographers perspective. One of the things that I am working on is to hone my photographic style for reception photos and getting that flash off the camera. I am seriously IN LOVE with off camera lighting and I have been able to experiment with this during my last 2 weddings, and the results have been HUGE!! Totally in a good way! I love it, and this very book that I was reading focuses alot on lighting. Check it out at your local Barnes & Noble or at Amazon. Definilty a good read.

Here are a few photos where I was able to use only off camera flash AND on-camera flash mixed with off camera. Both have different results that I like.

Wedding reception at Tanner Hall, Winter Garden. I used off camera flash with a softbox as you can see it triggered to give the background some light and I also use on-camera flash bounced to light up the couple.

For a different affect, my assistant for the day held a bare flash above the guests dancing. I used NO on-camera flash. This is a spotlight affect and I think it makes the fun dancing photos so much more dramatic!! This can also be done holding a flash with a softbox like you will see in the next photos.

Wedding reception at Casa Monica Hotel. Have your assistant hold the off camera flash behind the couple to create a dramatic rim-light affect. You may choose to include an on-camera flash to light the couple, or just have the off-camera flash as your only source. I like alternating both ways :)

Here's another spot-light affect with off camera flash only.

These may not be the BEST pictures, but as you can tell, I had so much fun experimenting and I can't wait to continue to use these techniques for my future weddings!! :)