Working with atrocious lighting conditions - Part I

by Avery Wong

One thing that separates professional photographers from "just some guy with a camera" is working with limited resources and being creative when things seem difficult. Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand, but that doesn't mean you can't try to bluff your way into a winning situation by using what you have.

Take for example a wedding I documented in Oakland in December. The wedding venue was at the Love Potion Collective workshop, a burning man camp which is known for creative, odd and quirky creations. Primarily a giant 30 ft tall colorful glowing amphora set on the back of a bus. Love Potion Collective is normally filled with tools and since it is located in American Steel Studios it has a very high ceiling, which means no bounce flash above.

To further make my life difficult, the wedding is at night, with no windows AND decorations include black drapes over every wall! Lugging around a soft-box wouldn't be practical due to the journalistic and fast paced nature of the ceremony and reception. I told the bride and groom that I would make it work, I strive in difficult situations, and I did make it work!

I strapped a 50mm f/1.8 on my D800 and threw my SB-900 speedlight on it. As dire as it looked, there were, in fact, a few things that I was able to bounce my speed-light off of! Take a look at the photo below of the venue. I used four things to bounce my flash, see if you can spot them.

Photographer's nightmare neatly packaged in a metal building.

First, the most obvious would be the white table covers, I simply turned my camera to the side and bounced the flash on them. This limited me to taking photos in portrait instead of landscape, luckily for me, I quite enjoy shooting in portrait mode. I made sure to use a nice prime lens to get some sweet sweet bokeh action in the background as well!

Get some nice side bounce off those table cloths!

Second, I use the giant amphora itself! This led to some interesting bounce lighting as the mobile structure was lit using internal LEDs that constantly changed colors and patterns. I would try to time the shutter releases with different designs from the glow to give the photos a very unique look.

This photo turned out so well that you don't even notice the photobomb!

Another technique I did was using the light from the amphora as a fill or rim light to give the photos a little extra kick!

Odd circumstances and environments lead to oddly awesome pictures!

Third...well see if you can guess number three and four on your own, I bet you will never guess number four! I'll let you know the answer in my next post! Until then, stay tuned!