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Cameras

Wireless Flash Usage With the Canon 7D On a Photoshoot

Chris Gampat
No Comments
06/23/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 09/10/2011 by

One of the great things about the Canon 7D is the wireless flash control. It can really help you out when shooting subjects in challenging lighting and when you need the shot to be perfect. A client shot with me last week for his album cover and the 430 EX II used off camera and in the hands of my assistant helped to really compensate for the sometimes challenging lighting. Here are some details.

The Gig

Semi, an underground hip-hop artist in NYC needed a photoshoot for his album cover. On top of this, he also wanted a coupled of other photos. The original idea was to just shoot in a classroom to give him a young and real look. When his subjects weren’t on time, we started to get creative.

If you’d like to book me, check out my rates here and shoot me an email at chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer.com.

Equipment

Canon 7D

50mm F1.8

24-105mm F4 L IS

430 EX II

Gary Fong Lightsphere

Technical Usage

Most of these photos were shot with the camera flash on and the 430 EX II to the side with the Gary Fong Lightsphere attached to give off that barebulb effect.

For the outside shots, the sun was behind Semi for most of the time. Most photographers would never, ever fire into the sun because of exposure problems. Those get fixed once you use your flash effectively. There were situations where just a little bit of flash was really needed coming from two different directions in order to effectively light the subject. This is where powering the flash down a bit came in use combined with effective ISO and aperture control.

In contrast, shooting with the sun behind you can cause your subjects to squint. For good measure, the sun was behind Semi.

For the lead photo in this posting, the sun was behind Semi and I was on the ground laying down with the 24-105mm attached. Christina, my assistant pictured in some of the photos, had the flash to the northeast corner of Semi and myself.

For the photos with the blue background, there was another blue wall to the Semi’s left, the sun behind him to his northeast and me right in front of him. To get the photos correct, I needed to really observe how the light was hitting him. There was some light bouncing off of the wall next to him so we just needed some fill for his front. Christina was to my left this time and held the flash up high and at an angle. Combined with my on camera flash, I was able to illuminate his whole face. Anything left in the dark was easily fixed in Lightroom.

All photos shot inside were with the 430 EX II used on camera and with the lightsphere pointed in different directions to get the shot. For some of them, the lightsphere came off.

At the end of the day, the 7D’s wireless flash control capabilities came in real handy. My 5D Mk II would not have been able to do this although I would’ve probably been able to just use my 85mm on the camera the entire time.

More shoots to come!

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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