On this video, photographer Jay P. Morgan from the website the Slanted Lens is looking at an outdoor photo shoot where he is using strong strobes that can overpower the sun to help him shoot a model in direct sunlight.
On this video Morgan heads down to the commemorative Air Force Museum in Camarillo, California to shoot a model next to a WWII airplane in a harsh sun to demonstrate how you can use strobes and still get a great image in this harsh conditions. He shows each image with and without the strobes and you can clearly see the difference.
As Morgan explains it you need a strobe that is powerful enough to overcome that full sun, and the Baja B6 by Dynalite (which sells for around $750 a unit on B&H), is just that strobe to do this with it’s 600 watt seconds power.
For this shot Morgan added a light on the model’s face to open up the shadows. It was on the camera right hand side (not on the same side of the sun but bringing it in from the camera right hand side we can make it look like it’s a bounce- fill the side of her face and open up the shadows). Next he added a B4 on that airplane in the back, a direct flash that’ll open up the side of the airplane before taking the final series of images (you can see the setups of these shots in the video.
You can find lot more lighting tutorials on our photography lighting section here on LensVid, and you can find all of Jay P. Morgan’s videos here on LensVid on the following link.