For many of us who inhabit cloudier climes, getting the look of a sunny day, whilst the weather is stubbornly overcast can be a challenging problem. In this short video, British fashion photographer Damien Lovegrove shows us how to re-create sunny Spain in a decidedly cloudy Manchester. To create the dappled sunlight look Damien uses a dingle, which is basically a small bush or branch with leaves on it:
These are the key points of Damien’s technique:
- Attach the dingle to a lighting stand so that the leaves protrude above the stand.
- Raise the lighting stand to a reasonable height to suggest a low angle of sunlight.
- The sun is recreated using a wireless controlled flash positioned behind the dingle.
- When positioning the flash, make sure that the wireless sensor will be visible from the photographers position.
- The flash gun is set to maximum zoom and the camera is set to the required exposure.
- The closer the flashgun is to the dingle, the softer the dappled effect will be.
Faking Sunlight with a Canon Speedlight
For most people, it would be impossible to tell that the final shot was made in grey industrial Manchester and not the sunny Costa Brava.
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very interesting, the understanging of light in photography never ends.