05/06/2026
This shoot was actually supposed to be natural light only.
I got to the park on time and planned everything around golden hour, but by the time we finished setting everything up, bringing props out, organizing the scene, moving things around, etc., we lost a lot of the natural light. The trees were blocking the sunlight and the photo started looking flat really fast.
At that point I had two options:
Force the natural light and try to “fix it in post,” or bring out flash.
So I pulled out an off-camera flash and shot this with bare flash at about 3 o’clock, power at 1/8.
No softbox.
No diffuser.
Just understanding light.
A lot of people think photography is just picking up a camera and pressing a button because the final image looks “easy.”
But shooting fully manual, balancing ambient light with flash, controlling shadows/highlights, composing the frame, adjusting settings in real time, and making artificial light still look natural takes practice. That’s the part people don’t see.
Photography is part technical knowledge, part instinct, and part problem solving.
This is why learning lighting changes everything.
Shot on:
Canon EOS R6m2
RF100mm F2.8 L Macro IS USM
Settings:
1/250 sec
f/4.5
ISO 100
Flash:
Off-camera bare flash
Positioned camera right at 3 o’clock
Power at 1/8
