So how do you use flash for wedding photography?

At the beginning of March – which seems a bit like a lifetime away now – I went on an off-camera flash photography workshop.  It was held in Lancashire at a wedding venue called Eaves Hall.  And what a venue it is – it is one of those places where even if the weather wasn’t playing ball, it wouldn’t matter because there are so many beautiful places inside to take pictures.  The grounds are lovely too though and if the food we had for our lunch was anything to go by, you’d be well fed and watered if you had your wedding there too!

The workshop and was run by the extremely talented Neil Redfern. I met up with my fellow course attendees and Neil for a drink at the Bowland Beer Hall in Clitheroe the night before the course – which was rather convenient for me as I was staying just next door at the Spinning Block hotel!  It was really nice to meet the others and get a bit of a heads up on what was to come the following day.  One of the great things for me about the course was the fact that there were only 5 of us on it.  The other students were lovely and although Cliteroe is about 1.5 hours away from home for me, I was actually the most local to the venue.  The other attendees travelled from as far away as the Midlands, the south of England, Wales and Belgium to attend!

We started the day the next morning with a sit down bit of a chat and teach session.  Neil told his what motivates him to shoot weddings (understanding the importance of emotions gained through life experience), who inspires him (Two Mann Studios, Tyler Wirken) and what he keeps in his bag (Sonys, prime lens, Magmod modifiers – and speedlights obviously!)  A little bit of magic for me was learning about the off camera flash biting point and what this meant for balancing ambient light with flash – this little gem in itself was worth going for!

Once we’d had the theory, then we picked up our cameras to put this learning into practice with the help of our very beautiful and capable models James and Beth.  We took some portraits to start with – each of us choosing a location within the building and setting the shot up. I often shoot without looking at the back of my camera much at all, however, Neil encouraged checking it out so you could make on the job critiques of your work.  The picture you just took may be really good but could it be better…?  How?  Adjust accordingly and improve.  After a very welcome break for lunch and a bit of a debrief on the mornings activities, we learned about how Neil photographs the speeches when flash is needed as well as how he approaches the first dance.  When it was dark enough we moved outside to finish the day by taking some portraits outside of the beautiful building.

I loved how Neil approached the day in stages, the learning from each one building on the previous one.  I loved how the small group of fellow students supported and encouraged each other on our learning journey. I was very tired afterwards as my brain spun around with all the new ideas and learning that had been thrown at it…  Neil definitely gives it his all – it’s a full on day that doesn’t stop until 7pm and the learning continues in the pub sessions before and after as well.  This workshop is definitely worth the time and investment.

Here are some of my pictures from the day.  Now if only there was the opportunity to put my new skills into practice… soon enough though I’m sure.  Soon enough.