You might be hesitant to learn flash, your work looks fine without it and your system works for you, I get that, no one likes change! But… let me tell you why you NEED to learn flash!!
#1 More consistent galleries
Learning to use flash for weddings means every part of your gallery will be well lit, not just the outdoor portraits! Having your whole gallery look beautiful and consistent with your style is so important for your brand and those final deliverables and the impression that leaves on your clients.
#2 Produce better images
For most parts of the day your images are beautiful and easy, but there are those instances where it’s raining and the couple wants to do their family formals inside the dark catholic church. While it’s fine to edit those ceremony shots in black and white and have them be grainy and convey the moments that way, the portraits need to be portraits. Especially family formals! They are some of the most hated-by photographers-but some of the most important photos to the clients. And making sure they are well lit, flattering and sharp is so important! I find myself having to do family portraits in the church a lot. Now you break out those flashes and…boom, amazing results, the couple is thrilled, everyone is impressed by how good you just made it all look, even more so since their iphone photos of it look brutal cuz of the low lighting!
#3 No limit to creativity
I’m sure we all have those shots we’ve seen and want to do but don’t really know how. I know I certainly did! Once I knew how to use my flashes, if I didn’t know exactly how it was done I could at least experiment and get close!! And once I read a blog post or someone told me how these things were done, I could try anything! And that way when an opportunity presents its self to do something cool, I know how and I have the equipment to do it! For example, I was shooting this couple in a vintage car a couple weeks ago, outside its super bright out, inside the car they are dark…pop a flash in there and boom, perfectly lit image both inside and outside the car!
#4 Prepared for any request = better client experience
You honestly never know what you’re going to get at a wedding! I think I know but every now and again I get thrown a curve ball! I prep all my clients to know about getting ready in a space with natural light and how its prettiest and blah blah, but when I arrived to this one wedding a few years ago, in an old theatre, the groom was getting ready in a basement office. Like Dr’s office style, fluorescent lights, ceiling panels they whole nine yards. The hallway was covered in graffiti so we used that at least but without flash those would not have looked good! With flash I was able to deliver images that look like the galleries they saw and hired me for!
#5 All of the above, means you can charge more!
First the more you know the more confident you are which means it’s easier for you to sell yourself at higher prices because you genuinely believe it! Second, the more you can control the lighting and create the looks you want, and add mood to images, and work with making spaces brighter or darker or highlighting certain parts you can show images that will look higher end. It’s that age old debate, I want higher end weddings but need to shoot one to show it etc. You can control what you are showcasing with lighting and make every wedding beautiful! You can also nail those magazine worthy decor shots in dark ballrooms with your flashes, which means its easier to get published and more eyes on your work and…convinced yet?
Bonus: spend less time editing!
If you needed one more reason to learn flash, your reception editing, while it might be the most number of images from the day, can take the least amount of time! If you nail that lighting in camera, your SOOC images will look so good you barely need to edit them!
Below we’ve got SOOC, edit. Pretty easy. And then no flash vs flash both SOOC. Which one would you rather edit?!
