Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/200—off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger With Flash at Full Power

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/200 NO FLASH

I covered the Grand Opening of the College Football Hall of Fame downtown in Atlanta, Georgia. Here are a couple of photos from today.

To me, there is a HUGE difference between the two photos above. Don’t you agree?

I think your eyes go to the cheerleaders’ faces much more with the flash photo, where I believe the background draws your eyes first.

I like keeping my flash off-camera all I can, and my assistant is holding the flash off to my left and the Cheerleaders’ right.

Here are more examples of using the same technique. The only thing I am watching is keeping my shutter speed sync below 1/250 since I am using the Neewer flash, but I can shoot 600 full-power shots on one fully charged battery. I carried a second battery and barely had to use it.

Chick-fil-A is the primary sponsor of the College Football Hall of Fame and was there giving out samples of their new grilled nuggets. Finding someone with a full tray took me a while because they were going so fast at the event.

 Here I wanted to capture them and the CFHOF behind them. 

The Georgia Tech cheerleaders and the lady sampling the grilled nuggets were in the shade, and I “Revealed” them with the flash, or they would have been a “Silhouette.” 

The light was splitting their faces on the stage where speakers like Bill Curry and Mayor Kasim Reed spoke. One side in direct sunlight and the other in the shade. Using the same small hot shoe flash, I had my assistant stand straight in front of them and give them a classic fill light. 

For my departing shot of the day, I saw the ESPN College Game Day bus, but to show the College Football Hall of Fame behind it was challenging; the side of the bus was in the shade, but the CFHOF was in direct sunlight. So I just put the flash on the ground near the bus [I let my assistant go just before I saw this], and on full power, I was able to light up the Sports Anchors of the show on the side of the bus.

A week from today, the show will be live inside the CFHOF during the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game between Alabama and West Virginia. Why did I use flash so much today? I knew there were be a LOT of media there. My client will be able to see their coverage as well as mine. Like the game of football, I needed to win the quality coverage contest and could not afford ever to have others outdo my coverage. I can afford them to match it, but I can’t afford other media to show better coverage, and I continue to be hired by clients.