Lights up, cables drawn, soft boxes set up, light metered but wait the light coming in from the window is awesome. Turn off the lights, take of the radio sync, just shoot with the light mother nature has provided. This is a situation I can often find myself in and I love it. In the last entry I wrote about using lights when the sun is not cooperating and that can come in very handy. Going out on a shoot one must be prepared as best you can but you have to also be prepared not to use all the equipment. This can be very hard for some photographers. Of course it’s understandable when you spend a shit load of money on this equipment of course you want to use it. But I believe in many situations we can get a much better photo if we just work the available light. And this is why I say to those photographing for the fun of it, not to rush in to buying a bunch of equipment when you can do so much with so little.

Model: Katharine
Makeup and hair: Marika Särnfält
Brazier by Chantelle that can be purchased at ”My Lady” located in leksand

/ Ryan http://ryangarrison.com

It is a huge variety of lighting tools available and each gives a different effect. One tool that is kind of fun is the snoot from Elinchrom (also available by other brands). In most cases this is used as a hair light or to light up a circle area in the background. Over the years I have heard countless photographers say this is a waste of equipment to buy and that they are not fun to work with. Well being the way I am I just had to get one. And instead of using it as a hair light or on the background I used it as my main light.  I have instead two soft boxes behind the model lighting up the edges of her. Was fun to try out this combination. I am sure I’ll be doing it again in the future. So next time you hear about a really crapy product that you should never use think twice

Model: Hanna

Makeup and Hair: Therese Carpenhammar

/ Ryan Garrison www.ryangarrison.com