Mixing Flash With Candle Light | Take and Make Great Photography with Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey is a freelance photographer, writer and trainer of all things photographic. His work is regularly featured in photography magazines, websites and videos.
Gavin has a real passion for sharing his photography and Photoshop knowledge. In 2008 he started recording and uploading video tutorials to YouTube. These quickly gained a large following and to date his videos have been viewed over 20 million times.
In 2010 Gavin was the winner of Adobe’s “Next Photoshop Evangelist” competition and since then he has given training demonstrations in Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements in the UK, Europe and the US.
In 2012 Gavin joined forces with Adorama as a presenter on Adorama TV, where he inspires and teaches photographers from around the world in the art of photography and post processing.

The warm flickering glow of candle light makes it an attractive subject for photographers but don’t be fooled by what you see with your eyes, cameras, and candles can be a fun challenge to master.

In this video, photographer Gavin Hoey sets out to shoot a festive feeling portrait with candles lighting both the background and the model. However as Gavin demonstrates, using a candle as the light source for a portrait has some major pitfalls. Hard shadows and light from below create a look that’s perhaps more appropriate for a Halloween shoot than a Christmas portrait.

Luckily Gavin walks you step by step through the best way to mix candle light and flash in a small home studio. His aim is to achieve a festive portrait that has a stunning candle background and soft light on the model in the style of candle light.

Interested in learning more about lighting and lighting setups? Check out these guides on 42 West:

PRODUCTS USED: