Mdthbs

I have a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and want to emulate the look of these pictures with my flash.

The photographer is astrortiz on Instagram. He also uses a Canon DSLR. Most were taken with flash. They have a yellowish tone, and the clouds look clear. They look like someone took them with a film camera.

How can I take pictures like these? How to get the same style?

Can I take a short but cynical poke at these?...

They all look like they were done with a fairly close flash - though whether it's on camera or held up by the photographer I couldn't be certain, they seem to me to be predominantly high & camera right, so maybe he's left-handed & held it up at arm's length in his right hand - who knows?
Late edit... a second guess at this is - it's on camera, but the camera is turned to portrait, pushing the flash to the right... makes more sense as an 'easy shot on auto'.

I'm going to go with - it was done entirely on automatic, TTL metering, so the flash & background are both generally adequately lit, though there are annoying hot-spots on light-coloured clothing & some of the subject's faces.

That also, to me, explains how in pic 3 the TTL was badly fooled by how light the sky was against how dark inside the sports ground.

I think then once back in the computer, the Vibrance was dialled up to just below painful. Contrast is pushed as well. White balance is way over towards 'warm'.

I always like to check a photo in CameraRAW to give me a hint as to what may have been done to the exposure/white balance on a photo. It's not perfect, but for something that already feels over-pushed, then seeing what the 'Auto' setting tries to do to recover it can give big hints as to what was done already to 'spoil' it.

This is what it tried to do to one of them - it's not good, it's not meant to be good, it's just a hint as to how far off 'ideal' it is.

CameraRAW window shrunk down to small to get more info in the screenshot.

I honestly wouldn't consider it a 'look' to try to emulate.

The technique has been done a lot better.

You could learn a lot by reading the Strobist

• Instagram filter?



• 
  

  Toy lens?

  
  
  
  
  
  • Loreo Lens in a Cap
  
  
  • Holga HL-C 60mm f/8
  
  
  
  



• On-camera flash. Camera in portrait orientation. TTL metering with camera in Auto mode, as Tetsujin suggests.




• ISO pushed high. For grainy, noisy look.




• Dirty rear element or sensor. For the dust specks.




• Smallish aperture. To bring out the dust specks, and for wide DOF. This will retain details in the clouds and background. Diffraction will also help give the image a soft, not-quite focused look.




• Wide-angle lens. So photographer will have to push the camera close to subjects.




• Fixed white balance. So ambient colors can introduce varying color casts.

The color tone is produced by accurately setting your camera’s white balance. The subjects in all of your examples are being lit by flash - so the white balance is simply set for the flash.

The exposure as a whole is common for mixed lighting photography - the flash exposure is strong enough to match the sky, thus you have a correctly exposed sky and correctly exposed subject.

The flash on these is off camera and to a side (with an exception for number 3). Note how the shadows on subject 1’s face are in a different direction than the background trees.

If you want to copy the style, you’ll need to properly set your white bal, use flash to light a subject and natural to fill the background, and position the flash off camera. Note that it takes a very powerful strobe to overpower the sun for midday mixed lighting shots (num 1 and 4)...the football shots are during golden hour, where a less powerful strobe or speedlight could be used. I highly recommend strobist.blogspot.com to begin learning mixed lighting.

Posting your attempt along with your goal to this site in a future question will also get you more answers on specific things you could try/change.