SHAPE LIGHT

Get creative with a flash stencil

At first glance, urban landscapes can look quite drab. Colour palettes tend to be dominated by greys and browns, and thanks to an abundance of artificial lighting and harsh shadows, shots taken in a city setting can look clinical at best and a touch depressing at worst. So why not add a contrasting touch of magic to images using this simple flash technique?

Light stencils are huge fun to experiment with; using a single light source in a dark environment, combined with a long shutter speed, you can quickly create a unique effect.

This flash stencil tutorial combines an urban landscape with a trail of butterflies, to create a striking image that contrasts the starkly realistic with the fantastical. You’ll need to be familiar with how to fire your flashgun manually, which is normally done via the test button, and you’ll need a dark area with a wall to use as a backdrop. We used a nearby tunnel as it could be used at any time of day, but at night any wall with interesting detail across it will do. Here’s how it’s done...