How to Take Great Portraits with One Flash

Although I always bring a whole bag, well, really a few bags full of flashes of all sizes and powers, many times I find that using one flash is an easy way to get the right lighting while still being flexible enough to follow the subject and make corrections quickly.

I recently shot a senior portrait session with a variety of lighting setups.  I always try to be flexible and give lots of options in terms of lighting, background, and ‘looks’.  While I am always working towards a thought out end photo, I will happily stray from that as light allows, or when things come up during the shoot, which they always do.  As we went through the shoot, I was moving back and forth from flash to available to bounce and all combinations of the two.  On these wide ranging shoots, I find that working with the different combinations of lighting helps me keep fresh perspective throughout the shoot.  Each small change of lighting can lead to a new idea.

For this setup I was using a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight with a 24″ softbox and a 48″ circular reflector with the gold side bouncing a bit of warmth back on the subject and filling in the deep shadows.  The SB-800 was triggered by radio.  I do use Nikon’s iTTL with commander and remote flashes, but for this set up I was moving back and forth, changing cameras and lenses and needed to be sure the flash would be triggered.  The bright sun has played tricks on the communication between commander and remote flashes in the past, meaning you need a pretty direct line of sight between the two.  So for this I did do some minor tweaks to the flash, set in manual mode, increasing or decreasing the power as needed.  Yes, it’s an extra trip to the flash, but we were moving around quite a bit and it didn’t seem to break up the flow too much.  The movement and small break in shooting will also give the subject a little space to catch their breath before getting back into it.  I find that with professional models you can get away with more sustained shooting, but with amateurs a little break is always helpful, if only for a few seconds.

The Nikon SB-800 had the dome diffuser off, but the wide angle flap down.  I generally use the dome diffuser to give a slightly softer light through the softbox, but due to the intense sun I needed that extra bit of power that the dome diffuser takes away.  I was running the SB-800 between 1/4 and full power.  Having blown a few SB-800’s running on full power in the past, I generally try not to use it too much, but if I have to, I try and slow my shooting down to allow the flash to safely recycle without frying.  The amount of ambient light and strength of the sun also kept me using the SB-800 instead of my SB-900 which will shut down if it starts overheating.  Yes, it saves the flash, but a flash that stops working mid-shoot, while under normal circumstances is frustrating.  I’ve heard good things about the SB-910’s thermal shutoff.  Hopefully they have extended the range of heat allowed, or figured out a way to get rid of the heat more efficiently.

I could have just as easily used a battery powered monolight such as my SP-Systems Lancerlight 160 or an Elinchrome Ranger.  I choose to use a smaller flash only for ease of movement.  The larger monolights are just that, larger, so if you’re running around moving the light every few exposures, having the small flash helps keep the hassle to a minimum.

August 21, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: ambient, available light, big flash, excalibur flash, flash, great, how to take great photos, lens, lenses, light, lighting, nikon, nikon speedlight, people, photo, photography, photos, portrait, professional photographer, reflect, sb-800, sb-900, senior portrait, senior portraits, small flash, softbox, sp-systems flash, speedlight, studio flash, sunlight, vermont photographer | Leave A Comment »