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.
How to take great photos with studio and small flashes
(Wedding dress model lit with one flash. SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 flash with a 32" octagonal softbox, camera right. Nikon 17-35mm 2.8, Nikon D2x. The shutter was fast enough to eliminate the ambient light, creating the deep shadows and dramatic lighting.)
(Doctor and patient with MRI machine. Multiple flashes light this scene. Two Nikon SB-800 Speedlights provide the purple to light the foreground. A SP-Systems monolight with a hex-grid camera left adds a little pop. A SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 with umbrella, camera right, fills in her back, the wall and gives a little rim light on her hair. A SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 soft box camera left lights her face. Triggered with a combination of radio and light slaves. Nikon D2x, 17-35mm 2.8.)
(Model lit with one flash. Balancing the ambient light with the flash (off to camera left). Both the model and I were on helper's shoulders to get the right perspective and include the amazing frozen chandelier. Monolight flash with softbox, Nikon D2x, Nikon 50mm 1.8.)
(Models standing in a river, lit with one flash. One flash, SP-Systems Excalibur 160 with battery pack and umbrella, camera left. Triggered with a radio trigger. Nikon D2x, Nikon 70-200mm 2.8. Moments later the umbrella caught a tiny gust of wind and fell into the river! Note to self only use an umbrella outside with someone holding it. Not to worry, after a thorough drying, I still use the flash to this day.)
How to take great photos of a ballerina at sunset
I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph ballet dancer Sarah Steward dancing along the shores of Lake Champlain the other day. After the crazy rain we’ve been having, the skies cleared and a magnificent sunset gave us just the backdrop we were looking for. The balmy weather quickly changed to strong winds and 38 degree water soaking us, but I think the results are worth the temporary discomfort.
As always, all the photos are available for sale as prints or digital stock here.
The setup for these photos is fairly simple. The main shot we were looking for was a silhouette of her dancing with Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains in the background at sunset.
The main thing about shooting silhouettes is to watch out for lens flare. It can sometimes look nice to incorporate the lens flare into the shot, but I was looking for a clean silhouette and the less flare the better.
Lens flare is from unwanted light striking the lens glass. It manifests itself in two basic forms, a haze that can wash out the deep shadows of a silhouette, and dots of rings of light coming from the direction of the light source. If you’re shooting directly into the sun or another light source, there’s really nothing you can do about it, but if the light is just out of frame, you can shade the lens to reduce the flare.
Using the lens hood is a good place to start. I had my assistant holding a reflector just over the end of my lens to cast a shadow on my lens and cut out the flare.
All of these photos were shot with Nikon’s D2x camera with it’s ISO set to 100. The D2x may not have the most sensitive sensor, but at 100 ISO it produces some of the smoothest and best files I’ve seen out of any current digital camera.
Nikon D2x, 50mm, f1.8, 1/2500 sec
Nikon D2x, 50mm, f7.1, 1/1250 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f7.1, 1/180 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f7.1, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f3.5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
I decided to add a little light to really make things pop. I was using a Nikon SB-900 with a 16″x16″ softbox, camera left, tightly held by my assistant as the wind was really picking up. I would have used the Nikon i-TTL, but there was too much light, and the wind was really whipping, so I decided to trigger the flash with a radio transmitter to ensure it would fire each time. The flash was set to M 1/4 power.
I was trying to balance the ambient light with the flash. I had to keep the shutter speed below 1/160th for the radio transmitters, and wanted the sunset to be darked a bit more than the flashed area to get some real deep colors in the sky and mountains. The ambient it about 2 stops under normal exposure, and the flash is right on.
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
More to come.
