The humble speedlight is a truly amazing tool for us photographers, even more so today with the advanced systems available and cameras that have great low light capability.
Speedlights give us the ability to craft and use light, where it might not otherwise be. And they allow us to do this in the most compact and portable way.
Insider tip - I shoot probably 80% of my commercial and portrait work using just one speedlight off camera, with a modifier. Here’s just a few examples of that:
Note you can often use available lighting to your advantage – see the blue backlight on the guitarist. Always be open to how you can use other light sources in the scene from blue light like this example, right through to using the sun as you backlight.
In all these examples I have set my camera to expose correctly for the background, and then added a kiss of flash to bring out the subject. How much or how little you use is a creative decision you alone can make - but that's the fun of it. Speedlights offer so much creative opportunities.
Here's the thing - do not fear the speedlight!
Sometimes you hear "the true ethos of photography" mean you must only use available light. Probably espoused by people who only shoot film and listen to vinyl. This is crazy talk! Light is light and it comes in many flavours and types. Speedlights can enhance our photos and make them really pop. They are fantastic tools we have in our kit to help us create our vision.
That said, they do have some limitations so here are my 3 cardinal rules for using speedlights.
You can't light an entire scene with a speedlight
You need really powerful studio flashes to light an entire scene and that is not what speedlights are designed for. The classic example of this is when your phone camera set to auto lights up a person like a deer in the headlights, and the background is a dark abyss. Just like speedlights, your camera phone doesn't have enough power to light the entire scene.
All the photos at the start of this blog demonstrate a speedlight lighting the subject but not the backgrounds. Speedlights will light your subject, but you need to expose correctly for everything else. Leading to....
set your camera to expose for the ambient light or the background
This is the first step and is always my initial consideration when shooting a subject that I will light with a speedlight. Decide on how light or dark you want your background first and then set you camera to capture that. This is done via the holy trinity of camera settings - aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This is the essence of the blog post, the main take away, the meat and potatoes.
once background exposure is set, dial in the speedlight
Once background exposure is set, the second step is to dial in the right amount of flash to sufficiently light your subject. This is a feel thing with no particular rules - I normally just eyeball it on the camera's LCD. Just try some settings and see how it looks. For a whole lot more information, see this article we've written all about shooting portraits with speedlights.
How much flash you add is a creative call you have to make, but can also vary depending on a number of factors. Here are a few:
Have a look at this series of shots to demonstrate what we're talking about
Note how the back ground gets lighter and lighter as the aperture is opened up i.e. letting in more light. All other settings stay the same. A benefit of this is the background goes more out of focus as well which is pleasing for portraits. On each of these shots the speedlight needed to be adjusted. As the aperture opened up, the power of the speedlight had to be reduced to get the right exposure on the subject.
There is no right or wrong here, but personally I much prefer #6 above i.e. a lighter background that is out of focus. Unless you’re going for a really dramatic look, dark backgrounds often look amateurish and poorly done.
That's a simple set of tips that will ensure you get better results from using your speedlights. With practice you will find all sorts of find ways to use them and be rewarded with amazing looking images.
Recommended for further reading...
You might also like
