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You don’t have to have three or
four Speedlights to set up a stu-
dio. Many photographers, even
professionals, capture great
portraits using one flash, either
on or off the camera. If you’re
using just one Speedlight, con-
sider investing in the Nikon SC-
29 off camera hot shoe cord.
Moving the Speedlight off-
camera results in better control
over lighting angle, and con-
necting the Speedlight with this
accessory still gives you all the
flash-to-camera communication
capabilities.
Basic Portrait lighting types
Two basic types of studio lighting for por-
traits are broad and short lighting. If you’re
a frequent reader of lighting and photogra-
phy books, you’ll also hear the terms wide
or short lighting. Either way, the two pairs of
terms mean the same thing.
Broad or wide lighting refers to a key (main)
light illuminating the side of your subject as
they are turned toward the camera (see fig-
ure 3.7). Short lighting, used more fre-
quently, is a key light used to illuminate the
side of the subject turned away from the
camera (figure 3.8), thus emphasizing facial
contours. When using multiple lights, using
a fill flash (at a lower power) in conjunction
with a key light is common practice.
You may not always be taking portraits in
your studio, but that doesn’t mean that broad
and short lighting techniques do not apply.
When shooting portraits outdoors using the
sun as your main light and the Speedlight as
a fill, the same rules apply. When the sun is
lighting the side of the model facing you, you
have broad lighting. When the sun is lighting
the side of the model away from you, you
have short lighting.
Other types of lighting include:
✦ Diffused lighting. Light emitted
from a Speedlight can be consid-
ered harsh, especially for portraits
where the flash is used in close
proximity to the subject. Harsh
light is strong, with a lot of con-
trast, and when used for portraits,
brings out the worst in skin tones.
Harsh light can be too accurate!
When taking portraits, bouncing
your Speedlight through or from a
transparent umbrella or using a dif-
fusion dome over your flash head
can help soften the lighting in a
portrait, as shown in figures 3.9
and 3.10.
✦ Frontal lighting. This type of light-
ing is a low key technique to
achieve dramatic portraits. The
lighting is very soft in nature,
where the main light often comes
from a single Speedlight attached
to the camera.
✦ Mixing ambient or natural light-
ing. You are often faced with mix-
ing the available light in a scene,
whether from existing indoor light-
ing (ambient) or natural lighting
(from a window). You may even
want to preserve the tone of the
existing light, and only use a flash
to match the metered reading of
the room for enhanced lighting.
✦ Bounced lighting. For excellent
snapshots on-the-go, point your
flash head at a 45-degree angle
toward the ceiling. You get a result
of an evenly lit subject with a soft,
subdued lighting. I often use
bounce flash for photojournalistic
images I take during weddings or
for just snapshots of friends and
family. I explain more about
bounced lighting later in this
chapter.
Tip
56 Part II ✦ Creating Great Photos with the Creative Lighting System
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