Don’t be afraid of flash
It takes quite a few combined elements to get a good photograph. Above
all, photography means working with light. The origin of the word
“photo” comes from the Greek “phos”, which means light. It’s this
particular attribute that separates our craft from others. Ever since I
started photography, I’ve met a lot of people that expressed their
retention towards working with artificial lighting. Many would say that
it made their photos look unnatural, plasticky. I believe these concerns
that so many people have are rooted in misunderstanding or lack of
skill in shaping light. Natural light
is a great thing, and there are indeed photographers who create amazing
images using only the light available in the environment .That is a
great thing, but even some of the best of them find themselves in
difficulty when shooting for a client in low light situations.
Boosting the ISO to 12000 on your D4 will cut it if you’re shooting a
weeding, when, let’s face it, you don’t have that much time to setup any
external flashes. But what are going to do if your client is a major
corporation who wants portraits of their employees for next year’s
calendar and they want them shot in some office with dull, neon lights?
The key to understanding light, be it natural or artificial, sunlight or
strobes, is volume..
Shoot using a single SB-800 bare speedlight, right and above model.
The way light falls on
a subject will determines the way the human brain perceives it in
space. That’s probably why there are a lot of newcomers to photography
who don’t like flash. They start taking pictures with their built-in camera flash and because the light is fired directly at the subject, it creates a very flat, unpleasant look.
Regardless of type, light can be either
hard or soft. The harder the light, the heavier the shadows. This goes
both ways. Shooting at midday, in bright sunlight will produce a very
similar effect to that of a bare flash. Shooting outside, at dusk or
dawn, will make the light on your subject to look a lot softer and
wrapped around. This can be achieved with artificial lights with the
help of light modifiers.
I’m not saying go out and buy the biggest lighting kit available
because if you’re at entry level, it’ll most likely be a waste of
money. Start small. Buy a single speedlight(or flashgun) and learn how
to use it. Study what you can accomplish with just one light source..
You’d be amazed. Lighting gurus such as Zack Arias
are great examples in this direction. After you’ve mastered using a
single strobe you’ll start feeling more aware of the equipment you need.
You might want to keep it mobile and invest in more portable flashes.
There are plenty of good modifiers for these as well ,like the Ezybox designed by strobist veteran Joe McNally.
Or, you might want to go for studio strobes. What they lack in
portability, they gain in power and the modifying options increase
substantially .There’s also a great community of strobists out there,
including HERE.
All this may seem like a lot to get a
hold of , especially if you’re at entry level. But once you start
getting good results ( and you will as long as you put yourself to work)
you’ll love everything about using flashes and combining them with
existing light.