My Sunday Series on Available Light Portraiture continues today with a look at using available light mixed with electronic flash from a speedlight. The featured portrait is of Amelia a student chef who was referred by another model.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” — The Fellowship of the Ring
I’ve always believed that a soft light source is a better choice for portraits than a hard one because it’s more flattering to the subject. You may not agree and that’s OK. One of the advantages of using soft light is that the portrait will usually require less retouching.
Because it’s convenient and built into the camera, a camera’s pop-up flash is often the new portrait photographer’s first artificial light source choice but it only has one major goal: To deliver its lighting output as efficiently as possible. Some of the time, that’s a good idea but when photographing people, a little softness will minimize the dreaded “flash on camera” look.
The hands-down best bargain for improving your on-camera flash photographs is to use Sto-Fen’s Omni-Bounce flash diffuser that fits speedlights from many different manufacturers. Indoors it disperses light all around the room instead of beaming a harsh line straight at your subject while bouncing light off walls and ceilings, effectively turning the whole room into a soft box, It reduces harsh, direct shadows and lowers contrast compared to using a raw flash head. The Omni-Bounce Is compact and easy to use in either direct or bounce mode and is the simplest, easiest way to improve the quality of your flash photographs, without removing the flash from the camera’s hot shoe.
Using Diffused Flash
How I made this headshot: I almost always have my Sto-Fen Omni Bounce flash diffuser mounted on my speedlight, whether I’m working outdoors but especially indoors where you can get even more soft light from light bouncing off the ceiling or walls.
The image of Amelia, a student chef at Johnson & Wales University, who was referred to me by Leslie. Amelia was Leslie’s brother’s girlfriend! Just as referrals are a key part of a traditional portrait business getting referrals from models who you worked with before is one of the best way of finding new glamour models. This is especially true in a post-COVID era where the on-line modeling business, like almost everything else, has been badly scrambled.
This headshot of Amelia was appropriately made in the kitchen of my former home using window light from a North-facing bay window along with fill from a Canon EX420 speedlight with a Sto-fen Omni-Bounce diffuser attached. The camera was a Canon EOS 10D and an EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM at 105mm. The exposure was 1/60 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 200.
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Several photographs of Pam appear in my book Available Light Glamour Photography that’s available from Amazon with used copies of the book for $49.94 as I write this. The Kindle version is $27.83 for those preferring a digital format.