Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

We all want the most intelligent
camera and flash combination
we can get but that can be set to
fully manual operation when we
need it.
Although there is plenty we can
do with just the sun and the builtin
flash, the benefit of an offcamera
flash is its mobility. We
can place it anywhere we want.
In some cases, we will just put
this additional flash right on the
camera’s hot shoe. It’s pretty
much where the built-in flash is,
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<strong>Focus</strong> <strong>On</strong> <strong>Lighting</strong> <strong>Photos</strong>
but it has more power and it’s a
bit bigger than the built-in flash.
This can be a good thing to do,
in specific situations:
1. We are shooting a quickmoving
event—news,
weddings, locker-room sports
celebrations—where there is
simply no time to put the light
someplace else.
2. We are using “beauty lighting”
for as little shadow as possible.
(But in this case we would
still like to use a bigger light.)
Off-camera flash
on a light stand.
You don’t need
the newest flash
on the market.
Consider buying
used equipment
to start.
3. We are shooting small-scale
scientific and medical photography.
(But then we often
want the light to be a ring light
around the lens instead of a
light on top of the camera.)
4. The light on the camera is a
fill light to illuminate shadows
cast by the main light. How do
we combine these two?
For people learning lighting,
number 4 is the important one to
most of us. We don’t always need
a fill light. This book’s cover
was done without one. Still, in
most cases most photographers
will want one. Fortunately, the
fill light is usually there already:
the flash built into our camera.
Along with that, we almost
always have a second light. It
may be free sunlight provided by
nature, it may be a studio strobe
worth more than the mortgage
on our house, or, most likely, it
may be something in between.
It makes good sense to put that
light to work doing something
beyond what our built-in flash
can do with ease.