Photography Composition - 12 Composition Rules for Your Photos to Shine By James Carren

Combination Available Light and Studio Light
For things like environmental portraiture, you could either be using available light or a
combination of available light and studio equipment. Really, it all depends on the space
you’re going to be working in. If, for example, you’re photographing a chef working in
the kitchen, you don’t want to get in the way of his job, and the kitchen may be too tiny or
too busy for lighting equipment. In this case, you might just try a mounted flash paired
with an external flash that fires just following the first to provide good fill light.
If you don’t have an external flash to go along with your pop up flash, there is another
technique you can use. Set your camera to program mode and a low ISO. Select evaluative
metering mode, and then set up the flash. This combination should be able to provide
enough fill to keep your photos from blowing out.
If you don’t like the look that the flash gives, and you have the opportunity to bring in
bigger lighting equipment, try using a simple three-point lighting setup to provide fill and
rim light. I will discuss how to set up three-point lighting in the section on studio lighting
shortly.