A New Flash Technique

My flash photography has moved to another level, or something. I have been using multiple lights fairly often, sometimes doing one flash hooked to the camera with my trusty SC-17 cord(which lets me get the flash off camera and still shoot an auto exposure mode) and one flash on a light stand triggered by an optical slave. The flash on the light stand is set on manual, usually around 1/8 power. Just move it to get the amount of light needed on the subject. I have gotten fairly good at knowing where to set the stand.

The other way is doing both lights on stands fired with a radio trigger on camera. Doing this requires both camera and flashes on manual. Yesterday I spent the morning at Boney's Lawnmower Service in Warner Robins. i really needed a bit more light than I had so I began with one flash on a stand using my radio trigger.

As long as I was shooting back toward the door all was well. When I moved around to shoot the top image, I needed more light. I started to pull out the SC-17 cord, and decided it would not give enough freedom. I left my other light stand in the car, so I put a slave trigger on another flash, held it in my hand and started shooting.



I was able to move the handheld flash where ever I wanted it. For this photo I held it so it didn't light the front wheel, that is all daylight through the door. The flash near the camera was at a lower power than the backlight. For both the top and middle pictures I wanted to light the bottom of the mower.

All three of these photos were shot this way. I had to watch the flash to subject distance with the handheld light and compensate when I got closer to my subject.

Really love the bottom shot of Mr. Fred Boney. The lines in his face and hands would not of had near the detail with available light, and the lighting looks pretty natural. The backlighting doesn't overpower, just gives some separation, and I balanced the light to keep detail seen outside through the open door.

Gonna play with this some more.