Flash has come a long ways in the last decade. Modern strobes are smaller, more powerful and have advanced features like TTL and High Speed Sync. I use my Elinchrom Three and Five monolights on many shoots…just put on the transmitter on my Z9 and I have up to 500 watts of power with HSS and TTL…plug and play shooting works great. Combine that with the incredible Elinchrom soft boxes and you are ready to go.
Or are you? Let’s just say one flash always goes with me on any trip, and it is not a studio light. Speed lights are still an incredibly powerful and creative tool, but many photographers seem to over look them. On workshops I mention subject matter is important, but lighting is the architect of the image. Without light we don’t have photographs. Light is the deal breaker, or maker, for incredible images. Great subjects with less than ideal light look pretty nice. But that same subject in amazing light looks….amazing!
I love the creative license I get when I have a speed light in my pack. I use them constantly on assignments, workshops and personal shooting. Here are just a few examples that come to mind.
Roaming the highlands of Scotland we came across a classic iconic red telephone booth. It was midday, so the booth was well lit on the outside, but the inside was a little flat. We just dropped a Nikon SB-5000 in the booth and triggered it using a wireless WR-R11 transmitter. The bright light inside added interest and ‘life’ to the telephone booth. I also underexposed the daylight about one stop to add drama to the clouds, and make the flash more obvious.
Every think you would want to visit an Alaskan outhouse? That was the self assignment for this image. We were in Fairbanks photographing aurora, so we decided to make this outhouse look inviting. We shot at twilight (-20F), set our white balance to incandscent, put a single SB-5000 flash inside, and added a warm gel to the flash. We used manual mode and triggered the flash using a wireless transmitter. The incandescent white balance turned the twilight into deep blue, and the warm gel created a cheery glow inside.
In Chile we came across an interesting typewriter, but in a very dark room. To make an interesting image we put a snoot (check out Rogue Flash Benders) on the flash and shot across the keyboard using a warm gel on the light. What was a flat image became a vintage typewriter with a story to tell.
Speedlights can be used on-camera for a lot of techniques, but I often use mine off-camera to create interesting highlights and shadows. I often use TTL mode and adjust flash comp as needed. Bring a simple set of Rogue flash gels and a snoot to give you more light control options. Also a small soft box is nice for portraits. January is a great month to master your speed light at home before busy summer shoots.
I get a lot of questions in January about ways to improve your creativity beginning another year of shooting. Think about adding a simple speed light to your shooting…I use mine for nature (flowers, plants, sand dunes…etc), travel and portraits. They may be small, but speed lights pack a big creative punch to your work!