Crosslighting on an overcast day

I asked for attitude for this shot! I'd just taken 30 portraits and called Leni back for something a little bit different from the usual smiles. Thanks Leni.

On days when it's sunny I'd use the sun as one 'light' and 1 flash to crosslight it. On a day like this it's one light at the front right, one back left. Start off by taking a shot with no lights. I'll normally do this on the S (shutterspeed) setting with my shutterspeed set at 1/250th which is the fastest speed that my flash units will synch at. Now take your aperture and shutterspeed for that shot and go to M (Manual) enter your shutterspeed as 1/250th but change your aperture by a stop so the next shot will be underexposed. Set your flash units on manual... start with one light at a time. I usually try the front light at 1/4 to start with and adjust it up or down as required. Once it's right I repeat with the back light. Sounds complicated but once you're done it a few times it's a quick process.

If you're shooting sports portraits like this and the players are holding a ball make sure they hold it on the opposite side to the front light. First time I tried this about a year ago I had the ball under the other arm and there was a really obvious dark shadow across the body. They were only test shots at the time but lesson learned.

This is the setup. 2 light stands, front one set high, back set low... opposite each other diagonally from the subject.

5 minutes to set up and adjust settings, 5 minutes to photograph 30 lads. This is relatively easy to do and doesn't need to be that expensive if you're just starting out.

Cheap option: couple of 2nd hand light stands or cheap ebay stands, probably around £40 total. 2 flash units - I have 2 that I picked up from ebay as backups for £20 the pair. I only work with manual settings for flash anyway so they're as good as my Nikons for most things. Umbrella adaptors to link your flash to your light stand - £15 for a pair. Ebay remotes, 1 transmitter, 2 receivers - £30. Just over £100 in total.

Professional option: 2 Light stands - £120. 2 sb-800 flash units - £440. Umbrella adaptors to link your flash to your light stand - £15 for a pair. 3 Pocket wizard transeivers - £500. Over £1000 and we haven't started talking about light modifiers yet (umbrellas, softboxes, snoots, grids & gobos!).

You can break the bank buying all the latest kit, but if you're willing to improvise a little it's amazing what you can do with very little. My kit is a mix of both options, but gradually going over to the Pro option. Just waiting on those Pocketwizards now.

Mix and match and a little photoshop!

I'm writing this after midnight having just finished processing photos from a dance show I covered last Friday. It's been a long day so I'm going to keep this fairly brief.

This is simply a shot lit by one Studio light through a large softbox, placed very close in and the kick light comes from a flash unit placed on the floor back left fired through a snoot to restrict light spill. The studio light is actually only about 2 feet from her, nicely removed in photoshop and replaced with the black background. The closer the light to your subject the gentler the light looks but that's another post!

There's nothing to stop you from mixing studio lights with flash units. If you're just starting out and you're looking to buy one studio light to start with play with it, but once you're ready to try some 2 light setups use a flash for a while until you're ready to splash out.

Crosslighting with the sun

A simple technique that works beautifully is to have one flash on a light stand, in this case to the back right of my daughter and have the sun front left, with both light sources directly facing each other with your subject in the middle. The best examples of this type of photography that I'm familiar with can be found at the State of the Nation Blog. Set your exposure so that the Sun lights your subject nicely, then slowly build up your flash until you get the result you want, making sure that your shutterspeed is below your max sync speed on your camera. If that means nothing to you, but you want to know more, drop me a comment and I'll go into more detail in these posts to explain!

The power of a flash unit

Callum did work experience with me last Summer. It's nice that we;ve kept in touch and done other bits and pieces since. we recently talked about taking some shots to help him promote a cricket tour to Antigua later this year. This is what we came up with. It was a basic net practise and he wanted some shots of the lads just practising. I knew the location and knew I was going to struggle to get what I was being asked for with 'natural' light. I took light stands and flash units anyway and after shooting what I'd been asked for, we agreed to let me try something else.

I set up 2 flash units, 1 directly to the subject's left, 1 to the right. I knew that with natural light 1/250th wouldn't completely freeze motion so reminded of a post at Strobist a few days ago http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/01/control-your-world-with-ultra-high-sync.html . I dropped the exposure until the background turned black and then added the light. 1/250th F5.6 ISO 200 (ish). This was taken in a normal Gym with normal gym lighting switched on.



Pretty pleased with them.