They simply place the flash to the side (and often at a too-extreme 90 degree angle from their own position), with the flash too low in height. Your subject’s pose and their position most often dictates how you should place the flash.

Shutter Speed (Almost) Doesn’t Matter A flash will provide a burst of light that only lasts for a fraction of a second, somewhere in the realm of 1/1000 second or faster for most flashes. If your shutter speed is at 1/250 second or 1/50 second, both exposures will receive the full power of that flash.

Off-camera flash is actually quite simple. All you need to fire a flash off camera is (1) a speedlight flash, (2) a trigger/receiver to wirelessly fire the flash, and (3) your camera. Also, infrared won’t fire the flash from very far way.

The term on-camera flash, or speedlight, simply refers to a type of strobe light (flash) that can connect directly to your camera. While it is generally referred to as “on-camera,” this does not require the flash to be physically mounted on your camera. On-camera flashes can, and often are, used off-camera.

ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT TO GET STARTED WITH OFF CAMERA FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

1. No. A Flash.
2. Wireless Trigger and Receiver Set. The transmitter mounts onto the hot shoe of your camera, the receiver attaches to your flash.
3. Ni-MH Batteries for your Flash and Triggers.
4. Umbrella Mount.

one flash

If you’re just starting out, I’d suggest using your one flash to light the front of your subject. In most cases, if you put the light at a 45-degree angle to the subject, it will look nice. I use this quite often outside with the sun behind them.

Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT The 430EX III is an excellent purchase for those on more of a budget, but who want a Canon speedlite. This unit has a very respectable flash strength, more than enough for the majority of situations. It’s a great hot-shoe flash which can be used for portrait sessions or weddings.

The majority of the time, shooting outdoors doesn’t require firing a flash, even in the shade, as the sun does most of the hard work for you. If you have a subject that you can move, try to get them to change their positioning so that the sun hits them from the side rather than from behind.

Generally, you will see professional photographers using external flashes or studio strobes instead of the built-in on-camera flash.

To get the best light, try going 2-3 hours before sunset or 1-2 hours after sunrise. The sun at these times is pretty low and doesn’t cause contrasting shadows. It does provide you with great outdoor portrait lighting. A gloomy cloudy day produces soft light for outdoor portraits with a natural, rounded look.

Generally speaking, the best time of day for outdoor portraits is golden hour, which is about one hour before sunset or one hour after sunrise. You can still create beautiful photos at other times though.

If the sun is behind you, the subject in your photo will be illuminated from the front, ensuring that your subject is evenly and well lit. Shooting with the sun behind you is great for landscape photography as it allows your camera to capture a well lit scene with blue sky, clouds and plenty of detail.

The best time of day to take portrait photos is in the couple hours after sunrise and the couple hours before sunset. Within that time, it is better to shoot after the morning golden hour or before the evening golden hour.

Here are 10 reasons why you should consider using a light panel instead of a softbox for your next shoot.

• Wide shot of two self-standing PVC light panels fitted with diffusion and black fabric.
• A bridal portrait primarily lit using two light panels.

While a smaller umbrella is plenty big for tabletop photography, most products and tight places, after weighing the two options, I usually recommend a larger umbrella like the 60″ with Removable Black cover. From the viewpoint of a people photographer, I like my modifiers large and the light soft.

200-300 watts

Trying to find the balance of power and Aperture can be tricky, one thing for sure though, having 1200 watts in a softbox is pointless, its more like a 300W and turned down to less than 30 watts. Heck less than 10 watts is preferable….How many watts for which type of light modifier?

You need several CFL’s to equal 1 incandescent photo light bulb of 500 watts. They are huge, so not all softboxes are appropriate for those bulbs. If you are not using a heavy duty light stand, your softbox can easily tip over if you are using four bulbs in one head.

Studio flash output is measured in watts per second, or Joules (basically the same thing). A home studio or small commercial studio will manage with lights of around 200w/s. Larger studios will mostly only need up to around 400w/s or 500w/s – you rarely need to go any higher.