On Location: Create a Vintage Surfer Portrait on the Beach
Step Five
The beauty of modern off-camera flash is the ability to work wirelessly. A photographer can quickly add and control new lights in his shot, all done right at the camera. Since Stray was starting to think surfing might be more fun than standing for a portrait, I quickly placed another SB-900 under a kayak rudder in the back of the shop. This flash was set for group C, zoomed to 200mm, and aimed at some surfboards in the back of the shop. This added light gave more depth to the scene, and added more interest to the shot. Even though the SB-900 was out of sight from my SU-800 transmitter, the flash still triggered without missing a pop. I often find the wireless optical signal on my Speedlights works “out of sight” from the transmitter in shady locations.