Small Flash: High-Speed Sync

Step Four

Now that we’ve found a balanced ambient exposure; established our camera settings to blur the background, causing our subject to stand out more; and set our flash to sync at those settings, we can start to modify the light. Before adjusting our flash power, I decided that the fill light on our model’s face needed to be softened a little. To do this, I simply grabbed a reflector that had a one-stop diffusion panel on it and handheld it between the flash and our model. This served to soften our originally harsh light to a more flattering swath of light, and at the same time absorbed enough of the flash that our model’s face was no longer overexposed.