Small Flash Tutorial: Lights and Gels Techniques to Build Atmosphere

Step Two

Eric Valind

Now we’ve found our location, our lighting inspiration, and started working our model into the scene. Our first light inconspicuously starts to shape our model and bring him out of the darkness, but we still can’t see his face. We had better back up a step and figure out a key light or this won’t be much of a portrait.
Here’s where the compact size of the small flash really saved me. Working in an alleyway is cramped quarters to begin with and I initially tried to set up a bigger strobe and portable battery unit that I had along from an earlier setup. By the time that was on a light stand and we had attached a softbox we realized the issue: We couldn’t direct the light onto our model’s face without the softbox being in the frame or needing to knock down the wall of the building next to us. It was too big. This light got scrapped really quickly; fortunately, I had another pretty unique small flash modifier in my kit. I mounted a second Nikon SB-800 Speedlight—again warmed up with CTO gels—inside a SaberStrip strip light. This gave me a soft, even light in an extremely lightweight and skinny package. I had an assistant hold it just outside of the frame to create the dramatic cross-lighting pattern you see here.