Studio Techniques: One Light Photography Tutorial
Setup Three
What many people don’t realize is that while working with studio strobes is cool, the same techniques can be used with small flash. In the past, small flash was often regarded as the alternative if you really need light, but today it’s a full-blown system that simply rocks.
There are several companies out there making some greatmodifiers for small flash, but one of my favorite companies is ExpoImaging and their Rogue flash modifiers. In the following image, I used a Rogue Grid mounted on a Canon 580EX II. With small flash, I almost always measure the light the same way I do with studio strobes, the problem with E-TTL is that when you shoot a setup like this where there’s a lot of blacks and shadows in the image, the measurement can be fooled and you’ll end up with an overexposed image. You can zoom in on the face and press Lock Exposure, then zoom out and shoot the image. This will often give you a good exposure but in the end, it’s quicker to measure and shoot, not minding the composition, and get a constant exposure on every shot.