Working with Off-Camera Flash is Great!

Step Three

For this shot, we combined both of the previously mentioned advantages of a larger light source. First, we used a single flash and a small diffuser dome. But that dome didn’t do much diffusing, did it? That’s because it didn’t significantly enlarge our light source or bring it any closer to the subject. This hard light left a distracting shadow on the background and I didn’t like how the shadows on the model’s face were plunged into total blackness. 

To fix this, we attached the umbrella and tried again. This time, our now-softer light does a great job of wrapping around and opening up those shadows on the model’s face. Secondly, the larger light source spread out and evenly lit up the rest of the scene, which helps to create a more natural-looking setting and diffuses the distracting background shadow shown in the first shot.