Off Camera Flash Portrait In Flat Lighting

One of the things I'm faced with as a wedding and portrait photographer on a regular basis is flat, lifeless and boring light. Sometimes it can be impossible to do anything about it, especially if I'm shooting a wedding ceremony where I may not be allowed to use flash or it's just not convenient to do so. When this is the case, it's important that I concentrate on technique and try to capture 'the moment', the image can always be tweaked in Photoshop afterwards. On other occasions I may have time to add supplementary light by rigging up an off camera flash setup. A good example would be during the bride's preparation in the morning or possibly an intimate shot of the bride and groom after the ceremony has finished. I will generally have more time with them during these moments and it's really worth the extra effort setting up a shot and introducing some extra light if needed. It can really give punch and a certain wow factor to the finished image. During the summer months I try to use natural light with the aid of a reflector but during the darker months of Autumn and Winter I may need to introduce a flash because the light levels can be low and somewhat flat. I use a Nikon SB-700 with a Pixel King transmitter and receiver set. The combination works really well for me, the King's offering TTL metering and a flash sync speed of 1/8000 sec if needed.

The two images below show the differences that can be achieved by using a burst of flash and a bit of imagination and also show how easy it is to manipulate the light to create dramatic portraits, especially when a decent backdrop isn't available. The first image was taken of Emma in a garden with a Nikon D4 and Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8. I love this lens, it's stunningly sharp and I like using it for both full length and head and shoulder portraits. Depth of field is controlled really well and isolating a subject is easy. The longer focal length of this lens can also help put a nervous subject at ease as they don't have a camera and photographer up close and in their face, I find that it offers breathing space. As you can see, the first image below, while okay, is flat due to the overcast grey sky, looks quite cold and even though the background is out of focus, you can just make out a fence behind which is slightly distracting.


Nikon D4 with Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8

The settings selected were IS0 800, F8 @ 1/125 sec and a focal length of 200mm. Admittedly I could have used a wider aperture to throw the background out of focus even more but it would've still been visible and slightly distracting. Overall, there just isn't much definition on the face and it just lacks punch and looks a bit cold. It would be fine if it were a candid shot but we can do much better than this with a little thought, time and effort, and the introduction of flash.

Now that I had Emma where I wanted her I took another image, this time with the intention of completely underexposing it. To do this I experimented with aperture and ISO settings until I was happy the captured photograph was entirely black, no detail showing whatsoever. This in effect, makes up my black background. The settings used to do this were ISO 50, F8 @ 1/250sec, too fast for the sensor to record any light. I set a shutter speed of 1/250sec to match the Nikon's fastest flash sync speed. I know I mentioned earlier that the Pixel Kings would sync up to 1/8000sec and I have done this on numerous occasions, but to do this the camera has to cheat a bit ultimately leading to a slightly lower power output from the flash. As it was bright outside, shooting early afternoon, I wanted to utilise all of the SB700's available power so chose the maximum normal sync speed of 1/250sec. At this point it's worth mentioning that for this technique to work with a speedlight you probably won't want to try photographing during midday as the ambient light may be just too bright for the flash to overpower it. Seeking shade or waiting for the light levels to drop slightly may help considerably. Now it was time to introduce the flash. With the above settings dialled into the camera, ( ISO 50, F8 @ 1/250sec) the flash was placed on a tripod which was then fully extended to approximately seven feet in height. It's important to make sure the subject isn't close to a wall or some other object. Light from the flash can inadvertently spill onto it causing ugly distractions and spoiling the black background effect. I used a Lastolite Ezybox to help soften the light from the speedlight and the whole unit was placed to the left of Emma, about four feet away. Angling the flash down allowed more light to spill across the frame, helping to illuminate the right hand side of the face. (Emma's left) Even at this close distance, the SB-700 had to be fired at full power to achieve an exposure of my liking, hence the reason why I suggest shooting in shade or early morning/late afternoon light. The flash simply may not be powerful enough to illuminate the subject while you are trying to achieve an underexposed black background. It's then really a case of experimentation. I was happy with the exposure settings on the camera, (making sure I shot in manual mode to achieve this) so it was simply a case of moving and angling the flash slightly and changing the power settings until I achieve the desired effect. The beauty of adding flash to this image is that it really helped warm Emma's skin tone and also added beautiful catch lights in Emma's eyes. The finished image on the back of the camera's LCD screen looked great so I imported it into Photoshop where the raw file was converted to tiff and just tidied up, a touch of sharpening, levels and curves.


Nikon D4 with Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8

This is a great technique to use if you want to capture a 'powerful portrait' and don't have a particularly nice background or backdrop. It's pretty straight forward to set up and really is worth the effort. By converting the finished image to black and white afterwards in a software program the overall effect achieved can be even more powerful.

Plan of the setup

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