LIGHTING TECHNIQUE NO.1 Like the sun, flash pointed directly at the subject produces harsh shadows. By bouncing or diffusing the flash, the light is softened. Softening the light is a common technique in photo studios. By pointing the flash head toward a white ceiling or wall, the flash is bounced to produce indirect lighting. This bounce flash technique can be easily done even with a shoe-mount Speedlite whose flash head can be rotated or tilted. However, since shoe-mount Speedlites do not have the high power that studio flash have, using a faster and more powerful unit for bounce flash is essential. Bounce the flash to soften the light. It gives the picture a different look. For Photo 1, the Speedlite on the camera was pointed toward the light cream-colored ceiling to bounce the flash. T be: warm lighting covering the ceiling and walls and the flash bounced off the ceiling combined to make the family faces look alive. Shadows produced by the bounced flash were eliminated or softened. Compare with Photo 2 which had a direct flash. As you can see, the light becomes hard. LIGHTING TECHNIQUE NO.2 Control multiple Speedlites to attain the lighting effect you want "The basics of lighting start with one source, the sun." This is an often-heard saying. However, by using additional light sources to supplement the main light, the creative possibilities become greater. Previously, using two or more Speedlites required professional expertise to calculate the proper exposure. Today, the use of TTL extension cords to connect the camera to remote Speedlites for maintaining TTL autoflash control is the most common method. With the Canon Speedlite 550EX, E-TTL wireless autoflash is possible with multiple Speedlite 550EXs. In addition, a Speedlite 550EX (set as the master unit) or Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 attached to the EOS-3 can control the flash ratio of up to two groups of Speedlite 550EX slave units. Food should be enjoyed with your eyes as well. Muitiple Speedlites can make it look even more appetizing. The restaurant uses top lighting and indirect lighting to make the food on the table look more mouth-watering. This lighting can also be reproduced for food photography. For Photo A, multiple Speedlites were used to effectively highlight the food and flowers and to create dimension. For Photo B, only one direct Speedlite was used. It looks flat with little dirmension compared to Photo A. Needless to say, the food looks better in Photo A. For further reference, one Speedlite was fired off the wall for side lighting for Photo C which resulted in a completely different look compared to the other single Speedlite example, Photo B. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 .