Two Lights
PHOTO 2.11 Julie in green The background is black seamless colorized with a green-filtered Speedlite. The green was selected to complement the clothing and eye color, and to add mood. Firing a filtered flash into the black background produces intense, saturated color and quick falloff for a dramatic haloed vignette effect. The combination background/hair light effect is produced with one Speedlite behind the subject. The Speedlite is on a low stand, tilted straight up, covered with a green gel, and is fitted with a diffusion material “sleeve” (see the section Diffusion Sleeve on page 147). The sleeve effectively turns the Speedlite into a soft, diffused flash that fires in predominantly two directions. Light striking the background gradates beautifully and light going forward illuminates the edges of the subject producing a rim light. If I wanted to illuminate only one side, I would place a black report cover over the opposite side of the sleeve as a gobo. The Main light is a Speedlite in a 12 16 white-lined softbox. I move my lighting in close, looking for the edge of the softbox in the viewfinder, then backing it up only an inch or two so it is out of the picture. The physical closeness of the light results in the glowing skin tones. It also produces large bright catchlights to add life and bring attention to the eyes. Classic Rembrandt lighting was created by using the light at 45 degrees to Julie’s face, accentuating and complementing the facial structure. A 3 6 white reflector was positioned to camera left as fill. It picked up some of the background light resulting in the green cast in the shadows.
Nikon and Canon use distinctively different control protocols for adjusting the relationship between multiple Remote/Slave Groups. The following sections for each manufacturer’s Wireless TTL control system will apply a logical aesthetic and technical process to make multiple Wireless TTL more intuitive, fluid, and creative. Canon: The LCD panel on the Master flash features Flash Exposure Compensation and Ratio controls for Slave Groups A, B, and C. The Master is always part of Group A. All flash Groups fire at brightness values relative to each other as dictated by the photographer. The flash brightness values are also affected by the quantity of existing or continuous light. The controls for all of these light sources can soon become intuitive if time is taken to analyze the effect of each one. If the Master and all the Slaves are in the same flash Group, they might fire at different powers but will all provide approximately the same brightness value. Use the key words to regulate the flash control to the effect desired in the image: Flash Exposure Compensation is used to adjust the flash highlights, i.e., the highlight exposure value, Ratio, is used to change contrast, often referred to as lighting ratio. 117