Lighting How To

The first thing I did after receiving Flashpoint’s 180 battery-powered monolight was shoot a few tests to get a feel for how well the unit performed. Although impressed, more so than with some other battery-powered units I’ve used, at one point while shooting with a Canon EOS 60D, a BG-E9 battery grip, and an EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens, I thought, “Wow, why is this camera so heavy?” That was when the “Small Monolight/Small Camera” concept was born and I decided to shoot this review using a Micro Four Thirds camera. And why not, so I worked with my Panasonic Lumix G5 for the test.

You bought your DSLR or high-end compact camera to shoot by available light without flash. The latest digital cameras, for the most part, are capable of producing exceptional results at high ISO settings under very dim conditions. But there are times when a little flash makes all the difference in the world. 

Previously I discussed photographing bubble solution stretched across a frame. You can get the same swirling pearlescent colors in the spherical surface of a bubble as it’s sitting on glass. When I was experimenting with this a few years ago, I discovered that you could even blow a bubble inside a bubble and then another one inside of that. Image (#1) is a picture of a bubble in a bubble in a bubble in a bubble.

There I was, 20 years old behind the sideline barricade of an arena football game clutching to my now outdated Canon EOS 20D with a 200mm lens slapped on it. I raced back and forth behind the separating wall with a cluster of other photographers—feverishly snapping off images as the players sprinted up and down the field and crashed into one another and off the barriers. It was my first sporting photo assignment.

It’s a good thing that early photographers didn’t have to pass through airport security with their flash equipment. The pyrotechnics they used to light a scene would surely have merited more than a pat down. Many years ago, long before the flash tube or flashbulb, a century or so before the Flashcube, cameramen used a flash powder called thermite.

In his new book, Wes Kroninger’s Lighting (ISBN: 978-1-608952-54-0, Amherst Media, $34.95 US), the author and photographer draws on his experience as a portrait, commercial, and editorial photographer to present strategies that will help photographers bring out the beauty and character in all of their subjects—from kids, to businessmen, to fashion models.

There are two real reasons to use a flash bracket. The first is to raise the flash high enough above the lens so that shadows just drop behind the subject instead of off to one side. When keeping a suitable distance from the background, the shadow will usually just disappear. The second is to eliminate the dreaded "redeye" caused by the flash being too close to the...