Add Drama to Your Lighting with Joe McNally

One of the first principals of using flash, often times, is to move that flash in close. So close that it almost encroaches on the frame and the composition you are creating. Reason being, the bigger the source of light, and closer that light is to your subject, the softer, more wrapping, and more forgiving the quality of the illumination. Highlights get rounded and easy going. Shadows start softly, growing deeper gradually, and retain detail.

But what if you want sharp, hard, clearly delineated shadows? The soft approach is not the only one available to you for environmental portraiture. Occasionally, the situation at hand calls for hard, fast, dramatic light. Light that creates shadows that are like a knife edge, and go to black immediately. For this effect, it is advisable to reverse the soft light mandate of “closer and bigger is better” and make your light source small and far away.

The ballerina is being illuminated by an SB-900 hot shoe flash that is out in the street, in a rain storm, and about 90 or so feet from here. The result is drama, and strong shadows.

Learn more from Joe in his workshop
Traveling Light: Location Lighting with Small Flash
August 1-7, 2010

Visit his blog at www.joemcnally.com/blog/ to see what he's up to.