The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes

Some Light Conversation

I OFTEN REFER TO LIGHT as the language of photography. You can scream and shout, or you can whisper. You can be smooth as a salesman, or you can be as sweaty and loud as a carnival barker.

All these pictures were shot with the subject and the camera in the same place. The lens did not change. Neither did the background or the camera’s point of view. But the light did. Hence my conversation with the subject changed. In turn, he says something different to the viewer.

I would describe the first light solution as smooth light. It comes from one source, an overhead 3×3′ Lastolite Skylite panel. There are two SB-800 ...