I call this column speedlighter for a reason. Many, many of my shots are made with small flashes, “speedlights”.
Like this one, of the model by a door at an abandoned house;
To get the moody look, I used
- The Canon 1Dx with a 24-70 f/2.8 lens
- The camera set to manual, 200 ISO, f/5.6, 1/200th second.
- A 600EX speedlight on the Camera, used only as a master (flash disabled other than that)
- A 580EX speedlight on a lightstand, fired into an umbrella; used as slave
- Simple automatic TTL flash metering!
A pre-shoot setup test shot shows the light dropoff, and you can just about see the flash/stand on the right:
This was daylight, but the flash allows me to make the daylight basically disappear.
That’s the power of light, the power of added light, the power of flash: I do not like to think of what life was like before this. And a single speedlight, light stand, mounting bracket, and umbrella is all you need – and this is really speedy. They are called speedlights for a reason!