- The Short Version
- Back to Basics, Quickly
- Shoot: Position Your Modifier with intention
- Shoot: One Speedlite with Fill Reflector
- Shoot: Creating Soft Fill Light with a Big Umbrella
- Shoot: Broad and Short Lighting
- Shoot: Think of The Shutter as a Light Modifier
- Shoot: Just a Slash of Light
- Shoot: RING The Lens with Light
- Shoot: Nose to The Gridded Light
- Shoot: One-Light White Seamless
- Shoot: Speedliting a Silhouette
- Shoot: Does Softbox Size Matter?
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Shoot: Just a Slash of Light
In addition to thinking about how you will light your subject, you should consider what will happen to the light that flies past your subject. When you are outdoors, the excess flash is typically not a problem. When you are indoors, the excess light may be undesirable—especially when your subject is close to the background.
Use A Narrow Softbox To Light The Subject, But Not The Background
For this shoot, we were shooting in an old warehouse. The layers of dust that accumulated on the nearby windows (top-right corner of Figure 19.22) created beautiful golden patches of light that angled down across the wall.
I wanted to light Isaac without having the excess flash fly past him onto the background. The go-to solution is a strip softbox. Strip boxes are much narrower than standard softboxes.
In this case, the Westcott Rapid Box Strip, at 10″ x 24″, was the perfect solution. As you can see in Figure 19.22, the softbox was pushed in tight—right up to the edge of the camera’s field of view.
This served two purposes:
- Being close enabled me to reduce the power to the minimum, which reduced the effect of the excess light flying past on the background wall.
- Being close increased the apparent size of the softbox (relative to Isaac), so the light appeared softer.
Lighting Details
Environment: Warehouse
Time of Day: Mid-afternoon
Ambient: Dusty glass windows, sunlight outside
Speedlite: One 600EX-RT
Mode: Manual
Zoom: Zoomed to 20mm
Modifier: Westcott Rapid Box Strip (10″ x 24″ softbox)
Distance: About 4′
Height: About 4′
Trigger: ST-E3-RT Transmitter
Camera Details
Camera: 5D Mark III
Lens: 24–105mm f/4L IS at 55mm
Distance to Subject: 6′
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure: 
″, f/8, ISO 400
White Balance: Daylight
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Figure 19.21 Lighting diagram
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Figure 19.22 Our location for the shoot
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Figure 19.23 The narrow softbox enabled me to cast soft light onto Isaac without it spilling onto the wall behind.