I promised some goods, well here they are. If you have ever wanted to take great headshots on a budget, then step into my office. I am going to show you how to achieve great looking shots with one speed-light (flash).
Before we start, here are a few speed-lights that I use.
Godox V1 (avg £229) This is my main light that I use.
At a glance, all of these lights could seem expensive but if you compare these to native flashes, you are saving hundreds of ££s.
The Godox V1 is a 1/4 of the Profoto A1 price which is around £949. YIKES!
With these speedlights, I will use a modifier to soften the light and also get it an even spread across the subject. Modifiers I recommend are:
So now that the gear talk is out of the way, let’s talk about how we achieve the look.
Fortunately I use a 85mm F1.4 lens that gives me the ultimate blur (bokeh) background but if you are using a kit lens, then my tip for you would be to open your aperture to the lowest F stop number and then move your subject as far away from the background as possible whilst still thinking about your focal length/distance. If you are unsure on how depth of field works (DOF) then I suggest you have a look at my PDF found here.
Once you have sorted the positioning of your subject, turn your attention to the position of your light. Typically, wherever you position your light, you want your subject to be the same side and in front of it. Have the light slightly above the subject and tilted down to a 45° angle onto the subject.
As your camera is pointing straight on, be sure to set your focus, then compose your shot with your subject on either the left or right side of your shot so you are framing them in one third of your viewfinder.
Now you have the shot set up, it’s time to work on lighting your subject. This could be done through TTL mode on your flash or you can set your exposure for the subject without the flash by doing a few test shots. Keep in mind that you will be lighting the subject, so you want them to be underexposed when doing these test shots. Once you are happy, go ahead and turn on your flash. Try out different power settings, move the light around. Doing this will help you see what the light does at different settings and angles.
Once you have found that sweet spot, only change (if need be) your ISO in order to take in or lose the ambient light that you might have.
To give you an idea, the shot below was taken with the following settings:
ISO 100
1/80
F1.4
Flash power was 1/32 with the Mini Portable soft-box.
And there you have it. This post is not designed to show you the ins and outs with settings etc, its just to show you whats achievable with a cheaper light set up!
So remember if you can’t beat, cheat it!
Until next time!!