The showpiece Recreate the shot seen on the first pages of the project

Create a superb showpiece using a Speedlight and some clever light positioning

By placing a Colour Temperature Orange (CTO) gel over the flashgun we can colour the light. This emulates the light of sunrise/ sunset, which usually has warmer tones like orange and red. We synced it with our Nikon D750 using a flash trigger and set it to Through The Lens (TTL) mode. Doing this means the flashgun communicates with the Nikon and decides on the appropriate light intensity output. We then experimented with extending the shutter speed to increase ambient light intensity. How much ambient light you decide to include is completely subjective.

1 Speedlight set up

We set the Speedlight to TTL and placed an SU-800 on the hotshoe of our Nikon D750. We then selected Group A, Channel 1 on both devices to trigger them together.

2 Aiming high

The showroom had high windows so we put the flash on a C-stand (a sturdy light stand) and raised it up. We then angled it down slightly to flash through the glass.

3 Position yourself

We then positioned ourselves slightly off-centre to the car – shooting across it diagonally to include the window in the top-right of our camera’s frame.

4 Drag the shutter

Dragging the shutter means to extend the exposure whilst using flash light. Here we have a dark scene with shadow, shooting at the sync speed of the flash at 1/200 sec.

5 Double the speed

The only thing changed in this shot is the shutter speed – it was extended to 1/100 sec. Notice the ambient light becoming brighter and the shadows lightening.

6 Bring out shadows

We’ve doubled the shutter speed again to 1/50 sec and now you can see the once-dark shadows are brighter and the effect of the Speedlight is much less noticeable.