Light the details

We had concentrated on using the studio flash units so far, but we decided against introducing a third studio light to the set-up. Instead, I asked Helen to use a small manual flashgun plus the studio flash units.

For the first shot, we reverted back to just a single key light, then positioned the small flash behind Antonia on the opposite side to this key light. Pointing the flash back towards her added an accent light to the right-hand side, which would otherwise have been in shadow.

At first this light was too bright, so we lowered the power on the flashgun and took another shot. The result was much more striking lighting than the soft, even light we had been using, producing a stronger-looking result. After experimenting with this set-up, I wanted to show Helen how this small flashgun could be used to produce different lighting on the white background. First we returned to the two-light setup that we had used before, then positioned the flash behind the model and pointed it towards the background.

By simply fixing a red gel over this flash, it produced a coloured backdrop. By using different gels, Helen could alter the look of her shots without having to change the background, which is far better than fiddling about in Photoshop.