Pack some punch into a portrait

1 Trigger the lights

First sort out how you’ll trigger the Speedlights. We used a couple of Yongnuo YN622N wireless flash triggers that sat underneath each flash. Then we put a transmitter on the hotshoe of the Nikon. We turned them on, used Group A, channel 1 and they both fired simultaneously.

3 Light the back

We placed a blue coloured gel in front of the first flashgun, which we positioned on the floor around 4ft away from the backdrop. We want the rear light to be darker than our model’s key light, so set it to 1/16 power. With the flash aimed slightly upwards we took a test shot.

5 Position the model

Have your model pose in a variety of ways. Get them to hold poses looking towards the yellow key light and some looking away. We found that the best images came when our model was looking towards the key light, because it showed greater detail in her face.

2 Test settings

Dial in some starter settings. We recommend f/9, 1/200 sec shutter speed and ISO100. This should give a decent depth of field, synchronise the shutter with the flash duration and keep ISO noise to a minimum. Now it’s a case of setting your flash power to balance the light.

4 Highlight the model

We placed our model a further 2ft in front of the blue flashgun and popped the other Speedlight up on a light stand, side-lighting the model with a yellow gel. This is the key light and should be brighter than the backdrop light, so we increased the output to 1/2 power.

6 Swap the gels

After some successful shooting we decided to swap the blue gel for pink and the key for a light blue. Once you have the lights balanced, camera settings sorted and your composition nailed, it’s always worth mixing things up a little to get extra images with a different feel.