More experimenting with speedlights
From time to time I like to dust off my case that contains my speedlights and various accessories and head off into the studio with them. The accessories are so many nowadays that my speedlight case is far heavier than my camera case, and as those of you who know me will be aware, that in itself is an achievement.
So last week there was one of those day and I headed off to Matrix Studio to meet up with Charn, who I have known for some years and always seems to produce some good results for me. Today was no exception.
You can fit speedlights into much smaller spaces that traditional studio lights, it isn’t as difficult to keep them out of shot and for me, they just seem to give a different light. On the downside, they aren’t as powerful and so you may need a wider aperture or a higher iso but with todays cameras this isn’t really too much of a problem and for me the advantages at times outweigh the disadvantages.
In the above gallery I was quite easily able to use gobo’s to create background effects and the equipment needed is reasonably cheap to purchase. I haven’t come across that many gobo devices for studio lights but the ones I have seen have been considerably more expensive to buy. Similarly, in the gallery below, the use of gels is made easier as you only need a small piece of gel to cover the speedlight and this can be easily held in place with a rubber band. Once the gel is in place I can add softboxes or any other modifier using an accessoryI have that allows me to add any piece of kit with a Bowens fitting.
I also like the way you can light for art nude with speedlights. If you’re looking for moody low key images then I like the control I get. I’m sure you can get the same with studio strobes and indeed I use them most of the time but I just find that little more control with the speedlights. Is there a downside? Of course there is, you don’t have a modelling light so you have to be more carful when positioning your speedlights but it’s something you get used to after a while.
So that’s about it. Another enjoyable day in the studio and some fun with my speedlights. If you get the chance give them a try.
