Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

I LET THERE BE LIGHT

1 UNDERSTANDING THE QUALITIES OF LIGHT

Front Lighting

Down Lighting

Color Temperature

White Balance

Hard and Soft Light

Inverse Square Law and Light Falloff

2 MEASURING THE LIGHT

Light Meters to the Rescue

How a Camera Sees Light

Nikon Metering Modes

Spot Metering

Highlight-Weighted Metering

Center-Weighted Metering

Matrix Metering

Measuring Ambient Light and Flash Light

3 CONTROLLING EXPOSURE

Exposure Settings

Shutter Speed

Equivalent Exposures

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Values

Adjusting Exposure Compensation

Flash Compensation

Exposure Compensation with Flash Compensation

4 THE CAMERA

Creative Lighting System Compatibility

Professional Cameras

Enthusiast Cameras

Entry-Level Cameras

5 LIGHTING IN YOUR POCKET

How a Flash Works

Current Speedlight Lineup

Specialized Speedlights

SB-R200 Remote

SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander

Older and Discontinued Flashes

6 MAKING THE MOST OF THOSE COOL EXTRAS

Types of Batteries

Care and Feeding of Batteries

My Battery Plan

Supplemental Battery Pack

TTL Remote Cords

7 LIGHT MODIFIERS FOR SMALL-FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY

Speedlight Options

Zoom the Flash Head

Wide-Angle Diffuser Panel

Tilt and Rotate

Flash Illumination Patterns

Diffusion Dome

Diffusion Panel

Snoots, Grids, and Gobos

Color Correction

Product Options

Lastolite Accessories

Joe McNally Signature Line

LumiQuest Modifiers

Honl Photo Light Shapers

ExpoImaging Flash Tools

Westcott Line

8 HOLD ON TO YOUR FLASH

Basic Light Stands

Umbrella Brackets

Multiple Flash Brackets

III CREATIVE LIGHTING SYSTEM

9 FLASH FUNDAMENTALS AND THE CREATIVE LIGHTING SYSTEM

Through the Lens (TTL)

Auto-Flash/Auto-Aperture (A)

Guide Number (GN)

Repeating (RPT)

Flash Value Lock

Recomposing Your Image

A Photo Series with Consistent Lighting

Avoiding Blinkers

Intelligent TTL Metering

Sync Speed and High-Speed Sync

Wide-Area AF-Assist Illuminator

Flash Color Information Communication

10 ADVANCED WIRELESS LIGHTING

The Basics of Off-Camera Flash with AWL

Flash Power Setting

Repeating Flash Commander Mode

Quick Wireless Control Mode (A:B)

11 OFF-CAMERA FLASH TRIGGERS

Working with Groups

Advantages to Using Radio Triggers

Disadvantages to Using Radio Triggers

Using Radio Triggers

Setting the SU-4 Mode

Flash Modes Available in SU-4 Mode

Using SU-4 Mode

Mixing Radio and Line of Sight

IV LIGHTING TECHNIQUES FOR PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS

12 PORTRAIT LIGHTING

Shadows and Light

Basic Lighting Patterns

Rembrandt Lighting

Loop Lighting

Butterfly Lighting

Split Lighting

Broad and Short Lighting

Soft Light vs. Hard Light

Using One Light and Two Lights

Using Three or More Lights

Environmental Portraits

Before the Shoot

Taking the Portrait

Location Lighting Packing Checklist

13 LIGHTING ACTION SHOTS

Freezing Action

High-Speed Sync

Multiple Flashes

14 PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTING

Product Photography Basics

Product Photography Setup

Prepping Your Items

General Cleaning

Cleaning Electronics

Different Surfaces

Different Colors

Flagging the Light

Working in Close

Choosing the Right Lens

Controlling the Depth of Field

Product Lighting Strategies

One Speedlight

Two Speedlights

Multiple Speedlights

Drops, Splashes, and Pours

V SPEEDLIGHTS IN ACTION

15 PORTRAIT SHOOTS WITH ONE FLASH

16 PORTRAIT SHOOTS WITH ONE OFF-CAMERA FLASH

17 PORTRAIT SHOOTS WITH MULTIPLE OFF-CAMERA FLASHES

18 SPEEDLIGHTS USED FOR ACTION

19 PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY EXAMPLES

Strawberry Splash

Sunglasses and Watch

Beverage Bottle

Speedlight Resources