130 Part II ✦Creating Great Photos with the Creative Lighting System
Table 6.5Taking Environmental Portrait PicturesSetup Practice Picture: Figure 6.15 photo shows Chris, a metalworker,
working on his latest project, a custom bike frame. To give a
better sense of what metalworking is about, I also wanted to
show some action in the shot.
On Your Own: Portraits don’t have to be posed and static. When
photographing environmental portraits try to show some of what
the subject and the subject’s interest are about— strive to put
some of your subject’s personality in the portrait.
Lighting Practice Picture: I used an SB-600 held in my left hand to light
the subject’s face from the front while I photographed from an
angle further to the right. The Speedlight was set to wireless
remote and the D70’s built-in flash was used as a commander.
The commander flash was set to TTL.
On Your Own:Use the flash wirelessly in order to get the
lighting pattern you desire on your subject.
Lens Practice Picture: Tamron 70-300mm set to 70mm
On Your Own:Use a long telephoto lens to flatten your model’s
features— the further you are away from the model, the less the
apparent distance from their features is. Apparent distance is the
perceived distance things look from each other from a certain
perspective. Using a wide-angle lens at close range can cause a
nose to look big while also causing the ears to look too small.
Camera Settings Practice Picture: Manual, matrix metering, slow/rear flash sync,
Auto ISO. I set the camera to slow/rear flash sync to use a slower
than normal shutter speed in order to catch the light trails from
the sparks flying off of the grinding wheel. Although I don’t
normally use the Auto ISO setting, I was testing it out when I took
the shot in figure 6.15. Generally, the camera sets the ISO too
high for my liking, so I prefer to set the ISO manually.
On Your Own:Use the Manual or Aperture Priority settings to be
able to set your aperture and control your depth of field. Matrix
metering enables you use TTL BL while spot metering sets the
Speedlight to TTL, which results in an overall brighter lighting
pattern on your subject.
Exposure Practice Picture: 1/10 sec. at f/4.8, ISO 360
On Your Own: Unless you need a slower shutter speed to
convey some motion or action, using a shutter speed at or near
the sync speed of your camera is generally advisable. Anywhere
between 1/60 and 1/500 is sufficient. See your camera owner’s
manual for the top sync speed of your camera.
Accessories You may want to diffuse the light from the Speedlight by
bouncing from an umbrella or using a softbox.
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