Flash photography tip: Put your light as close as possible

Saturday 10 June 2023, 22:44 by Elja Trum | 2,606 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

The size of your light is important, but if you place a very large light source a long way away, it effectively becomes a small light source again. It is about the size in relation to the subject you want to light.

Bare flash (top left) as a relatively large light source
Do you want to make the light as soft as possible? Then place your light source as close to your subject as possible. With a softbox, I usually place it just outside the frame, for example. The light source is then as large as possible in relation to your subject.

If you photograph a small subject, a huge softbox is often unnecessary too. You can easily photograph an insect with a bare flash, for example, as long as it is very close to the insect. In relation to such a small subject, the bare flash head is enormous, after all.

When your light is close to your subject, you also need less flash power. Your flash does not have to fire as hard to expose your subject properly. So you save quite a bit of power as well.

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