Flash photography tip: Forget the inverse square law
Thursday 13 June 2024, 20:02 by Elja Trum | 2,806 views | 3 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
The inverse square law seems very complicated, but as far as I'm concerned, you don't need to know the maths behind it at all. In fact, you can forget the square law completely. What matters is that you know what effect it has and how you can use it.
The inverse square law says that when your subject is twice as far away, you only have a quarter of the energy (flash power) left.
Or, put another way, when you halve the distance between your flash and your subject, your flash light becomes 4 times as powerful.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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3 comments
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guest wrote on Tuesday 18 June 2024 at 12:19 | replyFor beginners, the Inverse Square Law, or ISL (useful for videos on YouTube), is essential. I regularly see photos that make your hair stand on end because the essence of flash photography has not been learned. Getting creative only works after having practiced extensively with all kinds of light modifiers. Promoting throwing ISL overboard is, IMO, not a good topic for this platform.
Translated from Dutch. -
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Koen van Venetië wrote on Tuesday 18 June 2024 at 15:43 | replyI never use flash with my Canon cameras and I photograph a lot in dark spaces.
Translated from Dutch.
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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
