Flash photography tip: Place something between your flash and your model

Thursday 9 May 2024, 15:30 by Elja Trum | 2,403 views | 0 comments

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

In normal lighting conditions, you often have both light and shadows. You can bring this into your flash photography too. Simply place something between your flash and your subject that you flash through.

Think of Luxaflex, for example. This creates unusual patterns of light and shadow.

Lenny - f/8, 1/80s, 100 ISO @ 70mm
To get harder shadows, it is important to use a small light source. So, for example, a bare flash. This makes the shadows more visible in your photo.

A larger, softer light source would produce soft shadows, making the effect much less prominent.

What you place between your light and your subject is also often called a 'gobo'.

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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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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 Photofacts

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