A light modifier does not have to cost you hundreds of dollars. For this shot, I used something that cost 10 cents…right out of my bag. It’s a piece of letter size paper.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was teaching a workshop in Kuala Lumpur, I tweeted for a photographers gathering at a Starbucks. Four of us showed up and we decided to have some fun strobing. Soon (the man in the picture) asked how TTL flashes work. I decided to do a live demo instead of talking about theories.
We talked about the common perception that we need expensive lighting equipment if we need to light properly. To disprove this misperception, I decided to work on this shot.
I bounced the flash onto a piece of paper and used that to create a soft and diffused main light. Why bounce? Well, I needed a larger light source. The bigger the light source, the more diffused the light is. The smaller the light source, the harsher the light. Just compare the light coming in through a 10’ x 10’ window with light from a spot light. Get my point?
By bouncing light from a piece of paper, I’ve made the tiny flash into a larger light source which produces a result that is similar to that of a small softbox.
Another flash was placed directly behind Soon to separate our subject from the dark background.
Big thanks to my VAL (voice activated lightstand), Mark Leo for helping out.
