Lighting Tutorial: Using 1 Speedlight And Recyclable Stuff From Around The House

Sometimes having a messy studio can inspire you to shoot. I have all sorts of boxes and plastics lying around my studio because I only clean it when I have a client coming. This it inspired me to do a shoot using things that are scattered around. So, this is a quick article on shooting with just one Speedlight and recyclable stuff.

What you will need:

Camera
Speedlight
Wireless Trigger
Box
Some plastic

How to put your crap to a good use

1. I was shooting with my Fuji Xe-2 and my trusty sb-600 speedlight with a YN wireless trigger, but you can, of course, use the camera lens and speed light of your choice.

Place your subject really close to the background. Put your speedlight 45 degrees left or right to the subject, bare. I set the power to about 1/16 on both strobes and was shooting at 1/125 f3.2 ISO 100. It’s very important that you use a bare speedlight to get a defined shadow on your subject and background.

2. Get 2 pieces of illustration board OR recycled boxes and place it in front of your speedlight. Because you are using a speedlight you need to chimp the position of the subject and distance of the boxes from each other to get the look or shadow that you want.

For the white balance, I was shooting between Flash and daylight WB.

3. After shooting for a while I found some plastic on the floor. I got it and placed it directly in front of my lens to get a distorted effect on the side of the photos. Also play around with the position of the plastic to get the look you want. You can also try freelensing, it’s fun and creative.