Off -Camera Flash

Off-camera flash can be used to create stunning portraits, adding a level of depth and drama to your images you simply can’t achieve with forward-facing flash alone. We explore how it all works and what you need to get started…

- Audley Jarvis

Off-camera flash is a creative lighting technique that involves the off-camera placement of portable flashguns – or sometimes larger studio-style heads – to take control over the direction and intensity of light it produces. The technique can be used whether shooting in midday sunlight, or shooting in sunset and sunrise. It’s especially useful in portraiture and has long been used by wedding, commercial and fashion professionals. Off-camera flash is also now popular with enthusiasts and amateurs, thanks largely to the increased availability of cameras with built-in flash triggering technology and a fall in the price of wireless flash triggers and other flash-related accessories.

The idea behind off-camera flash is that rather than mounting your speed light on your camera’s dedicated flash hot shoe and shooting with the light it emits facing forward, you instead remove your flashgun and position it any where you like in relation to your subject. While front-facing flash can be effective, it can also lead to your subject looking flatter and more one-dimensional. By moving your flash off-camera so its light bathes your subject at an angle you can create portraits with a much greater sense of depth. A more advanced technique is to position several strobes at different angles and set them to different intensities to create pro results.

Essential equipment