Now, back to Photography 101. In this situation, your ambient (shade)
light level will typically be about two stops less or f/5.6 at^1 / 250 second. You
will want your flash main light to be about a stop higher to produce a high-
light and to create the correct lighting pattern on her face and body. If you’re
looking for a softer highlight (about a 2:1 ratio), you’ll want to get an f/5.6
out of your flash; that will give you an f/8 highlight. (Remember light is ad-
ditive, so f/5.6 plus f/5.6 gives you f/8.) If you’re looking for a more con-
trasty, more specular highlight, and deeper shadows, set your flash to get an
f/8 output—f/8 plus f/5.6 equals f/11.
At first, you’ll probably need to take a few meter readings, but after a
while, you’ll have done it enough to know that at six to ten feet away from
the subject, your flash will give you f/5.6 at^1 / 16 power. If you need to place
it fifteen feet away (you don’t want it in the picture, after all), set it at^1 / 2
power.
A Trick for Reducing Flash Power. You’ll undoubtedly run into situ-
ations where your flash is too powerful, even at its lowest setting. When that
happens, use this neat trick from David Bently. A number of years ago, bare-
bulb lighting was all the rage. But what if you don’t have a flash that allows
you to take off the reflector or head? Bently described how he stapled wax
paper into a cone that he could just slip over the top of his Sunpak. This
works great. While I’m not interested in 360-degree lighting (nor do I have
enough battery power), I’ve found that the wax paper diffuser works just as
74 MASTER GUIDE FOR GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Dana is a thirty-something fitness competitor.
In this image, I posed her with the sun at her
back, using it as a separation light. A portable
flash positioned 45 degrees to camera right
and about a foot above her eye level actually
supplied the main light. The flash was set to
equal the ambient shade light level to produce
a natural looking loop-light pattern on her
face. The low light ratio (2:1) prevents the
shadow areas on her face and body from block-
ing up.