This was shot in a classroom at the Calumet Store in London, England.  It’s a simple two-light setup, one with a PowerSnoot on a lightstand, and the second with a LSC Snoot (Black) with three different color domes.  The trick here is to make sure that your flash from the “spot” light (on model’s face) does not hit the wall behind the model.  This is why the Snoot is crucial for this purpose.  It directs light right on the model but not on the wall.  If I didn’t have the snoot on, the wall would be “contaminated” by white light and you wouldn’t see the beautiful halo effect behind the model.

Here is the lighting diagram…

The Powersnoot was on a lightstand.  The flash itself was set to E-TTL, and I had the subject face the camera.  There are two very important things to remember if you want a deep deep color on the white wall:

1) Underexpose the flash unit by two stops (therefore the camera with the color dome was set to TTL-2)  and

2) Make sure that the light from your main light does not spill onto the wall.  If this light spills onto the wall, this causes the color to “dilute”.  This is why the PowerSnoot is important.  It directs light in such a tight beam that you can have it light just the face, and not the wall behind.  Note where the snoot was positioned.  If you drew a straight line from the PowerSnoot to the wall, it would only hit the wall way behind the subject.

The light behind the model was on the floor, using the same little stand holder that came with the flash.

The camera was set on “M” (Manual) setting because the TTL will take care of the flash exposure accurately.  When shooting Manual, you can change the shutter speed up to 1/250th of a second.  When indoors, and when ISO is set to 100, having this fast shutter speed will obliterate available light.  When shooting outdoors, I use HSS (High Speed Sync Mode) aka “AutoFP” on Nikon series cameras.  This allows me to shoot at up to 1/8000th of a second, at ISO 100.  That makes the available light completely dark.  Changing the shutter speed and aperture in Manual mode, you can mix the background light and the flash lighting with a wide range.

Adam Cooper

I love seeing shots from contributors. This one is by Adam Cooper, RBP, FBCA. This is a location portrait shoot. I asked him to explain his settings, and this is what he shared with me:

I used the Nikon D3s, with the 70-200mm f2.8 lens, set at about 180mm. Using the Pocket Wizard TTL, I set the camera to Manual mode and shot this at 1/60 sec at f/11. The subject was about 5-6 feet away from that background. I also used the expodisc color disc to set the color balance. Flash is TTL-BL mode. The exposure was dead on. The color was very close to perfect. The light was soft and directional at the same time. Also, the background was lit by the same light. ONE light only! White ceiling.

Thanks for sharing Adam – especially the fact that this is a single light setup.  I shared a new tip with Adam, that our dome is a great device for taking your sample photo for custom white balance.  (click here to see)