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Response to Travel Portrait/Fashion with single flash

from Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com)
Most of my people photography is done on location and often outdoors. My #1 lighting accessory is an assistant with a big reflector (my #2 lighting accessory would be a second assistant with another big reflector or diffusion panel). The ugly truth is that there is simply no way to make a small, portable flash mimic the kind of light you get from a large, diffuse source. I've used the kind of "mini softbox" you mentioned--the improvement in the quality of light was marginal at best; if traveling, I wouldn't even bother with it.

The good news is that there's plenty of great lighting in the world out there that doesn't require any modification by you--you just have to look for it and utilize it. Light-colored cement or sand provides great fill. A newspaper works, too.

The best general advice that I can think of is to stop thinking about the accessories you have and other technical issues and start trying to see the possibilities in the available light.

(posted 8352 days ago)

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