Something I always reccomend to photographers wondering what gear to buy is a small flash. Even if it’s only used on camera, one flash unit can be an incredible help in many kinds of situations. However an area that I notice people are often hesitant to get into, is using their flash off-camera.

One common misconception is that you need more than one flash unit to get any decent light with off-camera flash. While having additional flash units does help, there are an incredible amount of things you can do with only one. Using some simple workarounds you can often make it look like there are more then one.

Here’s a list the 5 ways that I would most often use my flash back in the days when I only had one. but first you need to get your flash to fire (uh, flash) off the camera. Any relatively new Nikon speedlight and dslr combo will have the ability to fire without any additional hardware. For more information on how to get your flash to work off camera,  go here or here or google it. Also, keep in mind that many of these setups can be done with any type of light source, and aren’t strictly limited to small flashes. If you’ve got some extremely powerful normal lights lying around, you can use those as well. Feel free to send me an email or comment if you’ve got questions.

1. Backlight

One flash behind and/or slightly to the side of your subject can do wonders. The high contrast, the flare, the halos, I love it all. If I’ve only got one flash with me and I want to spice up an photo a little, this is my go-to. Just spock (put) a flash behind your subject, experiment with power settings, and watch the magic happen.

Examples:

2. Fill

It’s possible do this with on-camera flash as well, but I prefer it off camera for more consistency. I use this often, but its probably the most noticeable at concerts when all the lights are wonky colors and I want the subject to be in a normal colored light. Direct or bounced depending on if I want it soft or hard.

3. Background light + Key (Your main light)

The photo ad below was lit with one flash, an sb-27. I didn’t have a special background, its just pieces of white paper laid out on a table with a piece of desk top glass laid over the paper, and a white wall. Originally I had the flash hitting the background only to make it pure white, and used the ambient light to expose the foreground. However I didn’t like the quality of the light I was getting from the foreground, so I added a reflector in front, to reflect the light that was coming from the background onto the foreground.

If that went over your head I’ll be doing an entire post on achieving this look (with people too, not just products) with only one flash.

4. Creepy man in the dark.

Essentially the opposite of the light setup above, this time you try to light the background as little as possible. Bounce the flash off a wall, and keep the subject close to the light source.

I would recommend using a reflector for some fill if you want a little more of a humane look.

5. Emphasis on something

Pretty self explanitory, you light one element with the flash to draw attention to it. The power of the flash in relation to the ambient light will determine how powerful the effect is.

All done

So there you go, five ways to use one flash to achieve dramatically different effects. I hope to go into a little more detail on each of them in future posts so stay tuned. If you, like many people, already have a flash unit, I would encourage you to find a way to fire it off camera, and start experimenting. You will be surprised at how much of a difference a little well planned use of light can make. Like mister McNally says, “light is the language of photography, and we need to know how to speak eloquently.”

If dont have an external flash, and youre looking to buy something that will hugely affect the quality of your photos, then that is what I would reccomend. You dont need a high end flash like an sb-900 or 580ex if youre just starting with off-camera flash. For Nikon users I would definitely recommend the Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras, that link takes you to where I would buy it from too. If you own a nikon d-slr then it will work right away, with no extra hardware needed, off camera.

I will leave you to ponder.