I got a 430EX II a few weeks ago and I am going to be doing portraits over summer, so what would you recommend? An umbrella, a Soft box? I'm new to the idea of flash and studio lighting, so help is appreciated.
With one flash outdoors you'll want to get it vertical off axis to avoid overpowering the downward natural modeling with flat flash.
You first need to get faces up into the skylight (sun at back) so the brow doesn't shade the eyes by standing on a rock, bench, ladder then have the subject look up. The you want the flash to model the face the same way from the same downward angle. Raising the flash with a bracket does that automatically and produces flattering lighting on full face poses. Outdoors there is nothing to bounce the light so you need a modifer that projects light forward and is as big as practical. Outdoors with a 430ex range is limited by power and the bigger the modifer's footprint the more limited the range wili be.
Indoors you need to do pretty much the same. Room lights from overhead will usually shade the eyes, and if so you want the subject looking up to get rid of those ambient shadows. If you don't the eye sockets will still be darker than cheeks and seem dull, even with the catchlights the flash adds. You want the flash to create the same downward modeling as natural light. The bracket makes that more or less a no brainer. Indoors where there is a ceiling you'll want a diffuser that bounces some of the light forward and some off the ceiling and walls to create the "fill" that makes the shadows lighter.
One of the pitfalls of moving a single flash sideways on a stand is needing fill for the shadows it creates. If moving off axis indoors a modifer like white umbrella that also spills light off ceiling and walls will help keep the shadow light, but you won't have much control of the lighting ratio (tone of the shadows) that way. Two flashes (a 580ex on bracket with the 430ex on the stand) allow better control of fill and allows putting the off camera flash behind as rim light with the one on the bracket lighting the front. That works nicely for full length and action shots.
For more info and examples take a look at my Canon flash tutorials here: http://photo.nova.org
EDIT: sorry about the duplicates (now deleted). Don't know why they occurred...
gome1122 wrote:
I got a 430EX II a few weeks ago and I am going to be doing portraits over summer, so what would you recommend? An umbrella, a Soft box? I'm new to the idea of flash and studio lighting, so help is appreciated.
Your 7D's pop-up flash can act as a Master to control your 430EX II when the latter is off camera. It'll work well indoors in typical home-sized rooms where the bounced light from the pop-up can reach the sensor on the Slave flash. Outdoors, or in large rooms, it may not work reliably.
For portraits, you can set the pop-up (which will be Group A) to a low ratio to act as a near-axis fill, and set the Slave 430EX II to Group B at a high(er) ratio to act as the key light.
When using only one off-camera flash, I've used a soft box on that single flash -- which I would normally use on a fill light rather than on a key light -- with good results. I prefer it to an umbrella, as I have more control over the directionality/spill with the soft box.
The 7D does well enough at moderate ISO settings that the ambient light and bounced flash can light the background/environment, although additional lights allow more control.
Another accessory that I use is a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce. In case where I'm using an on-camera Speedlite indoors (moving around a lot, shooting in different rooms, etc.), I point the flash head up, and the Omni-Bounce casts the light up and also 360-degrees around. That way I get some direct light on the subject, and also multi-surface bounce as fill.
I particularly use the Omni-Bounce when doing "getting ready shots" of brides, shooting birthday parties, etc. where mobility is important. It's head and shoulders above using direct flash.
So, the accessories I'd suggest will be:
A light stand
I like the Manfrotto Combi Boom Stand for multiple uses from a single stand
A soft box
I like the 28" Apollo Soft Box, which is designed for use with Speedlites
A Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce
They sell models specifically to fit your model of flash
It's easy to get addicted to modified Speedlite shooting. I certainly am. I have three Canon Speedlites and one Vivitar 285HV at the moment, and I have everything from umbrellas to beauty dishes for them. They do all that I can ask of them.
I almost forgot another "must have" accessory: an off-camera shoe cord...or two.
When you're using just one Speedlite outdoors or in large rooms where you don't have good bounce-light opportunity, an off-camera cord will allow you to get the light further from the lens axis than mounting directly on the hot shoe will allow, and that will give you better modeling, eliminate red-eye, etc.
I have two: the Canon OC-E3, which I use either with a flash bracket or when holding the flash at arms length; and a Flash Zebra 24-foot cord that I use when mounting a Speedlite in a soft box or otherwise further away than the OC-E3 will allow.
