Creative Flash Lighting Using Four Speedlights – Stage Sensation

It’s easy to get creative using compact flash units, especially if you have several of them at your disposal. Let’s take a look at how I created this quick “on-stage” shot right in my living room. For starters, I’m using four Nikon Speedlights; two SB800′s and two SB-26′s. Side note, this can be done with most types of Speedlights, Canon, Vivitar, etc. I just happen to shoot with Nikon, so all of my lighting tutorials are centered around Nikons Speedlights (as opposed to Canon’s Speedlites; notice the difference in spellings?) Now, back to the tutorial.

This set-up was done in my living room, at the entry of a hallway. Take a look at the set-up shot to the right. I shot in the direction of the hallway because I was able to turn the lights off and create a black background; I was being lazy and really didn’t want to move furniture, set up a back ground stand with back drop, so the alternative was to shoot into a dark area. You will notice to the right of the set-up shot image, I have taped some black poster board to the wall. I did this because my walls are white and the space I was working with was narrow for the set-up. In my initial test shots, I was getting reflection off of the white walls to the right side and really didn’t like the result. I was looking to achieve that night shot you would get if you where photographing a concert. I didn’t need to mask the left side since the flash units where not that close to the left wally and my model would cover the area anyway.

Now, the question may come up as to why I used one SB800 and two SB26′s. It really didn’t matter, and it’s what I just grabbed out of my lighting bag at the time. I could have slapped an SB900 and a few 800′s on the light stands. It just didn’t matter since all three flash units where dialed down to 1/16th power. Looking back on the final image, I would have probably liked it better had I went to 1/32 power, but that’s a personal choice rather than a technical one.

I staggered the strobes, in height, on the light stands. Each strobe was attached to a flash bracket (You can purchase them at Amazon.com or any other camera retailer. See Product recommendation box at the end of the article.). Just a side note on these brackets, the cold shoe is made of metal and the base of your flash has metal connectors, do you see where I’m going with this? I have a psychotic SB800 that likes to just fire off it’s strobe if the connectors touch the metal. The best way to work around this is to add some gaffers tape to the metal part of the cold shoe on the bracket; problem solved. The last thing you need is to set off your strobes prematurely or even fry a flash unit.

Next, I covered each flash with a different colored gel (with most Nikon Speedlights you get a basic color correction gel kit). I purchased theNikon SJ3 kit which had a few more colored gels than the basic SJ1, however,  you can use any type of photographic gel you like. If you have the Roscoelux sample pack, that’s even better!

For the three back lights, they where all set to SU4 mode, in other words, slave mode. The Nikon SB26 is an older flash, but you can find them on eBay four around $120 or less. These guys are great since they have a build in slave and can be triggered with any other light source. You don’t even need to been in the line of sight to trigger them, just bounce the main flash unit off a wall. So, if you have the means, I would recommend picking up a few of these, older, but highly effective flash units for off-camera flash usage. Just a side note, I was shooting in rear curtain sync mode and my SB800s will automatically know this, but on the SB26, you need to set the flash unit itself to rear curtain sync. I was watching the flash units go off, but they wouldn’t record all the time on the sensor, but I know I was seeing them flash. Hence, it was an idiot error, meaning me. I didn’t set my Sb26′s to rear curtain sync. Oh well, I still managed to get my shot.

Now for the main light. I used a Nikon SB800 in remote mode. This flash was hand held by my assistant and flash unit was attached to a Speedlight to Bownes Speedring adapter. I did this because I was using one of my Bowen studio strobes reflective dishes and a 20° grid spot to channel the light on my model and keep it from spilling and contaminating my background strobes and overall scene. I added a full CTO filter to the main light in order to add warmth to my model. A note on the Speedlight to Bowens Adapter, you can find one of these on eBay as well.

With my flash units in place, I brought my young model in for a few hair twirling moments. Is she really singing, no, not really, but she was a good sport about acting like she was. With my Nikon D300 set to commander mode and an 8point Cokin star filter attached to the lens,  I fried of several shots of her “on stage” performance and what you see are the results of this creative flash lighting set-up.

 

Lighting Diagram Information for this Creative Flash Photography Set-up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. I set up three Speedlights on stands and gelled them with different colored gels. All three where set to SU4 mode (or slave mode). They where staggered in height. NOTE: I used two SB26′s and an SB800. I was also using rear curtain sync. On the SB26, you need to sent your flash to Rear Curtain Sync. I learned this the hard way.
2. The main light (Speedlight) was hand held by an assistant and was attached to a Bowen 20°grid spot. I attached the grid spot to a reflective dish which was attached using a Speedlight to Bowens speedring adapter. I bought mine on eBay. The Speedlight was also fitted with a full CTO filter for the warming affect. In addition, the main light was set to remote mode and triggered by my Nikon D300.
3. My model flipped her hair on prompt, pretending to be singing a song at a concert.
4. Nikon D300 with a Cokin 8-point star filter attached. The camera was set to commander mode, allowing it to trigger off the main light (2) in turn triggering the three background lights.

 

2 Responses to “Creative Flash Lighting Using Four Speedlights – Stage Sensation”

1. Dana Cunnings says:

   April 26, 2011 at 10:14 am

   Wonderful website. A lot of helpful info here. I love the final images and it looked so easy to create the shot! Way to go!

   Reply
   • Alyn says:

     August 14, 2011 at 12:02 pm

     Thanks Dana, this was a fun Portrait to create. I’m working on more. Will post eventually.

     Reply