Lighting 101 - Start Here

To make use of the techniques described in the following lessons, we are going to assume a couple of things:

1) You have a strobe that can be triggered externally via your camera's PC connection, as seen in the first photo. This example is a Nikon SB-28dx, a circa 1999 pro flash. This external capability can be added to any hot-shoe flash for under $20 via a "Universal Translator" adapter. No worries.

2) You have a strobe that can be set to manual power and "dialed down." This is pretty much mandatory. If your flash does not have a variable manual control, you are gonna be one unhappy (and very limited) puppy. Fortunately, most good flashes have this feature. And you can easily find one that has it if you need to get it.

Most high-end Nikon flashes, new and old, have PC jacks on them. Sadly, most Canon flashes do not. (Shame on you, Canon.) If you are shooting Nikon, I know the SB-24, -25, -26, -28 series and -800 have both PC syncs and manual control.

And the older, used Nikon flashes work equally well with any brand of camera, since you are using them in manual mode and off camera.


The Bad News

Unfortunately, and due in no small part to the popularity of this site, prices for the formerly cheap used Nikon flashes have gone nuts. Don't chase them too far, as there is now a perfectly good flash that has been produced specifically in response to input from this site's readership.


The Good News

The LumoPro LP160 is a 2nd-generation flash that is specifically designed for off-camera lighting. It is full-range manual speedlight, going down to 1/64th power, swivels and zooms, just like many other flashes. At full power it equals the light output from the $500 Nikon and Canon flagship speedlights.

And it has other goodies, too: It has a very good built-in optical slave, which means it can be triggered by another flash. This is very cool if/when you move into multiple light setups -- which you probably will, eventually.

Even better, it not only has a PC jack (which takes expensive sync cords) but also a 1/8" audio-style sync jack. Meaning, it can synched via dirt-cheap audio patch cords. (25-foot sync cord for less than two dollars, anyone?)

This is a huge improvement over every single other speedlight to date, with the exception of the discontinued LP120, the 1st version of the flash. It has been dubbed a "quad-sync" flash -- hot shoe, slave, PC and 1/8" jack. It is $159.95 (here) and is a perfect fit for people looking to get started in off-camera lighting. Because of the built-in slave, it is also perfect for adding a light to a pre-existing system, too.

Lastly, there are usually lots of new speedlights popping up out of China on a near-monthly basis. Some of them are cheaper than the LP160, too. But bear in mind that the LP160 is the only flash (as far as I know) which gives you access to the cheap audio sync cords, and it comes with a 2-year warranty. And that last point probably belongs at the very top of the feature list.

So, once you have your flash, the question is how to better use it.

Briefly, your decisions are:

• Where am I going to put the light - and why?
• How am I going to get it to stay there?
• How am I going to trigger it?
• What will the quality of the light be: Hard or soft?
• What will the beam spread of the light be - wide, narrow?
• How will I balance the strobe's intensity with the ambient light?
• How will I balance the strobe's color with the ambient light?

There you go. Seven decisions you get to make, with an infinite number of possibilities. And that is just assuming one strobe as a light source. Very soon, most of these variables will get to be instinctive, and you can concentrate on the two or three that will define the quality of light in your photo.

Next we will look at a typical photojournalist's core equipment (the gear that goes to most every typical assignment) and how it can be expanded with minimal extra weight, fuss and expense to greatly improve lighting effectiveness.

Next: Traveling Light