This is the second entry in what I hope will become an occasional feature dissecting how some of my photos - and those of the Cheapshooter community - were taken. These photo dissections will highlight how a photo concept is developed technically on a limited budget and will be geared for more advanced photographers. Cheapshooter’s first photo dissection was dubbed “Held Hostage“.

The concept: As fall continues, I have more and more assignments to shoot. The bulk of these are boring as all hell - I shot a street sign yesterday, for example - but occasionally an opportunity to be a bit more creative comes down the line. After an earlier photo assignment fell through, I had to rush to put together a portrait of a member of a student skateboarding club. Daylight was fading quickly, so I knew I would need to break out the flashes for a night session.

The equipment: It’s been a bad week for me, equipment wise. One of my budget radio triggers has been on the fritz, so I was limited to one flash. My Canon 40D is already in the shop, so I broke out the trusty Digital Rebel XT. Light was provided by a Canon 430 EX, a silver umbrella and a stand. I wanted a wider perspective for this photo and my flash would provide plenty of light, so I utilized the 18-55mm kit lens, which works surprisingly well in situations like this.

The diagram:

Pretty simple setup. I crammed all the equipment and the model fairly close together for reasons I’ll explain later. The flash was fired at full power into a silver umbrella, and the camera was set to an aperture of f/18 and a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second. The umbrella was at a height nearly two feet taller than the model and angled downward into his face. It was placed nearly perpendicular to his body.

The challenges: The primary problem I had, strangely enough, was getting the focus right. It was too dark for the autofocus to work, so I had to do it manually. One of the disadvantages of a Digital Rebel XT - or any other entry-level digital SLR, for that matter - is that the viewfinder is small and dark. I had a tough time figuring out where my focus was at. To compensate, I throttled up the flash so I could use a smaller aperture to create a larger depth of field and give myself more of a margin of error with the focus. This might not have been the best idea. Someone with more of a deft touch with manual focus should throttle their light down and use a wider aperture - the flash was fairly blinding at this intensity.

I wanted a harsh, edgy look for this portrait but I wanted more light on the pavement than a direct light alone would provide. The solution was to use the umbrella. At close range, the umbrella still produces fairly hard light but also spreads the light out more than a direct flash could. With the added height of the light stand, I was able to get the spotlight-like effect that I was hoping for.

Staying on a budget: I operated as cheaply as possible for a shot like this. There’s no real way to get a shot like this with a point-and-shoot camera - a digital SLR with the ability to use external flash is a must. I used an entry-level digital SLR, a kit lens, and an entry-level flash. Not bad at all. In fact, the 430EX could be swapped out for something like the Vivitar 285HV for about half the price. That flash work well on a simple assignment like this and costs a lot less.

It would have been nice to add at least a second flash as a hairlight to separate the model a bit more from the background. A reflector would have been nice as well, to cast a bit more of a light on the model’s left side. This photo runs in newsprint today, meaning shadow detail will likely be less than ideal.

But all in all, this is a pretty cheap and easy style for a SLR photographer experimenting with off-camera light to adapt and use.

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