Tips for Lighting Your Background with Flash

Here’s a simple little rule that will help you when using your small off-camera flash to light a background wall or seamless background behind your subject. If you want to light the entire background fairly evenly, put your diffusion dome cap on the flash. This spreads the light out wide, and makes it appear smoother and more even (as shown here on the left). Then, back the flash itself away from the wall—the farther it is away, the more the light will spread. If, instead, you want a more defined “spotlight” look behind your subject, just move the flash in closer to the wall behind them and remove the diffusion dome (as shown here on the right).