Three-Light Set-ups

If you have three external strobes at your disposal, you can put together even more complex lighting effects. As described earlier in this chapter, you can set up these multiple Speedlites into individual groups, so you can control each of them individually, making adjustments to their power ratios as required. Here are some of the things you can do.

Studio Portraiture with Off-Camera Wireless Shoe Mount Flash Units

Combine multiple flash units, light modifiers, and light stands and you can manage a pretty nice portable portrait studio. For the shot of Karina, a Canon 580EX II was fired through a shoot-through umbrella to the camera’s right, while a 550EX was fired into a reflective umbrella to the camera’s left. If you look closely at the bottom of the stool she’s sitting on, you can see the legs of another light stand. There was a 420EX flash unit mounted on that light stand to provide some separation between the model Karina Croskey and the backdrop (Figures 11.12 and 11.13).