Boriqua Pride - One Light Shoot w/ Reflector Boards and Diffuser...

I wanted to practice more on the one light theory, so I brought out the gear and thought I’d share this shot with you guys/gals and show you that “YOU” along with many others can achieve this look with just one light, a Diffuser and a couple white bounce boards!

I first started on what to shoot, and naturally I called out one name and she was available in the next room of course… “DANIELA”!!!! (more after the jump…)

I asked her to bring out her huge Puerto Rico Flag cause I wanted to see how the colors will look within this portrait shot. So I brought out my camera Canon XTi/400D and my flash 580EX ii and of course the Radio Poppers cause I wanted to shoot off camera because according to Father Bob, On Camera Flash is the Devils work… LOL just Joking!

Anyways, I got her to put the PR Flag on her hear so she can look like a Saint of some sort, but I was mainly focused on the star, I wanted the star to have some visibility that way people can identify which flag was on her head. Then I was sketching out in my noggin how I wanted the light to look. And I also wanted the light to be high but soft as well. So I opened up my LastoLite EZYBox 15 x 15 Soft box and placed a diffuser right in front to soften up the 1/2 flare coming out of my 580EX ii. I know I could’ve lower the flash power down a stop but I wanted to cover the head shot and make sure the bounce from the 4ft x 2ft whiteboard came back full and just as soft from behind her.

Like I stated before, I could’ve easily dropped the power down and brought the lighting closer but then the bounce of the whiteboard would’ve been half as much and wouldn’t of lightened up the rest of the head shot at all.

If I would’ve lowered the power to 1/4 and brought the light closer after the bounce I would’ve received 1/16th power on the bounce back onto the flag behind her. shooting at 1/2 gave me the advantage on getting 1/4 on the bounce simply because it was a close shot at a high power and the whiteboard gave me a good soft result at the bounce back. Receiving a !/4 power on the bounce back is something I am content with, it gives it a more dramatic effect at the end.
Thx for reading!

Below is a diagram of the shot I took above courtesy of Lighting Diagrams Creator

ISO 200 – 50mm 1.4 lens - 1/200 @ f11 - Flash 1/2