How to shoot outdoor portraits using flash

This time of year, there’s a good chance the conditions will be damp, dull and grey where you live, and not exactly ideal for outdoor portraits.

However, with the help of a couple of flashguns you can add drama on a dreary day and bag a shot that’s striking.

The key is to fire the flashguns off-camera and light the subject from different angles. By cross-lighting our rugby player with two flashes we get the dramatic look you often see in pro sports portraits.

For this we place one of our flashes behind the subject, angled back towards the camera, and the second flash in front to illuminate the face and body.

SEE MORE: Scott Kelby on how to balance camera settings and flash

You’ll need the right kit to pull off a shot like this, but expensive lights aren’t necessary. All we need is a burst of light that we can control manually, which even the most basic flash units can do.

When balancing daylight with multiple flashes things can quickly get complicated, so we’ll show you a foolproof method to work out your exposure and flash power. It’s a simple process – first we work out a ‘normal’ exposure, as if shooting with just daylight, then we underexpose this so that the sky becomes dark and moody, which also leaves the subject underexposed.

At this point we bring our flashes into play to pick him out, setting the power level of each flash manually and building the light until everything clicks.

Mastering off-camera flash gives you so many options for great portraits, and often enables you to turn tricky conditions to your advantage. So let’s get started. Or rather crouch… touch… pause… engage!

SEE MORE: Free portrait lighting guide – 24 essential studio lighting setups

Step by step: Learn to build up the lighting

Learn how to balance daylight and flash to create moody lighting for outdoor portraits.

01 Underexpose the daylight
Set Manual mode, shutter speed 1/200 sec, but close the aperture by two stops to underexpose (we went from f/5.6 to f/11).

SEE MORE: A layman’s guide to off-camera flash

02 Backlight the subject
Set one flash behind the subject, angled towards them. Adjust power manually until it creates a highlight outlining their edge.

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03 Light the face
Position a second flash, with the light from above the subject, so that the shadow cast by the nose is angled towards the mouth.

SEE MORE: DIY Photography Hacks: How to make a clamp to direct off-camera flash

Essential gear you need to shoot flash portraits outdoors

01 Two flashes
You’ll need two flashes. Alongside a Canon 600EX, we used a Godox 560 (less than £30 from eBay). It’s basic, but it has all we need – manual power control and an optical
(line of sight) slave mode.

SEE MORE:
Off-camera flash: how to stop fearing your flashgun and taking control of your lighting

02 Wireless triggers
A wireless trigger and receiver lets you fire a Speedlite off-camera. If you don’t have one, you might be able to use your pop-up flash to trigger the Speedlites, but this relies on line of sight.

SEE MORE: Off-camera flash tips for outdoor photography

03 Tripod for camera
A tripod is optional, but it helps when working out your composition to keep the camera in roughly the same position, and it’s convenient to leave the camera fixed while you tweak the lighting.

04 Plastic flash stand
The plastic flash stand that comes in the box along with your flashgun can act as a handy connector that allows you to attach your flash to your tripod plate using the thread on the underside.

05 Light stand / Tripod
You’ll need a tripod or light stand for each flashgun. Some light stands have threads on the top that can screw directly into your flash, but if not you’ll need an adapter, to attach each flash to a stand.

SEE MORE: 8 Tripod mistakes every photographer makes – and how to get it right

How to fire your flash off-camera

Learn how to trigger off-camera flashes with a combination of wireless triggers and slave units.

01 Use a wireless trigger
The wireless transmitter attaches to your DSLR’s hotshoe, while the receiver has a hotshoe for the flashgun. When you hit the shutter, the transmitter sends a radio signal to the receiver, which fires the flashgun instantaneously, as if it were on the camera.

SEE MORE: A layman’s guide to wireless flash triggers

02 Set optical slave
With the wireless receiver firing the first Speedlite, set the second to optical slave mode so that it fires upon detecting the burst of light from the first unit. Slave is often displayed on flashguns as S1 or S2. S1 fires upon detecting any flash, while S2 ignores the pre-flash.

SEE MORE: Best camera settings for outdoor portrait photography

03 Control the power
Set both flashguns to Manual mode then take test shots while adjusting the strength to work out the power of your exposure (see previous page). Bear in mind that you can also control the strength by moving the flash closer or further away from your subject.

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04 Position the lights
For our cross-lighting setup, position the ‘edge’ light behind the subject to illuminate the outline of the body without spilling across the face and nose, while the ‘key’ light should be directed from the front, slightly above and to the right of the face.

Trigger speedlites with your pop-up
We used a wireless trigger to fire our flashguns, but if you don’t have one you could use your DSLR’s pop-up flash instead. Using the Flash Control Menu, your pop-up flash can communicate with compatible Speedlites through a series of rapid pre-flashes.

A simpler method is to simply set the pop-up flash to a low power, like 1/128 (so that it has a minimal effect on the image), then set both off-camera flashes to optical slave mode, so that they fire when they detect the pop-up flash.

SEE MORE: Creative off-camera lighting techniques you have to try

Camera skills: Flash-lit sports portraits

Take control of exposure, camera angle and focal length for best results.

Shooting in Manual mode makes things easier, as we don’t want our metering system to kick in. Once we’ve worked out an exposure that results in a dark sky, we can then leave the settings alone while we use flash to pick out our subject.

SEE MORE: Free manual photography cheat sheet

Crouch down for a low angle to not only frame your subject against the moody sky but to make them appear tall and powerful. Use a longish focal length (we used the long end of a 24-105mm lens), as wide angles can distort the body shape.

SEE MORE: How to pose for pictures: find the most flattering angles for you and your subjects

How to edit your outdoor portraits with flash to get the gritty look

Use Camera Raw to process your images for a moody, desaturated finish.

01 Process in Camera Raw
Open the image in ACR (or Lightroom, which has identical controls in the Develop Module) then go to the Basic panel. To get a gritty look, increase Clarity to about 75. Use the Shadows slider to lift the shadows and the Highlights slider to darken the highlights for an HDR-like effect.

SEE MORE: How to use Photoshop to add atmosphere to outdoor portraits

02 Desaturate the colours
For a desaturated look, lower the Saturation slider slightly. You can then counter this by increasing the Vibrance slider to lift weaker colours. Experiment with the Temp and Tint sliders; a slightly cooler tone can work well, so drag the Temp slider a little to the left.

03 Dodge & Burn
Grab the Adjustment Brush from the Toolbar and zoom in close to the eyes. Set up the brush first by increasing Exposure, Clarity and Saturation, then paint over the eyes to lift them. Next, hit N for a new adjustment, then dial in negative exposure and paint over the sky to darken it.

Experiment with pose and lighting

Subtle changes to the camera angle, pose and position of your lights can lead to a variety of effects.

It’s worth experimenting with the two-light setup by changing either the angle of the lights or the camera position. Try out different poses, too, as slight shifts to the angle of the body can have a big effect on the overall feel of the portrait.

SEE MORE: Free portrait lighting cheat sheet

The key is not to light the subject from straight-on, as this kills all the shadows that add depth to the subject’s face and body, and is why it’s better not to have the flash mounted on your camera.

SEE MORE: 10 posing mistakes photographers make (and how to avoid them)

If you must keep your Speedlite on-camera, at least soften the light and make it more directional by bouncing it off a nearby surface – a wall or ceiling indoors, or a reflector outdoors.

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