There’s a magic triangle in photography.
Whenever you’re taking a picture, you always want to create a triangle between your camera, your subject, and your light. That way, you get prime lighting conditions. But sometimes you don’t have a ton of nice lighting equipment at your disposal, or stands to put your lights on. So create your triangle yourself!
In order to get this effect, you want to hold your speedlight with a snoot in one hand and your camera in the other. This can be a workout on your arms, though, but it’s easy and portable to do, since you’re the stands for both your speedlight and your camera! Just remember to rest your arms. For the picture above, I held the speedlight with my left hand above the shell, and then when I was ready, grabbed my camera from around my neck with my right hand and snapped the picture. Auto-focus is your friend.
This method can also be good for product photography. Since it’s so easy, people won’t know that you just held the light yourself! You can still get great lighting results using this mobile triangle snoot, and no one will be the wiser.
You can also use this method for simple portraits! Using a speedlight will keep your background and your foreground exposed. This can be so helpful with outdoor shots.
So get a hold of a speedlight and try this out for yourself!
Happy photographing!
