Yeah... that's right. We can actually create an impression of more power withour speedlights by carefully thinking about the images we make. Photoshop givesus the edge.

First we will look at the technique in action in the field. Our light is notnearly strong enough to light our subject at a distance that would allow thecomposition that the photographer wanted. This can happen a lot when using speedlights, as they are not powerful enough to light at great distance. Adding modifiers can kill two stops of light and that makes the need to have themeven closer to the subject all the more imperative.

We could have used bare flashes, but we wanted a much smaller, more interesting light. We chose a portable beauty dish for our light source for its full coverageand quick fall off.

Here we are in Mexico. The shooter is FrankTuttle, Columbus, OH, who was attending the workshop. We had arisen quite early to catch the dawn light and explore a structure that we saw out in the middle of a pretty barren desert area. Our model this morning was Megan - also a photographer attending the workshop - and she did a great job for us. It was our goal to shoot each ofthe attendees (including me - sheesh), so this one is Frank's portrait of Megan.

Our light is a SpeedLightProKit Beauty Dish with a 430EX attached to Pocket Wizards. We had the power turned up full for this shot as the bright morningsun called for exposures in the f-14-f16 range within the sync range. Frank positioned Megan in the pose he wanted and I moved in to the point that would provide f-16 with this strobe and modifier.

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