The Flash Photography Field Guide

Reverse Engineering

So now you know all the flash theory and how to put it into practice. You’re armed with all the information you need on how to create great flash pictures in a studio or on location.

You know all about the properties of light—quality, direction, intensity, evenness, color, and contrast, and how to manipulate each of those properties using various light modifiers.

A final piece to the jigsaw is to look at photographs you like, and try to work out how the lighting was done for each shot. They may be naturally lit, lit with continuous lights, or with flash: you need to really look and consider what lighting challenges the photographer had to overcome and how he or she did it. This doesn’t just go for photographs—visit an art ...