In this shot of The New Heathers, I superclamped an SB-600 just out of frame in the elevator shaft for accent lighting.
Love it or hate it, backlighting is a effective way to punch up music photography, whether it’s on stage or off. Here’s a look at getting the most out of a limited number of flashes to get this effect for band portraits.
Hey Todd,
I have two Canon speedlights, my 5D MkII, a couple f2.8 lenses and reflectors. I see a lot of your shots add at least another two speedlights for rim lighting.
So my question is: both indoors and outdoors, how can I make two speedlights work for me? Is this setup too lacking in light that I need to add some extra speedlights?
I appreciate your time heaps :)
Thanks,
Dan
Hey Dan,
Great question – even with abundant access to gear, it never hurts to know how to get the most out of one’s gear. With multiple speedlights for backlighting, it’s easier to get even coverage and to more finely tune to quality of the light, but two flashes or strobes is more than enough for both backlight and keylight.
Rimlighting for Band Photography
For outdoor, daytime photo shoots, one very simple and effective trick for maximizing your speedlights is to use ambient light as much as possible. With sunny days, you’ve got a third light to work with – gratis – and even on overcast days it’s possible to use ambient light for an appreciable, if subtle, amount of backlighting.
For this shot of the After Midnight Project, the sun is coming from camera left, throwing some pretty broad and hot sidelighting across the group. A softbox above the camera and flash coming from camera right round out the photo.
In this portrait of 3OH!3, the sun was low in the sky, but still providing enough punch for accent lighting camera left behind Nat and Sean.
When working with no aid from the sun, it’s still possible to achieve great backlighting effects with only two flash sources. In essence, all you need is one light for the key light and and one for the backlight.
In this photo of TAT, a backlight behind the group and a softbox in front and above were the only lighting elements – simple and effective.
In this shot of The New Heathers, I used several speedlights clamped together as a backlight, one light would have been enough to compliment the frontlighting here, no sweat.
Again, a light directly behind Aaron Gillespie of Underoath provides backlighting to compliment the main light.
In this portrait of DJ and producer Paul van Dyk, a speedlight camera right and behind the subject created a simple and effective treatment for PvD in action.
With Slayer here, you can see the affect of a backlight adding a bit of definition to the group and also acting on the environment, while the keylight – a softbox – lights the group from in front and above the group.
In addition to strict backlighting, a background light washing the backdrop rather than aimed at the subject can be an effective use of lights for a different way of making the subject pop.
In this shot of singer Justin Tranter of Semi Precious Weapons, a bare SB-600 positioned just below the mirror and pointed up provides a contrast to the softer light from a 45″ umbrella camera right. Still, just two lights.
If you want backlighting and only have one remote light, it’s still a piece of cake to get the effect by using ambient light or a simple reflector.
In this example, I placed a 45″ umbrella directly behind singer Alana Grace for a highly feathered flavored rimlight, while a reflector in front did the rest.
Backlighting in Live Music Photography
Since I started out as a live music photographer, I think there’s a huge correlation between band portraiture and the stage treatments used for concerts. Now, if only we could lug around stage rigging and a few dozen cans into the studio or on location…
End Notes:
In short, two speedlights or strobes is more than enough when it comes to creating rim lighting, especially when you have the sun at your disposal to use as a third light source. When you open up the possibility of reflectors and ambient/existing light, your options get even better. While multiple backlights will get you more flexibility, this approach is more more of a luxury than a necessary.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Letters, Photography Tutorials and tagged with advice, band portraits, music photographer, music photography, strobist, tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Wow, I really enjoyed reading this. Very informative. I’m really new to photography, especially with speedlights, so I’m sure this will help me out in the future.
Thanks.
Hey Christi,
Thanks for the comment, hope you can test out some of these things soon.
Thanks a lot for writing this, it is very helpful, especially because I have some speed lights and wireless triggers coming in the mail any day now. These are some good things to consider when I try them out. Thank You.
Hi Ryan,
I think you’re in for some fun – what triggers are you using? Hope this article will be useful when you’re trying out the new gear.
Great article Todd! I have been working on my portrait photography and this was very helpful on positioning back lighting.
Hey Derek,
Thanks for the comment. I’m always excited to work on my portrait photography and can’t wait until it thaws out a bit to do more location work. Good luck with your portrait work in 2010.
Q&A: Backlighting, lighting tips, & getting the most out of your speedlights w/ portrait shoots: http://bit.ly/6xszHm
Fantastic @toddowyoung: Q&A:Backlighting, lighting tips, & getting the most out of your speedlights w/ portrait shoots: http://bit.ly/6xszHm
RT @toddowyoung: Q&A: Backlighting, lighting tips, & getting the most out of your speedlights w/ portrait shoots: http://bit.ly/6xszHm
@cheguthamrin Something useful for you. http://ishootshows.com/2010/01/05/backlighting-techniques-for-band-portraits/
Tips! RT @toddowyoung: Q&A: Backlighting, lighting tips, & getting the most out of your speedlights w/ portrait shoots: http://bit.ly/6xszHm
Terrific Tips!!!
I have two speed lights and the tips were wonderful!!!
Thanks!!!
Hi Karina,
Hope these tips help you. With a minimum of lights, it’s always trickier to get some off-camera effects, especially if you’re tying one of of them up as a wireless commander and not using radio triggers. Still, it’s possible – necessity is the mother of invention, right?
Todd,
Quick question with regards to your backlit speedlite photos (especially the TAT photo).
I shoot Canon, using an STE-2, a 580EXii and a 430EXII, but I’m not sure I could pull that shot off because of line of sight with the wireless setup – the few times I’ve given it a go, I’ve failed in getting the backlight to fire. I can’t afford to got down the pocket wizard route, as much as I’d like to, so am I doing something obviously wrong?
Cheers mate!
John
Hey John,
That shot of TAT was shot entirely using Nikon’s wireless IR system – no radio triggers. One thing you can do is to use a TTL cord to get the IR commander in sight/bounce range of all the remote lights. You can put the commander STE-2 on stand – getting it higher or off-axis should solve the issues of having the group blocking transmission.
All that said, for the photo of TAT in this article, the commander flash (SB-900) was just on-camera – bouncing the signal did the rest. Reflection can save your butt if line-of-sight fails or isn’t an option.
Thanks for this timely article, Todd.
I killed a speedlight in sub zero temperatures on a band portrait shoot last week and am back down to two for a while.
I never even gave it a thought in the heat of the moment (no pun intended) to use a reflector up front to bounce some of the backlighting back on to the subject.
Hell, if Zack Arias can do it with one, what am I complaining about?
Great tips Todd, thank you!
Hi Steve,
Was it the cold that killed the speedlight or something else?
I think that if you have a big enough reflector – or can otherwise bounce some of the backlight for fill – that you should be able to get a pretty good effect. The reflector isn’t going to give you too high of a ratio, but that might work out well for bands with more of an edge. And of course, when working with ambient lighting, two flashes can go a long way. As you said, if Zack can do it…
Cheers Todd :)
Just humour me for a second then – how would I go about bouncing the signal from the transmitter?
For te sake of argument, using the TAT photo again – your transmitter is on the camera facing forward, band directly in front of you, speedlite behind the band facing you – how do you get an angle to bounce the signal?
Cheers again, great advice :)
some excellent tips from todd about backlighting and strobes http://tinyurl.com/ybtj8wm
Hi Todd. Great article. I’m curious however about the actual settings you use. Flash power especially, distance, F Stop, shutter speed etc. All your flash work looks quite even. Do you have comfortable pre-sets in mind for the likes of trucks and dark places or outdoor daylight work or is every shoot calculated completely separately on individual conditions?
What is the tech details of the slayer shot for exapmple?
Cheers.
Hey Peter,
I generally don’t go into shoots with presets in mind with regard to seeings, as the situation is always a bit different. Number of subjects, location, ambient light, and the intended look are always going to affect the specific settings.
You can see the setup details for the Slayer shoot here:
http://ishootshows.com/2009/08/04/portaits-slayer/
Cheers Todd :)
Just humour me for a second then – how would I go about bouncing the signal from the transmitter?
For the sake of argument, using the TAT photo again – your transmitter is on the camera facing forward, band directly in front of you, speedlite behind the band facing you – how do you get an angle to bounce the signal?
Cheers again, great advice :)
Hi John,
You can bounce an IR signal just like you can visible light, to an extent. Think of a TV remote – it doesn’t always have to be line of “sight”
In the case of the TAT shot, some is bouncing off the metal on either side of the band. With that setup, bounce is super easy. It’s when you don’t have other reflective material to work with that bouncing the transmitter signal is hard – which is when most people turn to radio triggers.
nice stuff here http://ishootshows.com/2010/01/05/backlighting-techniques-for-band-portraits/ (backlighting)
Thanks for sharing the tips really informative and your shots are an inspiration – I’ve just bought myself a speedlite and was not quite sure where to start – but now I do!
Hey Lily, glad to hear this was helpful.
Todd,
these are some really great techniques, as always. it’s nice to be able to get tips from professionals like yourself.
thanks,
Vanessa M.
Hey Vanessa, glad to share this run down. Thanks for the comment.
wow, it’s nice…..i really enjoy it when i read…..
i just start for music photography and when i see your photos its very cool….and i always see your photos for my learn and example…..and i will do it…..
and i have some question,are you edited your photos in lightroom or photshop????
sory, my english not good…i still studying english in indonesia…
thanks todd, it’s very usefull…..
Todd,
I enjoyed this article and how you explained the effects of each photo. As an aspiring and beginning photographer, do you have any tips that could help me along the way?
Thanks,
Jenice
Hi Todd LOVE your work, your photos are fantastic.
I have a speedlite 430exII st-e2 reflector umbrella. I would love to know more about your setup for the photo of Alana Grace, that feathering effect i absolutely love. I have been trying to replicate with not much success. I cant manage the feather effect, and it is too obvious that i have just stuck a big illuminated umbrella behind my subject.
Thanks Scott
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you like the work.
For the Alana Grace shot, the umbrella was very close – also, expect that the light into the lens is going to decrease contrast as it flares up the lens. This is pretty easily remedied w/ curves and a little tweaking in post, but you shouldn’t get any hot spots or obvious ghosting.
You do want the umbrella’s exposure to go to 100% white. Even if it doesn’t cover the entire frame, it’s easy to fix that in post. Hope this helps.
Great post as always. I am a beginner in using flash and just recently picked up a SB700 & a used SB800 and wanted to find ways to utilize both. Do you have any other advice to someone just starting out in band portrait photography?
hi there….great and informative thread thanks…i only have elinchrom flash heads and large soft boxes so dont shoot on location….If using 2 speedlites would you use ettl or ettl 2 for the main subject and and manual settings for back ground illumination or rim light (using a light meter) or trial and error?
Or manual settings so you can creatively control all but ambient light.