Quick Tip: For the best portraits, keep your setup simple

Some people think that they need to spend hours of time setting up multiple flashes with umbrellas, softboxes or other equipment to create nice portraits. While there are times when this is necessary, more often than not, all this stuff just gets in the way of making nice pictures.

Below is a shot I made of my nephew Sean using a single shoe-mounted flash and a 42" umbrella.  I placed Sean in the shade and used a sliver of the afternoon sun to provide a rim light which you can see on the top of his head.  My exposure was 1/250th second at f/14 at ISO 200.  The flash was triggered with a Quantum Radio Slave 4.

Here's the same setup after I added a second shoe-mounted flash on the left to help separate him from the background:

I decided that the sunlit areas in the background were a little too dark so I slowed my shutter speed down by 1-stop to 1/125th second.  You'll notice that the background is a little lighter in this second image. 

After making these portraits in the yard, I wanted to make a few candid shots of Sean indoors.  A two-light setup sans umbrellas worked well for this purpose.

For this image, I used two shoe-mounted flashes set up on light stands.  To soften the light and spread it out more evenly across the room, I used small diffusion domes on the flashes.  I carefully placed the flashes in positions that allowed Sean to move throughout the room and still be properly lit.

I always encourage people to get out and try simple, inexpensive setups -- especially if they are just starting out.  Simple setups allow you to focus on making more compelling pictures, which is what photography is all about.