The Flash Book

Fix Ground Spill with a Double-Tap

I have to give credit to David Hobby for this one. He was a guest on my show a few years back, and I’ve been using this tip since the day he showed it. He called it “the double-tap.” You use it mostly on location, when shooting around sunset and the light from your flash lights the ground under your subject’s feet. Well, in most portraits, we want their face well-lit, and the light to fall off as it goes further down. We don’t want their feet lit as brightly as their face, and we sure don’t want the ground lit so brightly that it draws your attention (besides, overlighting the ground looks amateurish). But, that’s ...