The Flash Photography Field Guide

Environmental Portraits

Balancing the output of your flashes with the existing ambient light becomes absolutely crucial when you are trying to include some surroundings in your images. This is important in environmental portraiture, where you use the location to tell a story about the subject or to create a certain look.

In these circumstances, the ambient light falling onto the background becomes a vital governor in your shots. You have to decide how much—if any—of the ambient light is going to register in your photo, and then build up the main light using your flashes to get the desired effect.

It doesn’t always work that way, though. Sometimes, if the ambient light is poor in terms of quality, direction, or intensity, you can light the environment ...