Everyone will be familiar with the style of these modern portraits – high-key lighting, overexposed details and heavily saturated colors. Although it seems really complicated, this technique is fairly easy and can be mastered very quickly. The first hurdle to get over is having to shoot with lights in a studio. Here’s your simple guide to setting your DSLR camera for studio flash…..
Exposure Mode
When shooting with studio flashes you must use the manual exposure mode. None of the auto modes will do the job.
ISO sensitivity
To get the best possible results that can be tweaked post production you need to select the lowest possible setting on your DSLR camera, usually ISO 100.
White Balance
When you’ve got your studio ready, the only light will be from the flashes so you should select the flash white balance setting as depicted by the flash symbol to get the most consistent results.
Shutter Speed
You will need a fast setting to ensure that you freeze your subject’s movements. Go for the fastest speed that your DSLR camera will X-sync at – this is usually somewhere from 1/125sec up to 1/250sec but check your DSLR camera manual if you are unsure.
Focus needs to be pin-sharp from front to back, so this means you need to set an aperture between f/11 up to f/22.