Table Of ContentTilo Gockel (fotopraxis.net) Editor: Joan Dixon
Translator: Jeremy Cloot Copyeditor: Jeanne Hansen Layout: Jan Martí,
Command Z
Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de
Printer: Friesens Corporation Printed in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-93753846-0
1st Edition 2014
© 2014 by Tilo Gockel
Translation © by Rocky Nook, Inc.
802 E. Cota Street, 3rd Floor Santa Barbara, CA 93103
www.rockynook.com
This is an authorized translation of the German 1st edition © 2013 by Galileo
Press GmbH. This translation is published and sold by permission of Galileo
Press GmbH, the owner of all rights to publish and sell the same.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gockel, Tilo.
Creative flash photography : great lighting with small flashes: 40 flash
workshops / by Tilo Gockel. -- 1st edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-93753846-0 (softcover : alk. paper) 1. Electronic flash
photography. I. Title.
TR606.G63 2014
778.7'2--dc23
2014013449
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice
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include Adobe Photoshop, Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Manfrotto, Yongnuo, and
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for advertising purposes and were not shot on request of their manufacturers.
They serve exclusively to illustrate the photographic techniques detailed in the
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While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Did you know that I am an available light photographer…?
I look in my bag, see that my Vivitar 285 or Sunpak 180j or
Nikon Speedlite is available to me and I use that.
~ Zack Arias You’ve gotta taste the light. And when you see light like
this, trust me,
it’s like a strawberry sundae with sprinkles.
~ Joe McNally
Table of Contents
Author’s Foreword
Foreword by David Hobby
What Every Strobist Needs to Know
Flash Basics
Choosing Your Equipment: What’s in the Bag?
The Fun Starts Here! 40 Lighting Workshops
Workshops 1–13:
Portrait and Fashion
1 Portraits for Business Professionals
2 That Sunny Feeling
3 Gobo Projections Using Flash
4 Wide-Aperture Look in Daylight
5 Duke, Nuke Them 1
6 Duke, Nuke Them 2
7 Colored Gels Rock!
8 Creating a Fire Effect with an Orange Filter
9 Key Shifting
10 Fashion Shoot in Hard Light
11 Nighttime Bokeh
12 Dancer in a Flurry of Flash
13 Underwater Shoot
Workshops 14–17:
Macro with Flash
14 Using a Macro Rig
15 Extreme Macro Photography
16 Dewdrop Flowers
17 Coins in a Dark Field
Workshops 18–24:
Still Life and Product Shots
18 Still Life with Bounce Flash
19 Shooting for eBay
20 Photos for Catalogs
21 Photographing Reflective Objects
22 Perfume Bottle in Translucent Backlight
23 Acoustic Guitar
24 Studio-Like Modeling Light
Workshops 25–35:
Food Photos: The Most Important Ingredient is Light!
25 Basic Flash Setup for Food Photos
26 A Simple Off-Camera Flash Setup
27 A Complex Flash Setup for Food
28 Lighting Like Cannelle & Vanille
29 Simulating the Sun
30 Backlit Fruit
31 Glowing Pasta
32 Campari in a Bathtub
33 Using Smoke to Depict Aroma
34 Flavored Gins à la David Hobby
35 Chocolate
Workshops 36–40:
High Speed Flash: How to Make the Invisible Visible
36 Milk and Chocolate Splash
37 Shooting Splashes in an Aquarium
38 Curaçao Wave
39 Kiwifruit Splash with a Cross-Beam Sensor
40 Dark Field Martini Splash
In Depth Tutorials
Spectra and Tricks with Color Filters
Don’t Shake It Up
Depth of Field and Bokeh
All About the Sync Speed
Optimum versus Critical Aperture
How to Use Mirror Lockup and Live View
Optimum Focus
The Pros and Cons of Using TTL Flash
RAW vs. JPEG
Appendix A:
How to Calculate Photographic Exposures
Appendix B:
Tools for Creating Lighting Diagrams
Appendix C:
Additional Sources
Appendix D:
Glossary
Author’s Foreword
Maybe you feel the same way I did when I first came across flash. I was
certainly skeptical and had the harsh look of the typical mug shot in mind, and I
had reservations about tackling the technology. My first flash was a computer
flash with functionality that eluded me. But after I repeatedly saw the fantastic
images by David “Strobist” Hobby, Zack Arias, Joe McNally, Ryan Brenizer,
and Neil van Niekerk, my curiosity got the better of me. The Strobist blog
(strobist.blogspot. com) and David’s Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 tutorials
offered a perfect introduction to the world of flash technique. I am especially
proud of the fact that the “Strobist” himself has contributed an exclusive
foreword to this book. Thanks, David—this book probably wouldn’t exist
without you!
I quickly learned that flash doesn’t have to automatically kill an image with
bright light, red eyes, and hard-edged shadows. In fact, it is more like a pocket
sun that can—with a little practice—be used to emulate and enhance natural
light in a range of situations. I soon began to keep a diary of the lighting setups
that are now part of this book. It includes lighting diagrams, the photos that
resulted from each session, and a wealth of information describing how I took
each image.
The book is divided in two main sections. Part 1 contains a crash course in
basic flash technique. There is also an introduction to the flash gear I have found
useful over the years, which I hope will save you the time and money I spent
trying out a lot of useless accessories.
Part 2 contains 40 workshops with detailed explanations of various flash
scenarios, including people, portraits, high-speed flash, macro, products, food,
and more. The workshops highlight specific lighting and flash techniques—such
as cross lighting and high-speed sync, or dragging the shutter—and give you a
solid set of tools that will allow you to light any scene effectively. The
techniques range from the simple use of your camera’s built-in flash to
stroboscopic setups with seven or more off-camera flashes. Other sections
address techniques such as pseudo-HSS/Supersync, key shifting, infrared
triggers, projecting patterns with gobos, and much more. Things get really
interesting when you begin to practice and combine the techniques to develop
your own unique style.
I have never found an adequate explanation of how to precisely and easily
calculate an exposure when using both flash and ambient light, so appendix A
contains real-world sample exercises (and solutions) to help you get the hang of
calculating exposure values and guide numbers. Although these exercises might
seem uninspiring, they will help you learn how to precisely produce the lighting
effects you like. Appendix B introduces some useful tools for creating lighting
diagrams. Additional appendices contain a valuable list of additional resources
and a glossary of useful terms for the strobist.
Because I am a Canon user, you might find this book somewhat specific to
Canon gear, although I refer to the Nikon equivalents wherever possible. Gear
manufactured by Metz, Pentax, and others is just as effective as the equipment I
describe, and as soon as you switch to manual mode you are free to use
whatever brand you want anyway.
And now I wish you great lighting and a constant stream of wow moments
with your own flash images.
Tilo Gockel
Please send your comments, criticisms, and other feedback (including
inquires regarding the models shown in this book) to
