Note: Photo tips are answers to questions asked on our Facebook page. If you would like to submit a question, please click here to submit your question. We will then post them on our Facebook page and let our fans respond to the question. We will then transfer the question over to our blog so we can keep them in an organized way for others to see.
Question from Cara: “For all of those newborn photographers out there, when there isn’t enough natural light from windows what kind of flash set up do you use and how do you get it so it looks natural with the flash and not so harsh?”
Melissa: I don’t use a flash. If I have to supplement light, I use continuous light from a soft box.
Nicole: Bounce the flash off of a white wall or ceiling.
Shanyn: have both an LED continuous light set up that stays very cool and I also have an Alien Bee set up with on 400 and one 800 both withh 47″ octoboxes which produce a very night window light effect.
Heather: Flash is not ideal for newborns. Use a softbox or try a reflector. I’ve even pulled lamps over as a last resort to add light.
Arnaud: Diffusion from a softbox or a wall to diffuse and reflect(preferably white)
Laura: I either up my ISO or bounce the flash from the ceiling or a giant white foam board I place next to my subject.
Pratik: Reflectors or preferably a soft box.
Andrea: I’ve had the same problem once and you can’t tell I used a flash, I had it set up to bounce in the umbrella further away and bumped up the ISO to get an even light
Kimberly: I use two strobes by alien bees, 800 and a 400. Then two reflectors.
Whendie: If all you have is a flash and don;t have any of these light boxes etc, get one of those semi opaque plastic milk cartons and cut the bottom away about 2 inches up from the bottom of the carton. Then fix this over your flash somehow ( TIP : the 1 or 2 litre cartoons fit perfectly to a Metz 45 flashgun- almost made to measure lol).
This minimises the harshness of the flash light and gives a nice even tone which is great for using on human skin !
Jaye: Two Yongnuo speedlites and soft boxes. I use this even if there is enpugh sunlight. I much prefer light I can control over light I can’t and it makes my work more consistant.
Jaye: PS if you use your lights CORRECTLY there is no way anyone will be able to tell the difference. It’s when you don’t know the basic concepts of using light and don’t practice with it that it looks bad.
Julie: I use my Canon Speedlight on a tripod with an umbrella softbox. I got two of them on Amazon for $35 bucks or something like that. I especially love them because they function quite a bit like a soft box but are easy to set up and store like an umbrella. Plus, the light is beautiful.
Feel free to keep responding to this question using our comment section below.