To celebrate our first TDS Off-Camera Flash Workshop this weekend, I thought I'd share a favorite tip: how to photograph reflective artwork with two flashes. This video is part of my Off Camera Flash training title on lynda.com.
The technique is simple. Set up two equal-powered off-camera flashes at 45 degree angles from the art. They will cancel out each other's reflections, but still illuminate the artwork. You can see the results of this configuration in this video from the course. Give it a try!
More Off Camera Flash Tutorials
Off Camera Flash - Basic Techniques for Pro Results
"More Off Camera Flash" - Digital Photography Podcast 233
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Amazing. Another counter intuitive thing about flash photography. One question though. Can you use the same technique with a window as a back drop?
I will be trying this out once I can get a second flash of the same make and model I am using.
Hi Philip, I would try it. You might need a bit of trial and error, but I bet you can get it to work.
Great tip - thanks!
Just when I think I can visit the site with an iPad newsreader..boom…no picts, and flash :)
Maybe one day (grin)
Derrick,
I'm glad you reposted this. I saw this movie when you first released the course on Lynda.com and I was trying to point someone to it who was asking about this very topic. But I couldn't remember where I had seen it. I searched your site and your Youtube videos and couldn't find it. This proves I didn't imagine the whole thing.
Tom
It's not that the two flashes cancel each other out; putting them at a 45° will do that. By definition (it's a reflection) the incoming angle of the light will be the outgoing angle, and that is 45°; the reflecting light will bounce out of view and never enter your lens.
So why does this not work with one flash? Because that same 45° angle will result in a very uneven lit subject. And it's the unevenness that gets cancelled out by using two flashes.