Speedlite portraits: playing with light on an urban dance shoot

For many photographers, even professionals, there can be a sense of mystery and trepidation about using flash. "Unfortunately, it seems to be a hurdle a lot of people just never get beyond," says professional Canon photographer and flash enthusiast David Newton. "They buy a flash, they use it at all the wrong times, in all the wrong ways, it doesn't give them the results they want and then it languishes in a bag for eternity."

But flash doesn't have to be complicated and can easily be added to a photographer's arsenal, as David knows, having spent years running photography masterclasses across the UK. "The goal of photography is to control light," he says. "Flash is just a very powerful, small, portable light source that gives you control of light in situations where you wouldn't have it otherwise."

To demonstrate why a powerful Speedlite should be in every pro's kitbag, David used the Canon Speedlite EL-5 on a photoshoot with two urban dancers. He wanted to show how flash can be used in a range of setups, from simple to complex, to give photographers complete creative control – even when the light was at its most challenging. Here, David takes us through the shoot, explaining the increasingly intricate lighting setups he used to capture portraits and movement.

David's first portraiture setup used a single Canon Speedlite EL-5, mounted on top of his Canon EOS R6 Mark II. "We started very simply," he explains, "testing out what the EL-5 is like on-camera and showing the difference versus no flash, to show people what flash does and why they need to be using it."

David then progressed to an off-camera multi-flash setup, using a main light on his subjects with two rim lights firing across each other in the rear. "I had a red gel and a blue gel and they crossed over and gave us purple in the middle," he explains.

When shooting with multiple flashes, David recommends selecting flash mode (either automatic E-TTL or Manual) based on what the flash is being fired at, and whether it's static.

For Speedlites aimed at moving subjects, David uses E-TTL mode, which meters and adjusts flash power for each shot. "The dancers are going to be moving around, which means the distance between them and the light is going to change slightly. I want E-TTL to take up that slack," he says. "I use E-TTL a lot in a multi-flash setup where I've got more than one group of light."

E-TTL, often misunderstood, is in reality very simple, says David. "Fundamentally, E-TTL works in the same way as ambient light metering. It fires some light and measures the light reflecting back off the subject. If the subject is brighter than a mid-tone, it's likely to underexpose it. If it's darker than a mid-tone, it's likely to overexpose it."

To demonstrate the fine creative control that's possible with the Canon Speedlite EL-5, David also made use of its low power mode. He again used two rear Speedlites with gels. This time, instead of using them as fill lights, he set them to a fixed 1/64 power and wide zoom in Manual mode, firing them at the rear wall to provide a coloured wash on the background. He positioned his main light, diffused through an octagonal softbox, directly above his subject to softly illuminate the upper part of the body only but leave shadows across the dancer's face. "I didn't want full light down the body, but because the light was coming from above, the face was quite shadowed – there wasn't a lot of light in the eyes; no chin."

For the fourth setup, David used a single off-camera flash positioned at a 45° angle from the dancers. "I was trying to capture the drama of a dance sequence, the angles that the dancers are pulling," he says, "trying to catch that moment – get them off the ground, get that dynamism, the athleticism." He used a Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM lens, shooting wide open to isolate the dancers from their background, staying further back and utilising the telephoto reach of the lens to ensure his focal plane was still enough to keep the dancers completely in focus. "The flash was a metre or two in front of them, effectively creating a band of light across the warehouse that they could dance in," he says.

To freeze motion and capture every pivotal moment, David relied on the fast 0.1-1.2 sec recycle time of the Canon Speedlite EL-5. "I was really keen to use the power of the Li-ion battery with the EL-5. This rechargeable battery can give out more power more quickly than AA batteries could in the past, which means we can get more images in a burst," he comments.

"Urban dance is quite fast. You're looking for those moments. If you're waiting for flash to recycle, you're missing so much of what's going on." The sequence of images above demonstrates how rapidly the Speedlite EL-5 can recycle and fire again.

David then took his subjects outside to take sunlit portraits using the Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM lens. "I really like using the sun as a second light source," he explains. "I position my subjects so they have their backs to the sun, so I'm effectively shooting the unlit side of them. That creates silhouettes but we can use flash to fill that in, so you're gaining control of the sun rather than overpowering it."

It was an incredibly bright day, with extremely harsh light. To compensate, David was shooting wide open at shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 sec (with the Speedlite set to High-speed sync mode). He also positioned a single softbox close to his subjects. "I wanted soft light in an environment where you'd be expecting hard light," he says.

Interestingly, David used two Canon Speedlite EL-5s in his softbox – "not because you necessarily need the power of two flashguns, because one flash has enough power, but because it helps even out E-TTL," he explains. E-TTL works by firing a preliminary flash to meter for the main flash and in high ambient light, it's harder for the camera to tell the difference between ambient and metering light, resulting in overpowered flashes. "You end up with subjects with torched retinas," laughs David. "And they're way overexposed." A second flashgun effectively provides a more powerful metering light for E-TTL to correctly deduce ambient conditions.

Reflecting on the shoot, David says one of his favourite features of the Canon Speedlite EL-5 was its ease of use, "particularly in conjunction with some of the features that you get on the latest mirrorless cameras," he adds. "On the Canon EOS R6 Mark II, I could configure the M-Fn [Multi-function] button to bring up the Quick Flash Group Control settings on the camera screen and make my changes from there.

"Initially, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to adjust my flashes as quickly, but if anything it was quicker. I didn't have to take the camera away from my eye and look down, I could just take it slightly away, push a button and the screen was right in front of me. That was brilliant."

David also enjoyed using the EL-5's Flash Exposure Memory (FEM) feature, which can be used with compatible cameras to apply E-TTL metering to multiple groups of flashes in Manual mode. Simply take a test shot with all the Speedlites in E-TTL mode and then set them all to Manual to reveal the power levels used on each. Helping to reduce setup times, these settings can be kept for all subsequent shots or fine-tuned to achieve the look you desire.

"You know every picture in a sequence is going to have exactly the same setting – you're not going to get any E-TTL variations as the metering changes slightly, but it's going to be absolutely consistent," David adds.

Camera and flash setups have never been better connected, whether that's controlling up to 15 Speedlites wirelessly with the built-in radio transmitter or using the Canon Camera Connect app, which David found particularly useful. "If you had a remote camera up high, let's say, you can wirelessly control your camera and your flashguns through Canon Camera Connect. Couldn't do that before. Brilliant!"