Three Ways To Use A Speedlight For Stunning Portraits

As of May 1, 2024, the FJ80 series of speed lights no longer feature magnetic mounting, but now use a twist lock accessory mount.
In this video, @heyashleyboring shows three simple ways to get stunning portrait lighting using an FJ80-SE Speedlight.
Gear Used:
FJ80-SE: www.fjwestcott.com/products/f...
DIffusion Dome: www.fjwestcott.com/products/d...
Rapid Box Switch Insert for Westcott FJ80: www.fjwestcott.com/products/r...
Rapid Box Switch Octa-S: www.fjwestcott.com/products/r...
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00:00 - Start
01:02 - Use 1: On-Camera Fill Light
02:07 - Use 2: Bouncing Light
03:48 - Use 3: Using your Flash Off Camera
In portrait photography, mastering lighting is crucial. Speedlights offer a valuable boost to natural light, enhancing portrait quality. I'll demonstrate three speedlight techniques to improve portraits, using the Westcott FJ80-SE Universal Speedlight.
On-Camera Fill Light: Ideal for challenging lighting, the on-camera speedlight fills unflattering shadows, which is especially useful in backlit conditions. I attach the FJ80-SE to my camera's hot shoe, using it to lightly illuminate my subject's face shadowed by the sun, aided by a diffusion dome for natural-looking light.
Bounced Light Source: For a softer, natural look, point the speedlight towards a white wall or ceiling. This method, perfect for indoor settings, creates an even, diffused light. Adjust the flash power for balanced exposure, considering the color of the bounce surface to avoid color mixing.
Off-Camera with Modifier: For more creative control, use the speedlight off-camera with a modifier like a softbox. This setup allows for dramatic, dimensional portraits, giving freedom to control light direction, output, and quality. Use a transmitter, like the FJ-X3m, for off-camera flash activation.
Speedlights add versatility to portrait photography, enabling quick fill, soft bounce, or creative off-camera setups.

[@MH7_256]

Ashley is one of my favs on here!

[@WestcottLighting]

Us too!

[@EliInfante]

Great job boss! I'm using my FJ80 SE soon for OCF look 😎

[@heyashleyboring]

Can't wait to see what you do with it!

[@WestCoastVivi]

As always 👌🏼 Happy Holidays, Ashley! 🫶🏼

[@heyashleyboring]

Happy Holidays to you too!

[@easygoingguy]

Thanks for the tips. Doing landscape photography as a hobby trying to get into doing portraits and understanding lighting more and this has helped a lot.

[@lisawilliams1750]

Great tutorial and helpful information. Your images are beautiful! Thanks

[@stevemadrid6522]

Ashley "anything but" Boring! Always great tips in your videos! Thanks for all the great content!

[@barkyvonschnauzer2188]

Thank You Ashley, your content is never boring. Thank you!!

[@deewonda1952]

Thank you! I like those speed lights as they appear to be a little more portable than my Godox AD200s (which I love for off-camera lighting). And that dome looks like a great, portable modifier!

[@MartinV.]

Great Video!!

[@D-Professor]

Nicely done, Ashley. Your style of instruction is quite good. Your knowledge of photography and lighting is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

[@toddmueller]

Solid tips!

[@jasonmays1844]

That table shot makes me so jealous ❤

[@omegaman1409]

I still use speed lights. They are indispensable when in those fast moving photo shoots. It’s worth mastering them. I gotten great results.

[@skyace888]

Thanks for the video. I only use speedlights when absolutely necessary these days for run-and-gun on-camera event photography or as a 3rd rim/hair light. Off camera FJ200s/FJ400s is far superior and worth the time and investment.

[@claudiasilvestre4597]

Great video

[@WestcottLighting]

Thanks!

[@mikecaisse-ch5ok]

That was awesome video. The FJ80 2I love the touch screen on it. That was genius that they have that feature on it. The battery life is not bad. But having the diffusion Dom makes a big difference when using the speed flash. I feel you don't need anything else. It was worth the money... @westcott

[@jerrym8140]

Fantastic tips as well as explaining the concept. While I understand these tips already, this was a fun watch and reminder. Why a reminder… we’ll sometimes I forget that you can get some really amazing results still even from on camera flash which at times would just make life easier when like you said your on a time crunch especially. 👍👍

[@signaturesstudio]

FJ 600 available