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I try never to shoot direct, undiffused, on-camera flash at my subjects. In this instance, I'm using a Gary Fong Collapsable Light Sphere with the convex dome facing outward, pointed at Avera, allowing the dome to spread the softened light over the model. There's a softboxed remote flash fired from the left and another flash with a shoot-into umbrella on the right. The shots I'm posting were shot with a Nikon D700, a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and there was a Nikon SB-700 on the camera's hotshoe, an SB-600 left, and an SB-800 right. Periodically, there was an SB-900 firing into a gold reflector behind the model to better light her hair.
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I'm using flash to place highlights in the eyes, to correct the color balance to roughly 5000 K, and to shape the face most pleasingly. The moderate telephoto focal length compresses features (particularly desireable for a very thin subject; less so for what we will refer to as an unusually well-nourished individual.) Notice how soft and even the lighting on the the face appears.
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To me, the greatest asset the flash offers is that it allows me to open up the lighting on a face, which then allow me to concentrate on the eyes. And yes, I do use flash even on black-and-white images, as below.
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Notice, too the way in which flash, properly utilized, can allow the photographer to exert control over the background and create a sense to separation from the background, as in this shot:
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Notice how...rounded...this image seems. It's telegraphing a third dimension, making the set look large and deep, when in fact Avera is only about 4-5 feet from the back wall. Much of the light in this image is coming from the sides, with the flash on-camera used as fill to open up shadows and add highlights. Notice how much you notice the green background.
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This is pretty much all front-light, but diffused and soft front-light. It can be done. The combination of front-light and a long focal length obliterates the background and makes the image look intimate -- as though you are very close to Avera.
Is there a "magic bullet" -- a secret method -- for flash? No. But using flash is not hard, just arcane. Start using it as early as possible, and make your mistakes early. Get them out of your system, learn what works for you, and incorporate flash into your bag of tricks. You'll be glad you did.
