There is a lot to learn about Speedliting. I’ve spent years honing my craft. Yet, I still learn new techniques and come upon new bits of inspiration all the time.

When you are starting out, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are 15 tips about Speedliting that you should know as you start learning to light with small flash. [Confession – you should know two things about me: I’m not known for being concise and I’m not known for thinking like a guy who writes user’s manuals for a living. That said, I promise that the following will help you turn a Speedlite into a tool of personal expression.]

1. Understand that the hotshoe is not the best place for your Speedlite.
I know. You paid good money for your camera and your Speedlite. It’s not that you didn’t get the deluxe hotshoe. You did. It’s just that shooting with a Speedlite in the hotshoe is similar to the lighting used to make driver’s license and passport photos. You cannot create interesting light when the main source of light is parked on top of your camera.

2. To create interesting light, you also need to create interesting shadows.
From your camera’s perspective, shadows that go straight back are invisible. That’s what happens when the Speedlite is in the hotshoe; the shadows go straight back. To make shadows that the camera can see means that they have to go across the photo. This means that your Speedlite needs to be somewhere to the side of your camera and not right on top.

BIG BTW: If you shoot Nikon, here’s your decoder ring for this article: Canon = Nikon, Speedlite = Speedlight, E-TTL = I-TTL. Everything else is exactly the same.

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