It’s curious how the real point of beginning is often not discovered until the very end of a creative journey. This was certainly true with the year I spent producing the Speedliter’s Handbook. Tucked in the very back, as Appendix 4 on pages 374–375, is some of the most important information in the book—my Six Point Checklist For Speedliting. If it’s such important info, why is it hidden between a list of Custom Functions and the index?

The backstory is that the inspiration for the piece hit me some 48 hours after the book was all-in, complete, done, Syl—no more. Fortunately for Speedliters, my valiant and long-suffering editor, Ted Waitt, conceded to my far-beyond-the-last-minute request. So, literally as the book was being sent out, the last two open pages were filled with my answer to a simple question—how do I  organize my Speedliting workflow? Essentially, I asked myself how I would summarize the contents of nearly 400 pages into a simple checklist. Had I thought of the checklist earlier, it would have been at the front of the book rather than shoehorned in at the back. Like I said, often the real point of beginning is not apparent until the end of a creative journey.

So, if you’re paralyzed by too many Speedliting-things to keep in your head, use the following six areas to prioritize and sort out your efforts. I have listed them in the order in which I deal with each.

1—Ambient

There are two types of light in a flash photograph—the light that is already there and the light that your Speedlite creates. Settle on the exposure for your ambient light before you switch on your Speedlite. I typically:

• Use Av mode to quickly see what the camera is seeing—I always start a shoot with a quick shot in Aperture-priority mode to see how the camera records the ambient light. This gives me a baseline from which to make decisions about the exposure.

• Underexpose the ambient light—I typically want the subject to jump out a bit from the background. I create this effect by underexposing the ambient and lighting the subject with my Speedlites.

• Lock in the exposure—once I have the ambient exposure settled, I switch the camera from Aperture Priority into Manual mode so that the ambient light will be captured consistently over several frames.

2—Purpose

Ask yourself what you want the Speedlite to do? It can provide any of the following four types of light:

• Key—the main light on the subject. Even in bright ambient light, if you use a fast shutter, you can underexpose the ambient and use your Speedlite as the key light.

• Fill—a fill flash enables the camera to record details that otherwise would be lost in the shadows. An on-camera Speedlite firing in E-TTL in bright sun is a good strategy for simple fill flash. When shooting multiple Speedlites, the A:B ratio control can be used the shift the balance between the key and fill lights.

• Rim—if you want to provide a thin line of light that separates your subject from the background, then put a Speedlite behind the subject. Be sure to flag the Speedlite so that it does not flare into the lens.

• Background—you will create a more interesting photograph by lighting elements in the subject’s environment rather than the subject and his environment together with the same light.

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