Lighting on the go: boost environmental portraits with flash

"When I have to photograph someone on a sunny day, they often say that it's such good weather for pictures. And I always tell them that a photographer's favourite weather is actually overcast and grey!"

Photojournalist and Canon Ambassador Nikolai Linares frequently shoots portraits for a range of news outlets, and he often supplements ambient light with artificial light sources – from Speedlite flashes to portable LEDs – to achieve the desired look. This is especially important to ensure that details are not lost in the deep shadows caused by bright sunshine. On a recent outdoor assignment, photographing skateboarder Diego Fiorese at Fælledparken Skatepark in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nikolai paired a high-speed Canon Speedlite EL-1 with the equally rapid Canon EOS R3.

With its blistering 30fps burst rate and ability to flash sync with its electronic shutter, the Canon EOS R3 is the perfect choice for outdoor portraits. It's as adept at capturing subtle shifts in a portrait-sitter's expression as it is at freezing lightning-fast action.

The Canon Speedlite EL-1's combination of flexible power control, fast recycling, active cooling and long battery life ensures that it doesn't miss a beat when it comes to high-speed shooting. To extend his lighting options further, Nikolai used a Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E10 on the EOS R3's Multi-function shoe to control the Speedlite EL-1 wirelessly.

How did Nikolai get the most from the gear on this shoot, and what advice would he offer to photographers taking on a similar portrait commission with flash?

Nikolai typically uses only one Speedlite when shooting outdoor portraits, "mainly because the people I'm photographing don't have much time," he explains. "If the sun is out, then I can use that as a fill light, so it looks as though I have two lights."

Nikolai advises doing some test shots, first with the Speedlite switched off, in order to set the exposure for the background, then with the Speedlite switched on, to work out the optimum flash output. With the Canon EOS R3 you can also use the vertical exposure level indicator in the viewfinder to give an indication of the exposure difference between the ambient light exposure and flash exposure before you take the shot.

It's also possible to use the camera's E-TTL (Evaluative Through-the-Lens) autoflash mode, which calculates how much light the flash needs to emit, and sets the output accordingly. The Canon EOS R3 also offers a Face Priority option, which works with the camera's face detection and eye tracking AF: choose this option, and the flash will meter only from the subject's face. "I used the autoflash mode, and it worked really well," Nikolai says. "But for this shoot I used the manual setting because I wanted to have more creative control over the light when mixing it with the extreme sunlight."

With the Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E10 fitted on the hotshoe of his Canon EOS R3, Nikolai had the freedom to control the Canon Speedlite EL-1 remotely from up to 30 metres away. Unlike the radio transmitters Nikolai had used in the past, the Speedlite Transmitter ST-E10 doesn't need batteries, instead drawing its power from the camera's Multi-function shoe. It also has a single Menu button that instantly brings up the Speedlite settings menu on the camera's screen.

"The Canon EOS R3 and the Speedlite El-1 worked really well together," Nikolai continues. "Sometimes using a flash can slow you down, with recharging times and so on, but that wasn't the case with this setup."

If you're taking your first steps in using flash for environmental portraits, Nikolai suggests shooting from a position where the sun isn't directly behind you – especially during the autumn and winter, where the sun is lower throughout the day. "Otherwise you risk your own shadow making it into the frame in front of you," he explains. "It's the same deal with a remote Speedlites, if you've got that positioned on a light stand or something.

"So, you have to think a lot about how to clean up the shadows in pictures taken on bright days, as well as making sure that you are using the flash in the shadow areas of your subject."

Exposing for the highlights and adding fill-in flash to open the shadows is a classic technique for achieving more flattering outdoor portraits on sunny days. But choosing to use a large aperture to reduce the depth of field or to capture a fast-moving subject means you need a Speedlite that's capable of syncing at rapid shutter speeds.

Both the Canon Speedlite EL-1 and Speedlite Transmitter ST-E10 support high-speed sync via wireless communication, which Nikolai took advantage of when using a shutter speed of 1/4000-1/6400 sec to freeze Diego in mid-air.

"There was one shot where I wanted to see if we could catch him in the air but still get some movement in the picture, so I ended up dropping the shutter speed to 1/160 sec, and you can see motion in his feet and arms. He was falling in the shot, but I like the picture, as it shows that you don't land everything as you want when you're skateboarding."

"The day of the shoot was very bright, so I knew that the Speedlite would have to work really hard," Nikolai explains. "As we were working in full sun, I needed as much flash power as possible for the majority of the shots. Setting the Speedlite to 1/1 in manual mode meant that I knew it would give me full power when I pressed the shutter release. Of course, when I was using the 30fps mode on the Canon EOS R3, the flash wasn't able to fire 30 full flashes per second, but I still had plenty of options to choose from."

The Speedlite EL-1 isn't just a powerful tool for flash photography in bright sunlight, as its flash output can be reduced to a granular 1/8192th of full power. It also features a built-in bi-colour LED modelling light. "It wasn't usable for me on this shoot, as I was shooting in bright sunlight, but it's definitely something that I would use because I love to do portraits in low light," says Nikolai. "During the winter, I usually carry small LED lamps, and maybe the EL-1's modelling light could do some of that if it's dark enough."