speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

It all depends on the subject matter and the intend behind it! You have good flexibility, use it wisely and you'll love it! At first you'll be really busy adjusting the power output a lot, over and over. The more lights you use, the more time it takes to tweak everything just right!

Bill P

The only guy that needed 7 lights was O Winston Link.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Hey Jack! I am just full of questions- OK- PORTRAITS. Is it general portraiture- kids, ladies and gents, weddings, families, groups, or is it theatrical- models, head-shots actors. How about pets?

If you have 7 lights, you can use 2 of them as a bounce fill- a favorite of many expereinced portrait photograhers. A couple of your more powerful units bounced off the ceiling or the ceiling/wall junction behind the camera position. A main light on a stand can be equipped with a simple parabolic reflector, a soft box or an umbrella- It should have a good modeling lamp so you can see you lighting forms and patterns. Are you familiar with some of the classic patterns like butterfly, Rembrandt, split, rim, profile kicker etc.?

The remaining lights can be used for accent lights such as kickers, a hair light and a background lights. You may require some snoots, grids or bard doors to precisely control theses lights. A hair light will need a boom stand

As others have alluded to, a simple one or two light starting system is a good learning approach. The main light is responsible for facial aesthetics, modeling, various classic lighting forms and styles and many of the exposure and contrast elements. The fill source determines ratio (contrast) and helps keep things within the dynamic range of the system. Accent lights continue the glow of the main light into the hair and can add additional highlights to certain facial features. The background light helps with separation, dimension and tonal or color mass in the background.

So...my last questions for now is, how familiar with some of theses concepts are you? If you let me/us know, I/we can suggest some further approach or recommend some (FREE) online study materials that go into detail about all of the aforementioned

If the portrait-bug bites you, you may want to join us in the "Advanced and Professional Portraiture" section. You don't have to be a pro- it's for everyone interested in the work.

BermBuster Loc: Hi Desert S.Cal

Thats great that you have several flashes. I can see this being very handy for outdoor portraits. The biggest drawback for me outdoors, is lack of of power. You could easily combine 4 flashes in one modifier, and the more you turn down each individual flash, the quicker they recycle..and the longer the batteries last.
Remember 2 flashes are only 1 stop brighter than 1, 4 flashes are only 1 stop brighter than 2, and 8 flashes are only 1 stop brighter than 4.
EL Shapiro can really get specific on light placement, and has helped me tremendously.
Good luck!

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

This is Serna doing fire dance in my garden. Seven flash heads, 4 plugged into one Norman 2,000watt second power base to illuminate the garden environment and wall.

Three heads powered from another Norman 2,000 Watt Second power base. Over head boom and two large soft boxes to either side of our fire model. No modeling lights in use, the fire was used to create the images.

In this case, the shutter was dragged and the flash was triggered during the long exposure.

(Download)

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Are you passing this off, as a successful shot, or just the use of seven flash heads.?

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

So you have used 7 flash heads. I can see that they have lit up your back yard. Now what? This was time consuming and was for just one shot. You certainly aren't going to be using them every time you want to take a picture. I did some portraits recently for a church social and was quite happy with just the flash head on the camera. I was worn out when it was over. 7 flash heads probably would have killed me.

anotherview Loc: California

When shooting portraits in a studio setting, one flash unit dedicated to a hairlight will add that eye-satisfying touch to the hair of the subject.

In a traditional studio portrait, other flash units will do their job -- for example, you may want to add some light to the background. Now you have two flash units in play.

One main flash unit for lighting the subject may strike the subject from a variety of angles. You have to decide what outcome you wish to achieve with this one light. Three flash units will suffice at this point.

Note that on the side opposite the main light, you could add a scrim (say, a diffusion panel) to bounce some light into the shadow area of the portrait.

This setup could produce very effective portraits, especially head and shoulder pictures.

The use of artificial lighting presents a field of photography all by itself -- in large part because the photographer designs the lighting. Usually, in portrait photography, no natural lighting falls on the subject, only the lighting from manmade sources. The photographer has to balance all the lighting for a good effect.

As you will find, plenty of online tutorials exist for using artificial lighting.

Good luck.