Shooting a High Key Portrait with 3 Speedlights

On this short video New York based Photographer Erik Valind demonstrates how to capture a high-key portrait with 3 flashes and Rogue Flash Bender 2.

So let’s say that you want to create a portrait shot with a white background. One of the options is to use a light (such as the speedlight Valind is using in this video and make it light the wall – just make sure it won’t spill into your model (he uses the flash bender for that but you can use other tools as flags to control and prevent light from passing back.

The rest of the light set is pretty straight forward – one main light and one fill light (again with the bender) which can be substituted for a reflector if you like.

A few years back photographer Tony Northrup did his own video on “how to shoot high key images in your home studio and you can also check out “How to Shoot High Key & Low Key Lighting” by Mark Wallace and “Using High Key vs Low Key Lights” by  Daniel Norton.

You can find many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on and  LensVid as well as more specific lighting tips here.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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