Studio-style flash lighting with Speedlites

Some Canon EOS cameras, such as the EOS-1D X Mark III and EOS 5D Mark IV, are equipped with a PC socket (also known as a PC sync port or PC terminal), enabling them to wire up to professional studio flash lighting equipment. However, you don't need to rely on this older standard – studio-style photographs can be taken with all EOS cameras using Canon Speedlites off-camera.

To do this, you can use either a Canon Off-Camera Shoe Cord OC-E3, which fits into your camera's hot-shoe and connects your flash with a cable, or the Canon wireless flash system, which has greater range and greater versatility, with the option to use multiple flash units. The range and the number of flash units depend on which control system you use. If your Speedlites support the Canon Radio Transmission (RT) wireless sytem, the range is up to around 30 metres, and you can use up to five groups of remote flash units, with up to three flash guns in each group. The Canon optical wireless system can control two or three groups but with any number of flash guns in each group, and it has a smaller range of up to around 15 metres indoors, but this will be ample for a studio set-up. As at the end of 2020, all current Speedlites will work with the optical wireless system (although a couple of macro ring light models work only as transmitters, not as remote receivers).

The Canon wireless flash system is not only convenient and versatile, but also very portable. This means you can set up a studio in almost any suitable space.

The Speedlite range are powerful for their size – the flagship Speedlite EL-1, for example, has a guide number of 60 (metres, ISO 100) but weighs less than 690g complete with its rechargeable Lithium-ion battery – and many are ideal for use with large light modifiers, such as umbrellas or big softboxes, to soften and diffuse the light when required to create truly professional results. In contrast to many artificial light sources, diffused illumination better emulates natural lighting, such as the light through a window. What's more, you don't necessarily need to invest in pro studio equipment – with just a little time and ingenuity, it's easy to make your own light modifiers and accessories to use with your Speedlites.

When you're shooting headshots for a portfolio, or photographing family and friends, the setting and background are not usually important. These photos were taken in a dining room after moving the table and chairs to one side.

A softbox produces a very similar result to an umbrella, and again there is a broad range available to buy, but you can also make one yourself very cheaply. All you need is a fairly large cardboard box, some aluminium foil, adhesive tape, and tracing paper or white baking parchment.

Basically, it's just a case of making a hole in the bottom of the box, and securing your Speedlite in this with some tape and extra cardboard for reinforcement. Line the box with the aluminium foil, then cover the open side of the box opposite the flashgun with the tracing paper to create a diffuser. You can follow our step-by-step guide for more information.

In a photographic studio or a professional portrait photographer's kitbag, not all the lights use large reflectors or diffusers. Quite often other accessories are used to modify the light for specific situations and creative effect. Grids and snoots are two of the most common, used to direct and concentrate the lighting. With a little imagination, you can easily make similar accessories to use for your Speedlite.

A snoot acts like a funnel for the light. Instead of the light spreading over a wide area, it is narrowed down to a beam of light a bit like a spotlight. It is often used to highlight areas within the scene or to add a rim light or hairlight to the back of a head when shooting portraits. A snoot is usually circular and produces a very hard-edged light, where the difference between lit areas and shadow is very apparent.

Grids are a lot like snoots, but the light they produce has a softer edge. In the studio they come in a range of strengths to produce different size spots, but for most Speedlite applications you'll need only one. They are used like snoots, but the softer edges avoid heavy shadows and allow you to feather the light across the subject to provide a smooth transition from lit to unlit areas.

Although you could use a home-made grid or snoot on a flash mounted on the camera, you really need to be able to position and direct the flashgun quite accurately. If it is on the camera, the range of movement is not enough to create the lighting effects you can produce with the flash off-camera.

The simplest way to make a snoot is to reach for one of those foil-lined snack food tubes or just some thin cardboard. Making sure the tube is completely clean, simply pop out (or cut off) both ends of the tube and ease one end over your Speedlite. Alternatively, take a piece of cardboard, and fold it around the head of your Speedlite to create an open rectangle. You can use tape or a couple of strong rubber bands to keep it in shape and in position.

You can modify the size of the exit hole by squashing that end of the snoot tighter – you may need some more tape to maintain the size you want.

You can make a grid for your Speedlite in a similar way, but you'll need some black drinking straws. Make your snoot as above, but this time fill the tube with the straws. If you pack the straws in nice and tight you might get them to stay in place by themselves, but alternatively, use some glue along their length – this is easier to do with a rectangular piece of cardboard that you then fold around the straws.

The longer the straws, the tighter the spot will be. A length of around 5cm provides a useful-sized spot with a soft edge for feathering, but you might want to start a bit longer and cut down to size as you require.

With snoots and grids, you are dealing with a narrow beam of light, so it's important to make sure it is hitting the right point. The depth-of-field preview button on your camera hides a little known function when used in conjunction with a compatible flashgun. With a flashgun attached to the camera or connected wirelessly, pressing the depth-of-field preview button will cause the flash to emit a short burst of rapid flashes. This will show you exactly where the light will fall in the image.

EOS cameras have through-the-lens (TTL) flash metering. Any modifications you make to the Speedlite flash output will be detected by the metering system and you should continue to obtain well-exposed flash images. However, as with all photo techniques, the results you get might not always be the results you want. Don't be disappointed if your first set of pictures is less than perfect. Experiment with your homemade Speedlite accessories, examine the results, and decide if a little flash exposure compensation would improve the photographs.