Regardless of whether you celebrate it or not, Halloween is coming up. If you’re looking to have some creative fun with your speedlights, try your hand at working with shadow puppets. Of course, it requires a bit of work with paper or cardboard (in my case, very poorly). By placing a speedlight with a radio trigger fairly close to my paper ghost, I was able to create the pretty fun shadow puppet on the wall. In order to get this look, the shutter speed was kept relatively high, the ISO low, and the zoom head on the flash matched accordingly with my focal length. The light was also set manually.
The truth is that you can do with this any flashlight, but the reason why we used the speedlight has to do with zoom head control and more power output per image. Be sure to also place your flash fairly close to your shadow puppets and to experiment with the angles.
Obviously the more complicated your cutout is, the cooler the shadow will be.
So what could you do with these? Off the top of my head, the idea to set it as your Facebook page’s cover image will give your fans a better idea of your creativity and the fact that you can sometimes do something more fun.
Again though, this is all about fun. Don’t be so serious all the time. Be lighthearted. Embracing your creativity and your inner child will make you a better photographer.
