If a flashgun makes you think of bleached faces and flat lighting, think again ...

Think instead of a flashgun as a very portable studio strobe: small, light and battery-powered. Use it exactly as you would a studio strobe - off-camera, with a light modifier and plain black backdrop - you can get some excellent results.

The setup I use for most shots is this:

PHOTO OF SETUP

That's two Nikon SB800s in 18x15-inch Morris softboxes. The softboxes come with speedrings for the flashes, and they are attached to the lightstand with umbrella clamps. They are triggered by an SU800.

The results are shots like these:

The advantage of the SU800/SB800 setup I use is that I can take advantage of Nikon's very clever Creative Lighting System (CLS), but the cleverness just saves a bit of time - you can get exactly the same results with a dumb flashgun in manual mode, it'll just take you a bit longer to begin shooting.

CLS means that the camera and flashgun work together wirelessly to give the correct amount of flashlight for your chosen exposure. ISO, aperture, shutter speed, distance from the flashgun to the subject, light modifiers in use - the CLS system sorts it all out for you. If you want to adjust the flash exposure, you can do it all right from the camera - just dial-in the flash exposure compensation on the camera or SU800.

With a dumb flash, you will have to adjust the power every time you move the flashgun or change the light modifier. In practice, you will probably find that you have a favourite light modifier, so there isn't really too much difference in the amount of effort - a clever flash just makes the initial setup a bit quicker.

I'm going to be adding a third flash with gels to create coloured backgrounds when the sky isn't available for this purpose.

Incidentally, fans of Strobist would no doubt be keen to point out that you don't need to spend money on commercially-made modifiers. A simple piece of A4 paper and sellotape does a pretty good job, and a set of straws and some tape creates a passable honeycomb. The only reasons I use proper kit are (a) it lasts rather better, so saves messing around reconstructing things regularly, and (b) it lends rather more confidence to commercial clients than turning up with sellotape and straws. :-)