Originally, the idea for this photo involved a smaller person, but this model was highly willing and worked for free. It's amazing that it came out even remotely sharp being shot hand held at 1/10s. Props to the Canon image stabilization eh?
I was really going for some hard-edged shadows here, so I used direct flash without any sort of diffusion. In these types of images (coined Strobist by off-camera flash guru David Hobby), you have to balance the ambient light with the light from your off-camera flash(es). Here, the ambient light is a lamp behind the camera, and it's not a very strong light source. After finding the correct exposure for the ambient light itself, I increased the shutter speed a bit to intentionally underexpose it (slightly). Then the flash was dialed way down to create the shadows and light the subject itself without overexposing anything.
I'm going to plug the Strobist website again, because anyone who is interested in taking better pictures should go there now. Check out his Lighting 101 & 102 tutorials to get an understanding of this concept.
Anyway, I hope to shoot this scene again at some point, as there definitely some room for improvement. Here are the technical details for this photo though...
Canon T2i - 430EX II Speedlite at 1/64 power on manual - Canon 18-55mm IS (kit lens) - 1/10s @ f/5.6 - ISO 400
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