How to Elevate Your Shots with Simplicity
When you’re shooting portraits on location, natural light can be beautiful — but it doesn’t always give you the dimension, detail, and control that make images truly pop. Relying only on available light often means blowing out the background to brighten your subject’s face, or ending up with flat, lifeless results. The solution? Adding just one light to your setup.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how I use the Westcott FJ400 strobe to transform simple outdoor settings into dramatic, dimensional portraits — without hauling around tons of gear.
Why One Light is Enough
You don’t need an entire studio setup to create powerful on-location portraits. A single strobe gives you:
Dimensional lighting – adding shape to the face and jawline.
Color depth – richer tones and balanced exposure.
Control – the ability to adapt when the sun shifts or clouds roll in.
Even at 400 watt-seconds, the FJ400 isn’t designed to overpower midday sun. Instead, it fills and balances light beautifully, especially when you don’t want to lose cloud texture or background detail.
Bare Bulb vs. Modified Light
I like to demonstrate the difference by shooting the same setup two ways:
Bare bulb: The light is direct, adding crisp highlights and strong separation from the background.
f/2.0 @ 1/1600, ISO 50
- With an Octabox: The silver reflector, inner baffle, and diffusion panel soften the light, creating a more flattering and natural look for close-up portraits.
f/2.0 @ 1/1000, ISO 50
Using the Environment Creatively
One of my favorite parts of working on location is taking advantage of what’s around me. For this shoot, a puddle left behind from the rain became a perfect tool to capture reflections, sky, and subject all in one frame. By underexposing the camera and firing the strobe at full power, I was able to keep detail in the background while ensuring the subject’s face was lit beautifully.
f/2.0 @ 1/4000, ISO 50
It’s all about balance — the strobe filled in where the sun couldn’t, creating results that natural light alone could never achieve.
Quick Tips for Success
Don’t run strobes at full power if you can avoid it. Lower settings recycle faster, letting you keep up with your subject’s movement.
Use diffusion for portraits. Layers of diffusion panels or softboxes keep skin tones natural and flattering.
Work fast and adapt. Clouds move, light changes — having one controllable light source keeps your portraits consistent.
Get creative with backgrounds. Reflections, architecture, or even shadows can be transformed when balanced with flash.
Final Thoughts
On location portraits don’t require a complicated setup. With just one light, you can add dimension, preserve background details, and create images that feel polished and professional. The Westcott FJ400 makes it easy to control exposure, shape light, and adapt quickly outdoors — proving that simplicity often leads to the most striking results.
