A question that comes up everytime I teach a flash clinic is “what is the best kind of light for this subject”. I think the best way to answer that is “what are you trying to say, what mood do you want to capture?” At one end of the spectrum is hard edged non-diffused light, say a standard reflector on a studio head or straight TTL flash shot right at the subject. On the other end is super diffused soft light, say light produced by firing TTL flashes through umbrellas and then through a big white sheet or scrim, or using a 6 foot Octabank. And there are endless styles in the middle, combining qualities of light in one image. I really like using edgy light along with a more diffused source. For this running image shot on a track, we used hard edged rim lights on the model’s hair, and a small softbox to add light to her face. Combine this lighting with underexposing your background, which makes your lighting more apparent and snappy, and you get one of my favorite styles of lighting. Right now this is very popular with many sports magazine, just take a look at the magazine rack. And sometimes your lighting is determined by clients. We shot an editorial spread the other day, and the photo editor really wanted soft flattering light that matched the uplifting story theme. So out came the giant Octabank, and we shot the entire assignment with soft light. Tech: Nikon D3, 24-70mm, 1/125 at F20, ISO 100. Three Elinchrom Rangers RX packs with A heads, two with standard reflectors using 20 degree grids, and one shot through a 2 foot Rotalux square softbox. Skyports used to trigger and control flash output.