Creative still life lighting

2 Support the patterned glass over the patchwork at a height of about six inches. Use books at each end to support if you don't have suitable clamps.

3 Lay the flowers in the centre of the glass and adjust the arrangement to suit the style you want. The simpler the better.

4 Set a flash up so that it will provide illumination for the patchwork pointing down at the table below the glass. And place a piece of black card over the top of the head so that no stay light bounces upwards towards the camera.

5 Roll the second piece of card so that it makes a cone over the head of the second flash and position this to one side above the flowers. This will provide the spotlight effect on the flower heads.

6 Set the camera up on a tripod over the set up. It helps here if you using a tripod like a Benbo where the arm can be set horizontally to slide the camera into position. If not you could handhold the camera but only when using flash. Tungsten light will be to slow and make camera shake unavoidable.

7 If you have studio lighting switch on the modelling lights and adjust the positions to ensure the best lighting balance. Make sure the background light is set to deliver one stop less light than the top spot light. A flash meter would help here. Otherwise refer to the flashguns' exposure tables.

8 Focus on the flower petals and select an aperture that will throw the background out of focus f/2.7 or f/4 would be good, but make sure your flashes can cope with this. If not, use ND gels over the flash tubes to reduce their outputs.

9 If you're using a camera with a built in flash to trigger the other two, make sure that the head is diffused greatly to avoid head on flash exposure. Use white tissue paper folded to give thickness and provide enough diffusion to reduce the exposure and provide just enough light to trigger the other flashes.