Lessons
Chapter 1 Introduction
01:26 2Why Just One On-Camera Flash
04:22 35 Reasons to Use Flash
10:37 4Common Flash Myths
06:51 5What Makes Flash Challenging?
04:56 6Chapter 2 Introduction
01:36 7Flash-Strobe vs. Ambient-Constant Light
08:19 8Flash vs. Ambient Light Exposure
03:07Flash vs. Ambient Demo
06:42 10Flash and Ambient Balancing for Natural Effect
07:11 11Flash and Ambient Balancing for Dramatic Effect
04:19 12Flash and Ambient Balancing for Creative Effect
07:10 13Understanding Flash Duration
08:37 14Chapter 3 Introduction
01:34 155 Common Key Light Patterns
08:38 165 Common Key Light Patterns w/ Diffusion & Fill
07:42 175 Common Secondary Light Patterns
08:28 183 Primary Subject Patterns
05:27 19Light Qualities
09:56 20The Inverse Square Law
07:50 21Inverse Square Law in Practice
08:21 22Corrective White Balance
10:02 23Creative White Balance
05:47 24Chapter 4 Introduction
01:58 25On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash
05:57 26Full Feature vs. Manual Flashes
08:59 27TTL vs. Manual Control
08:12 28TTL vs. Manual Recycle Times
04:43 29Flash Power & Zoom
09:18 30HHS vs. ND Filters
12:29 31FCS vs. RCS
07:11 32Chapter 5 Introduction
01:38 334 Tips When You Must Use Direct Flash
06:00 34Bare Bulbing Done Right
11:42 35Grid Snoot + Direct Flash
06:43 36Mini Beauty + Direct Flash
06:08 37Ring + Direct Flash
07:52 38Understanding Modifiers
09:24 39Direct Flash + Shutter Flash
09:07 40Chapter 6 Introduction
01:55 41Ambient vs. Direct Flash vs. Bounce Flash
14:27 42Silver Bounce
14:27 43More Light Silver
11:02 44Soft White Bounce
15:41 45Overhead Bounce
11:39 46Overhead Bounce + Fill
09:42 47Event Bounce
12:42 48Chapter 7 Introduction
01:38 49Natural vs. Dramatic Light
17:43 50Filling and Refining Existing Light
08:44 51Coloring Light for Corrective Effect
13:33 52Coloring Light for Creative Effect
10:27 53Chapter 8 Introduction
00:43 54Case Study 1 - Dramatic Sunset
09:45 55Case Study 2 - Desert Sunset
10:04 56Case Study 3 - Sinister Headshot
09:40 57Case Study 4 - Family Portrait
08:21 58Case Study 5 - Athlete Portraits
11:19 59Case Study 6 - Working Angles
07:22 60Case Study 7 - Drag + Composite
08:09 61Case Study 8 - Less is More
07:16 62The Good Karma Jar
01:41 63Favorite Feature Flashes
05:52 64Favorite Manual Flashes
21:35 65Favorite On Camera Flash Modifiers
21:21Lesson Info
Case Study 6 - Working Angles
case study number six is all about working the angles when shooting. And remember that after you get your lighting set up, not just shoot in that one basic position that you started with, but to move around your subject or do what I call work the angles. And the reason for this is that after I set up my lighting generally, what I like to do is just work the angles. And what I find is almost every single time. My favorite shot isn't the one that I initially started with. My favorite shot isn't the one that I set up for. That's my safety shop. My favorite shot is always the one that comes or at least 99% of time is the one that comes after when I'm working my angles and I'm moving around the scene and shooting. Working the angles is extremely simple. When you're dealing with off camera lighting, right because you set up your off camera lights, your subject stays in the same position, and all you do is you move around your life. They all stay in the same position and nothing changes. Work...
ing the angles is a little bit more challenging when you're dealing with on camera flash because, well, if you're working the angles, you're also moving where your primary light is coming from. So one thing to think about is just as you're working, the angles just kind of keep moving and keep a hand on the flash and kind of a just and angled back to where you want that bounce to be And the biggest help that's gonna get you there is your grid or your snoot to be ableto push that light into the place that you want. But this is a very reasonable and practical approach Still to do with on camera flash. I wouldn't be telling you otherwise if it weren't okay, So once you get this set up, we've already talked about how we set up this first shot, right. We put the b flat up onto basically are to see stands. We lifted up these Matthew C stands to get him up really high. We haven't hold the bar and we shoot bouncing off of that B flat and this is fantastic. This is my safety shot and we got this shot at Let's see, let's take a look at how it was shot. So 1 30 of a second F and s 0 800 on the 24 70 mark. Two B flats overhead were at 1/4 to 1/8 power. And again, we're balancing our shutter speed because we still have the garage open on this left side, and I'm getting a little bit of the ambient light, and I want to just pick up some of the ambulance for the background. I don't ever want my backgrounds to follow the pitch black. The other thing that's helping me out is we've left ambient fog in the room this and have fun in the room. Kind of fills the room a little bit with this gray kind of mist, and it prevents the backgrounds from going to that pitch black because it allows the light to kind of bounce off the fog and create a little bit more depth to an image. So once this is all set up, I have him lit and we get this safety shot him looking in. I also get shots of him looking down, you know, because I don't like necessarily. The eyes were all reckoned out for this having a shot. It's OK, because this is more dramatic. Having the eyes dropped to that shadow looks a little more sinister and kind of a little more more just, I don't know, like evil evil. But it fits for this type of an image because he's a boxer and he wanted to look tough and powerful. That's about the right word. Not evil, but tough and powerful. He probably wouldn't appreciate me calling him evil. I'm sorry, Jeremiah. I did not mean to call you evil. All right, so let's go into this. So once I get this set up, I go. Okay, Now, let me start working the angle. I'm gonna go off to the right side a little bit as I move my flash. It simply does this. I'm bouncing like this, and all I do is I'm moving off to the right a little bit working with the grid, and I'm just kind of angle it a little bit now. So I'm still getting that same bounce and night fire again. Use your flash test to kind of see where that light's going. You can see where it's going to see where it's landing, and it's a fantastic tool. Keep your hand up there and just make little adjustments as you press the flash test button. Then we get the second shot. Second thoughts. Great. I even prefer this shot over that one. I haven't looking down because again, I don't want to focus on his eyes and him looking in the camera. I want to focus on him and his features and just what he's doing kind of in that moment. Notice that kicker right there. You see how we can see the kicker on the left side in this shot, but it's much less permanent. Pronounced. You notice how, as soon as we move to the angle, I lower his hand and now we have the kicker along his face and along his arm and body all the way down. We see a little bit of highlighting the back, kind of revealing a little more depth in the room. Then I moved to be even more directional. I crop across the we have, like all these straps in front of front of the shot. We have kind of this great voyeuristic look into this boxers. He's training and resting. She's holding on to this bar. The highlight from the garage kind of fills the fog up right behind him, which creates a beautiful highlight behind him, which draws attention to the frame, the exposure. So it looks fantastic. We have this little bit of, like, kind of Rembrandt lighting with that light on the other side of his cheek. His eyes are looking down so it doesn't bring attention to the shadows in the eyes. We have great muscle definition from the top down light, everything looks fantastic in the shop. This ends up being my favorite shot. This ends up being the shot that they end up using. And it came from starting with my safety shop. So the point here is you set up. I always set up every one of my shots essentially for the safety shot. Always whether I'm doing lighting 101 techniques of camera bounce lighting to on techniques of off camera. Whatever I'm doing, I'm always setting up for my safety shot. First the shop that, you know, I just gotta have Once that shot is set up, I started moving around and kind of working the angles, finding other spots to shoot from slow things down guys again. I'm gonna say it again. The number one thing I always tell my people is to slow down. Don't feel like you have to just sit there and move from shot to shot the shoten and just big bang boom and get all of these different. You know, looks, Jeremiah, the 12 this this the training center, they need two or three shots. They don't need 50. So my focus is slowing things down, getting a few great shots. And once they saw this, they're like, That's incredible and go, Yeah, this was for lighting 11 By the way, we did this just with one on camera flash. Like I That's incredible. We can't wait till we do the big we did this big epic shoot which we're gonna have for lighting to one and also a fitness DVD as well on how to do fitness photography. But it blew them away that we could do all of that, which is a single on camera flash. So for this entire shot again, we had our C stands holding RV flat. There's no other Phil anything like that. We just have that background light that's added from opening the garage a little bit. We used our Roscoe many V to fill the room with little fog. Let it dissipate. Use a fan use Ah, someone like using a reflector to kind of waft it. Whatever you want to do, let it dissipate so that you have a nice bit of haze in the background rather than having defined smoke. Okay, Final shot 1 30 of the second half to eight ISO 800 were at 1/ to 18 power. And we got all these different shots with this exact same set up. We're just black and white ing it in the final post. That's it for working the angles. Please take this into consideration and make sure that you don't leave your scenes too early. After you have everything set up, use that light and take a few different shots. Worked the angles and you're gonna find that often times the best shot isn't the one that you initially thought off
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Sid
The best class for understanding light and lighting there is bar none. Pye is an excellent teacher and the quality of the material provides for a rich and very informative experience. Pye breaks down the fundamentals in easy to digest packets and then elaborates as needed. If there is one class that you watch this is it! Worth purchasing and saving for future use. I would also HIGHLY recommend downloading the saving the PDF of slides that accompany the videos. Again, and can't say it enough, this is THE BEST video to lighting on Creative Live. A must watch for the novice and the expert.
Petra
Great course, I highly recommend it if you want to become a more confident flash user. Pye is a wonderful instructor and just such a nice guy, it's a pleasure to listen to him
Simon Metselaar
This is the best thing that happened to me since I've been into photography. What a lifesaver. Unfortunately I already payed for some courses that are not Pye, but Pye just nails it. Amazing, and kind of a life hack. Thanks again :)