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
FCS vs. RCS
FCS and RCs. Let's take just a bit more time and discuss the differences between first curtain sink versus rear curtain sync. We're gonna analyze the shot just a little bit more. Now this John, Bolivia with the crossbar going across her shoulders, was taken inside the studio. And basically, rather than blacking out the studio completely, what we did was we shot with some ambient light. The whole goal here is we want some ambient light to create some motion in the shop. We want there to be a little bit of light there, So when we drag out the shutter, we get some motion. But we want to use the flash freeze that motion. So what we've done is to make sure that basically that that motion that we capture looks good and looks decent and also doesn't blur the face We actually placed the light behind Libya and off to the right side. That way, the lights basically coming and acting more like a kicker kind of off this side is giving her a little bit of rim light. It's also giving enough light to ...
her back that it creates motion. When she jumped up and down so it gives enough light in the scene that would get into motion. But it's not on our face. As she's going up and down, we slow the shutter speed toe 1/10 of a second. And really, you want to play with the shutter speed? With each of these scenes that you approach like this shutter speed is gonna be one. Those things gonna vary If you're dealing with cars that are moving incredibly fast, you don't need to go this slow for your shutter speed or depending on how much motion you might want. You might even go slower. But typically the faster the motion, the quicker the shutter speed could be to still capture motion. But if the motion is relatively slow, the wind is slowly shutting down even further to be able to show that motion. Olivia's motion is fairly quick. So 1/10 of a second will give us a good, adequate time. Whereas if we slow it down too much, if we go to 1/2 2nd it might get a little bit too much motion because it's just not gonna look that great. She probably jump up and come down within that entire half second duration. All right, So with that said, we go 1/10 of a second for our shutter speed at our aperture is set to F 28 and our eyes. So it's that to 200. What I'm doing with afternoon eso is number one. You use your capture primarily for kind of just your composition, right? But it's also to gauge how much light want to enter the lens. We're doing the same thing with eyes. So I'm raising I so just a little bit above 100 eyes. So just because I want the flash power to be a little bit lower now, if I wanted to, I could take the eyes of the 400 or 800 that would allow me to run the flash power down on my flash running with us. Ah, lower flash power means that our flash duration that instant word fires is gonna be quicker. It's gonna be probably like at 1/16 power 1 32nd power were around like I think it was like something like 1 8/1000 of a second, which is plenty fast to freeze the motion. So just remember, if you take a shot like this and you're running your flash power at 1/1. Well, the flash power at 1/1 on a 5 80 x on the Metro son on a Nikon SB 9 10 on all these flashes that 1/1. It's only like 1 300 of a second, which means that it's probably not going fast enough to completely freeze motion at one of one power. So you want to drop that power down so your flash duration will freeze and it'll be quicker. Okay, so we could go up even higher if we wanted to. We could raise the after if we want to a little bit more as well, just for depth of field. But at F 28 as long as we get our focus, it's totally fine. All right, so on this shot on the left, what's happening again is that first curtain opens the flash buyers as soon as the first curtain opens up and then the shutter stays open for the remaining 1/10 of a second. Or you know, at that point it's like four intendant second, minus 1 8/1000 of a second flash duration. So the majority of the time that the shutters open. The flash has not basically the flattery fired. And then the shutters open, capturing motion. So for that 1/10 of a second until the rear curtain sink until the record and come back up and it closes off that shot. Okay, so what ends up happening is that the flash fires first we freeze motion right at the beginning. But then the motion continues to happen after the shutter stays open until that rear curtain closes, which means we're freezing, and then motion comes after the subject. Typically, that doesn't look that great when the motion comes after the frozen subject. It doesn't look very good in the final image. What we want is for the motion to occur and then the flash to happen to bury in freezing the subject at the end of the motion. And that's what we have with record in sync. So what do we do? We simply If you're using a faux ticks, you're just gonna go to the back of the camera and you're going to You're sorry the back of the flashing in it press this little button. Obama says SCS some flashes call it recur and sink on the metro, so they call it Second curtain Sink. Either way, it's the exact same thing. But I'm assuming because of trademark purposes and copyrights and all this good stuff, they'll have to name it something different. Otherwise, people get in trouble and these companies will to each other. So with recurrent sink, turn on the curtain opens up that first curtain opens and right at the end of exposure as the rear curtain is closing the flash buyers and it squeezes in there freezing her motion. So here the motions trailing after the the frozen image. Here we have the motion that leads into the frozen image. Okay, so when does this actually matter? This matters Onley. When we're slowing the shutter, when we're dragging the shutter to create this kind of Ah, look where we're mixing ambient versus ambient light versus our flash. If the shutter speed is up around 1/40 1 50th 1 100 of a 2nd 1 200 of a second, as you saw previously. When we demonstrate this, it doesn't really matter as much. The faster the shutter speed, the less this is going to make a difference. So let's say a wedding. It for shooting a wedding or event were on the reception dance floor. People are dancing. I'm shooting at 60 of the second. It really doesn't matter so much. They're dancing and they're grooving. They're moving that like, all rhyme. That's kind of awesome. It doesn't matter so much if I'm using rear curtain or first carbon sink, because my shutter speed is at 11 60 of a second. But when I slow down the shutter to get those dance floor drag shots, when I slow down the shutter toe 1/10 of a 2nd 1/5 of a second and I start spinning the camera and creating motion, which we're going to show you how to do later, that's when it's gonna matter. I want to make sure I turn on rear curtains sink so I get a better effect where the motion that's captured leads into the frozen image, okay or leads into that frozen subject. So that's FCS versus RCs. Remember that this is again another function of full featured flashes, So if you're using a manual flash on camera, it will not have this functionality It's always gonna fire with the first curtain and with the first cardinal. That's it for this video. Let's go on to the next one now.
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 :)