Lesson Info
12. Flash and Ambient Balancing for Creative Effect
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
Flash and Ambient Balancing for Creative Effect
In the last two videos we talked about flash and ambient balancing for basically creating natural effects or dramatic effects in this video I want to talk about flash and ambien balancing for creative or really more special type effects. Okay, now you can argue that everything that we do is creative, but what I mean here is using a bit of kind of that ambien exposure toe either freeze or to show motion we talked about freezing or showing motion in photography wanna one basically using your shutter speed to control what kind of motion you want to have in the shot? The cool thing about adding flash nows we haven't extra component, we can use shutter speed to show motion and then we can use the flash to freeze certain components that we want to freeze because the flashing in fires as such a quick speed let me show you exactly I mean I'm gonna go back a couple slides okay? Now over on the left side we exposed just for ambient light here we had to keep the shutter speed so slow on this top ...
shot that we're getting too much motion and it looks all blurry for the bottom shot we had to raise the eyes up so high that we end up getting an unusable shot just to get our shutter speed high enough over on the right side we're using purely flash we even cut away all of that ambient light in the same, so we're shooting in pitch black so we could demonstrate that well, if your shutter speeds open for five seconds and it's pitch black in the room and your flash fires, you're still gonna end up with a frozen image because there is no ambient light effect. So this was just a flash person ambient light demonstration to show the differences in exposing ambient or constant light versus a strobe more likely than not most the scenes that you guys work in are actually gonna be kind of somewhat in between. You're not goingto typically be working in scenes there pitch black, you been working in scenes like this, whether you have a bright background and you're exposing for a natural effect or you'll be in scenes like this where you're basically shooting kind of in a darker area or your shooting and darkening it down in camera, and you're adding flash for dramatic effect. But what about when you want a little bit of a balance between those two where you can slow the shutter down, get motion and then freeze? Well, that's, what we have here now, what we've done here is we have olivia in this exact same room, we place one of the video lights, basically one light that we use to light up the set. Behind and to the right. Okay, so, it's basically on that right side. You actually see a little bit kiss of that light on this shot right here from the back. So that light is on throughout the shot. Okay, we have the exact same exposure settings on all three of these for the flash. We're firing into a b flat. And that the flat, I think, were flash powers somewhere around, like, one eighth power. Okay, so it's firing a one eighth power let's. Assume again, the flash duration is one. Ten thousand seconds was very quick. It's gonna freeze the subject right? When it fires. All we're doing here is varying the shutter speed. So, look, we start at one tenth of a second after two point eight, two hundred, the flash fires in this shot we started, we moved to one forty of a second, and then we go backto one tenth of a second. But there's a couple of differences in here they want explain so one tenth of a second to point in the two hundred, the flash fires, and you can see her frozen where the flash fired, and you can see the motion where basically that ambient light was picking up while the shutter was open, because the shutters open for quite a a long period of time. So she has this ex bar on her back, and she jumps that motions very quick. The parts of her that are frozen were hit by the flash. And then the parts that are in motion where, where the ambient light was basically affecting after the flash is fired. Notice one thing here this is without were curtain sink. Rcs we're going to go over the details of that more later on by one. Talk about it briefly, right now when your shutter opens, okay, it opens with a front curtain and then it closes with a record. Generally, this happens very quickly, especially if you're shooting at one one thousandth of a second. The speed in which those two opening closes is almost instantaneous. When you start slowing that shutter down, though that's when things start actually well happening. Okay, so if we slow down to one tenth of a second, it kind of moves like this goes like that sound effect. That sound effect was awesome. Okay, so when the front curtain opens, the were curtain will trail and close it off behind it. Now, without rare curtain sink turned on, flash is going to default to firing when that front curtain opens and you can see it as she's frozen right there. The motion comes afterwards because is that red curtains closing she's still moving she's still in the motion in the shot so she's frozen and an emotion comes after the shot now look at this right here where one forty of a second I have to point a I so two hundred exact same settings across the board this time look we're not showing nearly as much motion from that constant light exposure from the shutter speed because now the shutter speeds open for one forty second there's not much time for the motion to be captured so we see a little bit of motion under the bar we see a little bit in her hair we see a little bit underneath the feet but not nearly as much of this first one so we can use our shutter speed to control the amount of basically emotion that we're capturing the shot while we're using our flash to control how we freeze the subject now I like that first shot I like the motion there but what I didn't like was that the motion came after the flash fired so in the final shot we go backto one tenth of a second two point eight two hundred what we did here and it's the exact same shutter speed is the first one the only difference is I turned on we're curtain synch on my camera on my flash now rear currents sink is a full feature flash option which we'll talk about full feature flash and manufactures coming up but that's one of the options that on ly a full feature flash would have what that means is just before that trailing rear curtain closes that's when the flash fires at the very end of the shop so we get this beautiful trail of motion we get the motion happening and right at the end of the shot the flash fires and freezes olivia in place so you have the motion and then at the end of the motion you have the frozen subject which is generally going always give you a better result then firing the flash first and freezing and then showing motion after it doesn't quite look right okay, so here we get a really cool stylistic or creative effect by combining those two things and that's what I wanted to think of most of the other shot that we're capturing their static shots they're shots were just basically balancing for kind of the overall look we're not thinking so much to use or incorporate motion from ambien exposure versus freezing from flash exposure, but this is part of the creative potential of using flash I want to show you that here so hopefully this gives you a good basic primer on how you can combine exposure effects for, say, constant light and shutter drags and mix it with the freezing effects of flash to come up with really cool results. We're going to have more on this, going to show you awesome dance floor shutter drags. We're going to show you cool downtown driver, have car streaking by using the flash freeze. Our couple where new lots of awesome stuff so let's go on to the next video 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 :)