Lesson Info
11. Flash and Ambient Balancing for Dramatic 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 Dramatic Effect
In that last video, we talked about flash and ambient light balancing for a natural effect, and for that we're exposing and being like to be brighter, and we're using less flash power, so we're being more subtle with the flash let's move on now, let's, talk about flash and ami unbalancing for a dramatic effect on our images. Well, basically, it's the exact opposite. So on this little scale, what we're doing is we're darkening down our ambient light and we're brightening up the flash power, okay? So we're using more flash and we're basically under exposing the ambient light, so we get kind of a darker and more dramatic look in the background. That's exactly what we see in these images. So take a look. Let's, talk to these images over here on the left side, we have our this is like our sinister headshot portrait where we wanted to get this kind of mme or just dark look to this image because our lovely model here, matt he's, actually an actor, and he recently played the part of scar from ...
lion king. We'll talk about this more later on, but he mentioned that he wanted to have kind of a dark cinematic portrait headshot. So what we did was they put him in this area where we could actually darkened down environment we're under a bridge we shot at one thirtieth of a second at f one point six and so two hundred that gives us our ambient light exposure we look at that we say ok that the background looks great that little kiss of life on the left side looks great now all we need to do is at our flash well because they want a more dramatic look I shot rembrandt and split lead but we shot that way so it has a very dramatic and kind of dark biba has a lot of shadow which gives a lot of dimension to that kind of duality that that kind of split personality that evil versus good typing now you can see that this image looks far more dramatic and it looks kind of like there's definitely light modification there's definitely flash added whereas when we look at some of the previous images like for example if we look over here you really don't know that this is flash you don't really know that this is flashed or that this is flash it looks like we might have had a reflector or looks like just natural light and that's the difference is that over here he's going to feel dramatic they're going to feel more punchy because they're pulling down that background exposure let's look at the next one here we're at one, two hundred of a second at five point six and is a one hundred the sun had just set behind her head again, we'll talk more about the details later on. We're balancing for, uh, cto jail, so we're balancing at thirty, six hundred kelvin so the background looks completely blue. We've darkened it down so it's nice and dark, and we add a lot of flash punch to get her to pop out notice on each one of these scenes before we add flash, the subject is almost pitch black, whereas in the previous line before we added flash, the subject just looks slightly underexposed just a little bit. Okay, so that's, how you know we're going for dramatic effect versace for very soft natural effect because the base exposure leaves the subject basically completely in the dark so with ami and flash, this is again that jailed flashes bouncing off a reflector, a silver side at five point six one eye, so one hundred probably bouncing around one half to one quarter power on this shot to get enough light onto her over here. Same thing we're bouncing. This is one, two hundred a second half to point one hundred. Same thing here. So we get that nice background shot with everyone these situations, we approach it the exact same way we would with the natural set up, we approach the scene, we decide what we want that seem to look like, so I want to look bright and natural in area with the exposure of the background or do I want to look dark? I'll take a test shot and kind of decide what I want then at our decide what I want, the background look like, I'd add my life so again, right here were bouncing off of silver, and we're sending light right in your face, which gives us this beautiful kind of dark and down sunset shots of the sunset over the desert. All right, so flash and amy and balancing for dramatic effect simply means that we're taking the ambient light down were generally going under expose ambient light, so we have lots of color and background detail, and they were taking the flash power, and we're bringing it up that's like up, I think, some of them two thumbs up for dramatic effect. All right, let's, head on in the next video.
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 :)