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 Power & Zoom
Flash power and zoom up until this point we've talked several times about adjusting your flash power using your zoom and so forth, but we've never actually showed you how to do it, so I want to talk about that in this video we'll show you how to do it the basic adjustments and I also want to show you that not all flashes are created equal when it comes to not only the power setting but also zoom functionality so let's go and get started now first let's talk about the actual adjustments of flash power when we're in tl mode we're going to control so we're basically allowing the camera allowing the flash to decide what the flash power should be. We're on ly adjusting exposure by e v s okay, so we're basically doing exposure conversations similar to how you would in any of the assisted or automated modes on your camera you basically just plus one minus one and so forth and we do that very simply from this many now over here this is the back screen of the foe ticks metro's plus right here s...
o if you wanted to make an adjustment I'm on e detail right now all I would do is hiss set and simply hit plus or down and it's gonna just by one third increments so again not very precise method of adjusting the power in a flash because I don't know exactly how much power is coming out I just know it's going to be an automated exposure plus one tv that's it but when we switch over to manual mode and you can get to manual owed by on this on this flash right here I could have hit mode and it's going to take me and emmanuel or multi multi is that hurts mode that we're talking about where you can get multiple fires off in whatever shutter duration or whatever speed you want again not used frequently but we will talk about it a little bit more later on so in manual mode is simply gives me a fraction basically of total flash output okay one over one means one hundred percent it's as much output as it can give me one half is half of the flash power one quarter is a quarter the flash power one eighth and one sixteenth one thirty second one sixty fourth all way down too whatever some flash will allow you to just down the one sixty four someone under one one twenty eight some only goto one sixteenth but it's basically just telling you that this is a fraction of the total output that it can provide that's a very simple way to understand how much flash power I'm getting and that's again one of the reason why we said to use manual because if I'm at one quarter power and I take ten steps back and I was twenty feet well let's not even work distance into this let's just say I'm at one quarter pound I step back well I can just adjust from one quarter power to one half power or one quarter plus two thirds exposure about whatever I want to do I can make that adjustment very simply and I know exactly how much power I'm using if I feel like the flashes out putting it one half power and is using too much my batteries all adjust my eyes so up one stop or two stops and all just down a one quarter or one eighth power it's very simple to make these exposure adjustments when we know exactly what the flash power is is doing what flash power were using now this is the six hundred e x artie you can see basically the difference is like I said earlier I kind of prefer the six hundred yaks artie if you have it in the kind of budget then this is the flash I would get four cannon users if you're a nikon or canon you're looking to save a little of expansive reappeared is an icon you want a full feature flash I'd recommend the mitchells plus but you can see kind of a little bit more refinement just in the overall layout in the functionality and in the us of this menu system over this guy but really both these flashes have almost identical features either way, that we get there the same way on this one, I'm just going to simply, I think I can just adjust by hitting, set and then dialing this thing up or down, so let's, just try this right now, I actually have a button right there for plus minus, and I'm going to do it just dial to the right or to the left that's, how I would adjust my exposure value when I'm in e t t l mode. Okay, so how do I switch? It will have a mode button right here and again, hitting mode will take me to manual in general it's going to be this exact same way across different flashes. Okay, you're just gonna hit the mode button to switch modes you're going to find out which buns you need to press, or which doll is going to turn to go up in power or down in power or up in e v s or down in tv's. So if we haven't covered the actual flashing and that you're using, just take a quick look at your manual, most clashes are pretty intuitive, so just by playing around with it, you can get it pretty simply. One thing I want to mention is the guide number how do you know exactly how much total output of flash is capable of for example, if I buy a foe ticks versus a newer versus any other flashes seventy dollars flash versus a three hundred dollars flash one over one on a three hundred dollar flash, is that gonna be equivalent to one over one or full power on a seven dollars flash? This is where the guide number comes into play. Now a guy number is basically a number that the factory will give you that tells you the overall power of that flash unit, a typical guy number is around sixty. But here's, the kind of crazy part guide numbers just know that the higher the number, the more power you get, the lower the number, the less power. The problem is that not every manufacturer measures at the exact same way someone used different distances only use different exposure settings and so forth. So it's not exactly the most reliable way to understand which unit provides more power. Here's the thing we did our own testing and what we found is between the pocket strobes. Most common pakistan, especially one that we're using here, whether they're manual or whether they are full featured strobes are generally all around the same power setting they all put out around that same power setting when there had won over one power, so there's not gonna be a huge difference there, but just know that not all flashes are created equal you definitely want to check and look online preferably not at a manufacturer website because unless they're using the exact same measurements you won't know they're gonna look online of different forums and so forth and see what other people are measuring from those flash units to see what the guide numbers are okay let's go over to zoom zoom similarly to power is not equal across all flashes some flashes have different zoom capabilities others have more some have less okay so for example most flashes and I think the let's see what the kotex does here so with the faux tex I can actually adjust I'm gonna flip this over to manual zoom and then I'm going to see what my zoom can actually go up to so my zoom on this guy can go upto one hundred five millimeters what is the zoom doing well at twenty four millimeters basically might flash spread is going to be fairly wide when I zoom it up every step up too thirty five fifty seventy eighty one o five millimeters basically what's happening is that internal flashing unit you can hear on elektronik one like this the flashing is being pulled back inside the body so what's happening is that it's kind of funneling are pinning the light a little bit more it's zooming in the light so that way the light travels further distance and in a tighter spread when it's zoomed wide at twenty four millimeters it's going kind of fan out in a wide direction after shooting a big group of people and you're standing fairly close, you want a wide zoom on the flat because you want to spread out and cover everybody that's if you're using direct flash, but if you're trying to hit a certain point, if you're trying to fire a long distance or if you're trying to get it just on a reflector that might be pointed off to the side, you don't want to spill, you might want to zoom in in all the way now again, for this foe ticks my zoom this mattress plastic goes up to one o five millimeters, but on the cannon, the ex artie, this will actually give me this is the sixth rdx. Artie, this will actually get me up to two hundred millimeters and zoom ok, so again, zoom functionality can differ between units with other types of flash unit's like my vivid tar, which is so fugly I don't even show it. This tank doesn't even have any electronic controls. So how do I control the zoom with this lovely, elegant telescoping design here, and I don't even have really any settings for other than just says wide normal or telly. It's just three different settings that I pull out. Okay, so again, very limited functionality, but I have the same controls here as I would a cz faras this it's, just manual control, and it probably doesn't have as much a zoom and everything I control the power actually, manually as well. Just be this little turn thing here. This this flash was designing like the seventies, and when they did the re release, they didn't change a thing. It still looks like it's from the seventies so let's hide this ugly monster back in here. So in summary, just remember that with power when you're in a t t l mode, you're adjusting your exposure based on flash compensation so it's going to be plus or minus in tvs like you see here when you're in manual mode, you're adjusting v a total flash out, put in a fraction so one over one is full power. One half is half power, quarter power and so forth. When you are using your zoom, just remember that the lower the number similar to a lens, the wider the angle. So if you're at twenty four millimeters is gonna have a very wide spread on that flash as you zoom it, it has a tighter spread. Which is great when you're shooting. And you need to get that flash either further in distance. Or we need to put it somewhere like on two reflector or modifiers. You can kind of shape the light. However you want it, that's it for this video. Let's. Have the next one now.
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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 :)