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Flash vs. Ambient Demo

Lesson 9 from: Lighting 101

SLR Lounge, Pye Jirsa

Flash vs. Ambient Demo

Lesson 9 from: Lighting 101

SLR Lounge, Pye Jirsa

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Lesson Info

9. Flash vs. Ambient Demo

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Chapter 1 Introduction

01:26
2

Why Just One On-Camera Flash

04:22
3

5 Reasons to Use Flash

10:37
4

Common Flash Myths

06:51
5

What Makes Flash Challenging?

04:56
6

Chapter 2 Introduction

01:36
7

Flash-Strobe vs. Ambient-Constant Light

08:19
8

Flash vs. Ambient Light Exposure

03:07
9

Flash vs. Ambient Demo

06:42
10

Flash and Ambient Balancing for Natural Effect

07:11
11

Flash and Ambient Balancing for Dramatic Effect

04:19
12

Flash and Ambient Balancing for Creative Effect

07:10
13

Understanding Flash Duration

08:37
14

Chapter 3 Introduction

01:34
15

5 Common Key Light Patterns

08:38
16

5 Common Key Light Patterns w/ Diffusion & Fill

07:42
17

5 Common Secondary Light Patterns

08:28
18

3 Primary Subject Patterns

05:27
19

Light Qualities

09:56
20

The Inverse Square Law

07:50
21

Inverse Square Law in Practice

08:21
22

Corrective White Balance

10:02
23

Creative White Balance

05:47
24

Chapter 4 Introduction

01:58
25

On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash

05:57
26

Full Feature vs. Manual Flashes

08:59
27

TTL vs. Manual Control

08:12
28

TTL vs. Manual Recycle Times

04:43
29

Flash Power & Zoom

09:18
30

HHS vs. ND Filters

12:29
31

FCS vs. RCS

07:11
32

Chapter 5 Introduction

01:38
33

4 Tips When You Must Use Direct Flash

06:00
34

Bare Bulbing Done Right

11:42
35

Grid Snoot + Direct Flash

06:43
36

Mini Beauty + Direct Flash

06:08
37

Ring + Direct Flash

07:52
38

Understanding Modifiers

09:24
39

Direct Flash + Shutter Flash

09:07
40

Chapter 6 Introduction

01:55
41

Ambient vs. Direct Flash vs. Bounce Flash

14:27
42

Silver Bounce

14:27
43

More Light Silver

11:02
44

Soft White Bounce

15:41
45

Overhead Bounce

11:39
46

Overhead Bounce + Fill

09:42
47

Event Bounce

12:42
48

Chapter 7 Introduction

01:38
49

Natural vs. Dramatic Light

17:43
50

Filling and Refining Existing Light

08:44
51

Coloring Light for Corrective Effect

13:33
52

Coloring Light for Creative Effect

10:27
53

Chapter 8 Introduction

00:43
54

Case Study 1 - Dramatic Sunset

09:45
55

Case Study 2 - Desert Sunset

10:04
56

Case Study 3 - Sinister Headshot

09:40
57

Case Study 4 - Family Portrait

08:21
58

Case Study 5 - Athlete Portraits

11:19
59

Case Study 6 - Working Angles

07:22
60

Case Study 7 - Drag + Composite

08:09
61

Case Study 8 - Less is More

07:16
62

The Good Karma Jar

01:41
63

Favorite Feature Flashes

05:52
64

Favorite Manual Flashes

21:35
65

Favorite On Camera Flash Modifiers

21:21

Lesson Info

Flash vs. Ambient Demo

Finally I want to do a flash versus indian exposure demon because I feel like really this point is one of the most difficult to get across when you're first learning flash it's one of the most complicated let's go back for a second that prior slide and just discuss real quick the flash versus ami exposure now over here on the left side we have our annual exposure right this is our constant light this is just the traditional exploded triangle in this circle on the green circle we have shutter speed after and so these are the components that give us our ambulance exposure over here on the right side we have flash power aperture and so because remember the flash fires so quickly that the shutter speed here does not matter whatever the flash power set to whatever aperture and so on the cameras set to and flash powers dialed in on the unit itself while the afternoon eyes that was on your camera that gives you your flash exposure so those are two separate things let's see how they work out n...

ow in this demonstration now what we have here is on the left side we started with just ambient light and the ambulance that we're using is just the light that's coming off of our video lights for the recording purposes now for the exposure setting we're using only ambient light were at one thirty of the second two point eight and sixteen hundred at one thirty second, remember from photography wanna one? You know that's not going to freeze your subject and you can see that here we have tons and tons of motion that we've captured she's completely blurry in a shot below that what I've done here is we sped up the shutter speed toe one, two hundred seconds. This is starting to get to the speed where it's quick enough to begin freezing at least a bit. It's not completely frozen. We probably need to get to one, five hundred or one one thousandth second completely freezer, but at least we have quite a bit more detail so we can see the jump we conceive detail in her face. There's gonna be a little blurred movement. The problem, though, is that we're f two point eight, which is pretty shallow of a deputy field is pretty wide open oven after we're at s o twelve thousand eight hundred. That means that the image quality here is absolutely horrendous. This woman has so much noise that has so many issues going on under that is completely unusable. If we're just left with ami and light on left side, this is kind of our only option, the situation when we can go down to a one point two lens and get our eyes so up. A little bit of bring it down just a little bit but still we're kind of left with that all right so let's now go over to the flash op now this is that one twenty fifth of a second at two point eight and we brought her eyes so down one stop okay so we're s o eight hundred here we're at sixteen hundred now we're flashing at probably around one eighth toe one sixteenth power coming out of the unit interesting she's completely frozen there but why is that again we talked about the flash the flash duration the speed in which this flashes firing we said for the purpose of our example it's assuming it's one ten thousandth of a second that means we get our full exposure within one ten thousandth of a second and so if we're shooting someone that's in action are flash is actually freezing them because if we're exposing for flash then well what happens here is that the flash goes and one ten thousand second inspired has done and that is what freezes the subject regardless of how long the shutter is open so if you look right below this this shot right here was at five seconds okay now this shot five seconds two point eight eight hundred again same flash settings exact same power one eight two one sixteen power depending again if you're going to wreck flasher if you're bouncing here were bouncing off of the flat she's completely frozen. Why? Because the flash duration is so fast the light is entering and stopping so quickly that that's what's freezing her in place. Now, what do we have to do to get this to five seconds? Well, we actually had to cut away all the ambient light. Okay, so this is where we started at one tenth of a second f to a tow missile one hundred. This is basically where our video light was exposing. Okay, so we turn off the video light. We were able to get it down to five seconds at two point eight hundred. You notice that it's almost pitch black. The light that were actually picking up was off of a little heater. Ok, it's, the red light coming off of a tiny bit of heater and it's enough life that five seconds shutter speed, isolate hundred. We get a little bit of ambient light there. If we were to shoot it with that ammu light, we would have a little bit of red streaking from the ambient light that would be exposed during that shutter speed. We cut that light away, we remove that light, we just unplugged it and then at five seconds of two point eight and so a hundred we have no ambient light, okay, so here there is no annual I whatsoever so when that flash fires, this was the on ly light president a scene and because it fired at one ten thousandth of a second or so, olivia is one hundred percent frozen, its attack sharp image and, well, we had the shutter open for five entire seconds. So what I'm hoping is that you guys understand that your shutter speed is only going to dictate the amount of ambient light, the amount of constant light that's coming into the lens, not the amount of flashlight, and if all you have, if you have no ambient light whatsoever, this is the only life semi present, and if this is the only way that's president, essentially the speed or the shutter speed that the wraith and you're capturing motion is going to be equivalent to the flash duration, which we said it was for example, one ten thousandth of a second we'll discuss last oration in more detail because it's not actually always one two thousand second that actually varies. So what? I want you to come away with that this point is to understand that you have two parts of your exposure. When you're dealing with flash, you're dealing with two parts, you're dealing with your ambient light, what the scene looks like without flash, and for that you're gonna use your shutter speed, your capture and your risotto dial that in and then you're dealing with what you want your flash do in that scene. And for that, you would deal with your flash power, your zoom and whatever modifier you. All you do is combine into at that point to get to basically a balance between ambient light and flash. That works for your particular shot. Now we're going to is going to go through some demonstration in just a moment in the next videos to talk about this balancing effect. And we're going to talk about you for some creative effect that you could do by using and mixing ambient versus flashlight. So let's, go ahead and move those videos now.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lighting 101 Slides

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 :)

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