Skip to main content

On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash

Lesson 25 from: Lighting 101

SLR Lounge, Pye Jirsa

On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash

Lesson 25 from: Lighting 101

SLR Lounge, Pye Jirsa

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

25. On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash

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

On Board vs. Hot Shoe Flash

We're gonna take this from the top with onboard versus hot shoe flash. Why? Because, well, I need you all to go out and buy a hot shoe flash if you don't already have one now, you can watch this entire course to figure out which hot shoe flash you want. That's fine, great dandy. But you're eventually going to need one because all the techniques that were teaching you really are done with a hot shoe flash. So let's, move on and say why let's talk first about onboard flash, this is the rebel t five I okay, this is the same camera that we used for the photography one a one a workshop now the hot shoe are sorry the onboard flash is this guy that's just built into the camera. Okay, so to get to and I'm gonna press this little flash button and there it is. What are the pros of this tiny little flash? Well, there's, kind of on ly to someone that is great and look, I scratch that see it there's a scratch there no it's not great. It works if you're in a pinch. Okay, if you have absolutely no ch...

oice and you just need to add flash, then yes, this will work and there is some limited flash functionality there but the only other pro to it is that it's basically always with you I mean is built into the camera so it goes everywhere you go on the con side of this it's extremely difficult to modify now modify in every sense of the word it's difficult to control the direction of like it's difficult to control the amount to control advanced features to control color all these things are it's just difficult to modify condom or too is that it also has limited functionality we don't have all the advanced features like rear curtains sink and so forth and that's basically to depend on which camera body you have and that will tell basically what features are built into this onboard flash but it's going very in general though you're not going to get the features that you would in a hot flash all right number three has limited power okay look at how tiny this little guy is in this tiny little guy I mean even compared to this flash which we always talk about an onboard flash or sorry the horseshoe flash head as being small we need to modify it look at this guy this guy's tiny in comparison to this guy okay? So it's a very small light and it has a kind of very limited overall power lastly you're gonna have a lot of red eye when you're shooting with your onward flash. Why? Because the flash is directly above the lens and it's very close to linz. So this light is basically going directly into the eye at the same angle that you're firing from. All right, you're going to get a lot more red eye with an onboard flash, and then you will with hush you so let's, go over to this guy. Now I have here my five mark three. This is the camera that we're using throughout the entire workshop. Don't worry us. Use any camera. You want any linds you want really? Your results going very similar. So long as you can get down to a similar aperture that were shooting at or similar focal length. Okay, so don't worry about the camera. We proved that it's. Not about the camera in photography. One on one, we shot the entire workshop with a rebel and with a nikon dvd. Two hundred. Okay, so let's, talk about the hot shoe flash. Now the biggest deal with the hot flash. Is that it's super easy to modify your direction of light? I mean, look at this. We can control the head anyway. We want. Well, I got to do is push down this little button inside. I can turn it from left to right. I can turn it behind me. I can point up. Point it down. Go straight on. I have full control over the direction of light. In addition, I can modify the quality very easily. But none of these modifiers are you really gonna work well with onboard flash next? What do we have? Point number three is that we have a lot more power. Okay, we have a bigger flash head, which is going to give us a slightly softer light. It's still not big enough to really gives a soft light, but it's better than this. Ok, it also has more power than this. We have a lot more functionality. We have different modes. We have tl we have manual, we have recurrent sink. We have high speed sync. We have all these additional full features in a full feature flash. Now, if you're talking about a manual flash, well, you're mean more limited on features on a manual flashing we'll discuss. The difference is between full feature versus manual fletchers in just a little bit, but we have a lot more features with one of these types of flashes versus an on board. Okay, next red eye is going to be very rare because is mounted above the hashi okay, so the flash is actually coming from a decent distance above the lens and so you're not getting that direct kind of reflection from the eye that you would at the flat for mountain directly above the lens so we'll get red eye far less often with a hot flash than you would with an onboard flash. What are the cons? Okay, there's really only two cons number one is that there's an additional cost to this flash and depending what when you get it can vary a manual hashi flash is going to cost around one hundred bucks full feature ones would go from two, three hundred up to five, six hundred dollars pretty easily that's definitely a lot more, considering this entire camera body was probably six or seven hundred bucks. Okay, so that comes with the onboard ship flash built in the other con to it is that they're just more to carry, and for some people, that might actually be an issue for some, it might not, but it's just another piece of gear, which you could potentially forget. And if for example, I forget my or if I just don't take my hot flash with me with an advanced camera like a five day mark three it doesn't even have an onboard flash built in some kind of out of luck there, but it's. One more thing to carry, but it's going to be worth it overall. And so my advice to you is, if you don't already have hot shoe flash, watch this entire workshop and then decide what features are important to you. What's your budget in your price range and go out and buy one. At that point. If you already have one, then great. Grab the one that you have. Put it on your camera and let's. Go to the next video.

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 :)

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES