Lessons

Lesson Info

2:45 pm - Shoot: Controlling Master Flash with Slave Off Camera

What we kind of want to do is ah, really start applying in a real world situation. What we've been talking about all day from the t t l the high speed sync, mainly hair light feel like mainline how do you bounce it out with natural life? And when this very, very pretty venue lot of antique furniture and we have a very nice model that's going to help us out, and so we're really going toe not necessarily create an image overall, but we really want to just start off with some of the basic foundations of what we do in our work. So from trying to figure out how to balance out the light, balance out your exposure conversation, balance out your flash compensation. What are these things in your camera? Where are they on your camera and then show you we're going to tether we're going to show you some of the images, and so hopefully it'll start to sink in a little bit mohr but again, without trying to beat it in your head, you still need to go out and practice this, because I promise you, even i...

n our foreign five day workshops we teach if you don't go out and practice this. You're going to forget about it but you gotta go out practice and real italy reboot that brain and get that muscle memory changed over and you'll be able to learn so hopefully we'll start doing that today and will help you in your journey when you're at home when you're practicing that around the world and learning this so we want to try to do is we have a model right here and what we always try to do because we travel a lot and these flashes the master slave features will go out on these flashes and there's really no warning generally the slave feature the control aspects will go out I mean slave master feature will go out more than the slave, but we try especially when we travel we just traveled from houston to hear before each session before we pull our camera gives out before we go into it, we actually going to test out our cameras and make sure that we have that control aspects that we need that when we focus that we put it down the negative three it's actually gonna give us less light we put up two plus three it's going to give it more life, so if there's a problem, we'll switch out another flash to our master and see if that's edible work because it can't tell you how many times we've not change this or not tried it and we get to a situation where we need it and it doesn't work on us and then it's too late so we want to know if this season if the equipment's working and it's really simple um we have a model here and we'll have just one flash and I want you if you can look right here we're doing all on a side our models right here so again we would turn the park that's receiving the signal the cody and his master flash so this part's receiving it this is going to light my model so I'm going to turn that towards her okay? So as mike said, we're going to a quick demonstration of our ability to control this flash this is very basic favor medial, but again it's something and it also it's gonna help us make sure flash is working properly make sure we have complete control. One thing I like tio point out is that when you when you're learning this technique when you're when you're making these adjustments under camera especially when you're new to it I always encourage people to make large adjustments I don't want you to be fine, I don't you start right off the bat saying, ok, I'm just going to change it by under exposed by a third and then of my flash by a third because then you may not see exactly what how you're affecting that image when you're learning something and you're not real strong, you're not really sure what you're doing make a large adjustment under exposed by full three stops that way your image is going to be very dark instead of just a little bit doctor ah little bit doctor little doctor, I want you to make a big adjustment so that you can really see what you're affecting in your image, and then once you get more confidence in this technique, then you can make small adjustments and fine tune and get it exactly how you want it. I can't tell you how many times that's so important that we have people in our class, it really didn't understand this, and then they literally the shoot and it's not dark enough to the drop it one third of stop the exposure conversations shoot again and it's not really dark, so drop it another third stop and they're doing this like five or six times and then when they go to look back to camera, you don't see a very big change. You see just a little bit of darkness, I'm not sure if I did anything so right off the bat, I want you to make big adjustments under exposed by full three stops plus add flash composition of full three stops and see that life and say, well, it's, too much light then under exposed by another third or half full whatever to get it in the ballpark but don't just make tiny adjustments and expect to see something make a big adjustment first see what you're affecting and invalid in something closer to what you like so I'm going to start out my basic settings this is very simple I've got I saw three twenty which gives me I'm a navy mode appearance I got quite a bit of light so I'm getting anywhere from twelve hundred shutter speed to one hundred so dependent on which ground pointing and just let you go on our camera gear because again we went over really briefly the flashes that could be master slave and a lot of questions come up about that which one do you use this master which one to use the slave if you have multiple brands well we really don't care as long as they're working right now he's using the five, eighty one version the original one is a master and we're using a five eighty two is the slave we have a six hundred around the corner that we could use we've got another five eighty two here so we have multiple cannon flash is there going to be intermingled in tow us that's the great advantage also of this technique something with night gone your eight hundred or nine hundred you're nineteen you can intermingle those so if one does go down with his test one's not working properly when you go into event you can just switch us out so we would could put take this flash off put it as a master but that one hears a slave and see if they would work again and it'll work out better so don't get all complicated on and that's the beauty the system you can literally build your equipment and they'll all intermingle okay so these first shots against very basic I've got zero compensation in the camera so what's what the camera thinks is basically proper exposure and I'm just gonna adjust my flash compensation all from zero compensation so all we have to always down to show you how much power I have with this flash so just first shot even exposure across board even exposure on the flash even exposure in the body um I have this master flash turned off only transmit so this will not appear in my image in fact let's make this very dramatic sample it almost half lighter just to make sure we get a great representation of what the slides oh great it's just let you know we're on the same channels world channel one on are flashes still mastering slaver both on channel one ok first shot comes up it's kind of plain looking flash doesn't do a lot because again this is what the flash thinks his proper exposure this is zero conversation in the camera zero compensation on the flash that even show up over their perfect now I'm just going to show you that make sure that I do have full control of the slash so now I'm gonna give plus three so this should really blast her out this would be a lot of flash power way too much bam you could see the flash so I went from zero to plus three that's a whole lot of light that's not that's, not usable at all, but it does show that I have that I am controlling that flash and just for giggles, we're going to minus three, so this should be zero fashion fact you where she's at now you'll see the like coming in the window probably, but no flash that's that image is really not much difference than the original image, which was the real conversation, so that just shows that I do have full control of my flash, my equipment's working great. So now let's, move on to what I might do in a real world situation. So here we are we've got this kind of a corner here, it's kind of cool stuff behind her let's again, like I said, we're going to make a big adjustment, so I'm a start out making a very large adjustment in my camera compensation, so I'm gonna go ahead and go minus I'm go minus three full stops that's going to make this extremely dark behind her I'm gonna lose probably all this detail behind her all the stuff again this may not be what I would give to my clients what am I getting my clients might be minus one may be minus a third something in there because because I mean I want to bring some this out but like I say we're just we're just learning this so we're going to big adjustments and stephen it does so I'm also going to do a multiple part exposure so the first shot I'm going to turn my flash off just under exposing and then I'm introduced flash and you'll see exactly what I'm doing when I add these different pieces together let's um well the flesh kind of high one kind of spotlight like it's like it's coming in the window not quite that high a little lower good I like that don't you turn your chin into this light good, good little more um great. So this is gonna be no flash so there's really no reason to hold a flash but he's holding there for the for the entire cities on the voice activated like steak for the entire sequence so first shot is under exposed by three so let's go proglide right? So this is just what I expected a very dark image there's three stops under what the camera thanks his proper exposure so my next shot I'm going to turn my flash on since I'm indoors I know mike mentioned earlier that when you're outdoors and your life is very harsh, you're gonna have to under expose a lot in your camera and over exposed a lot in your flash since I'm indoors and I know I'm there's not a lot of life that I'm competing with I'm not competing with the son or any real external lad except a little like this coming into the windows I'm going to start out at zero compensation for my flash because I think that's going to get me really close to what I want once I'll take the shot that I might say hey it's not enough or it's too much and I confined to two from there but initially I'm gonna stick it minus three in the camera we're gonna make a pretty dark is the real compensation in the flash and see if that gives me enough light on it's actually quite a bit of light so I'm going to under expose since that's a little flashy, a little harsh and again this could be an issue with t ell because when we said tl tries to make everything great teams and great she is very fair skinned she's wearing all black fellatio could be looking at that and saying handed more light so it's giving a lot of light blowing her skin out just like that example that we showed earlier in the program with the groom but I mean it's not a big deal all I all it immediately I realized hey that's a little flashy I want less flash I'm going turn my flash power down let's go again let's make big steps so I'm gonna go minus two that may be too much but we're gonna start out there I don't like that let me take one more shot I don't think I'm not sure if that was a good fire I'm gonna make sure I have good you mean you notice I mike may be worried about my communication because my lens of my limbs hood so I'm going to flip my camera this way to make sure I get better communication with my flavor that's better I think I think that intermediate shot I don't think the master flash was able to see my slave flash in that initial shot so here we are at minus two compensation and I think the difference is great it gives them I got great skin tones on her everything's nice and dark you want to say anything about this way that looks good very dramatic and that's nice and you could easily what do you how many stops under exposing exposure and exposed by three so I mean he's taken almost all as much amy let you cannot using the a v mode and we talked about earlier some of the cameras, you can actually go five stops that could actually move mohr, but you can easily the exact same thing. You could easily raise that exposure compensation up, allowing you to capture all this and then just giving a little kiss the light on the face. Or maybe I want to pull the light over to this side. I'd have to reverse this. And now this is point again and using the natural light on their face and then just feeling it over here we have such beautiful natural life. This is really nice shot to begin with without using a flash. But what he did is what we use all the time. We may be used this that she's got beautiful eyes will do natural light, shoot natural light on her, get the beautiful natural light shot. And then we'll do something like you just saw what we really under expose really make a dramatic and really make something completely different than what the human eye sees. So when you have a client in this area, if it's a senior graduation and mom's walking around or you have a bride and the mom and the bride's walking around there taking snapshots, and then you do something like he just did, oh, they're going to go what how did you do that? I don't even see that you're the true artist now you have the vision and they're gonna love you for it and so we try to capture both sides of the coin if the natural itis here absolutely we're going to capture it and I told you earlier that we get mad ourselves when we miss it but then we're also going to get some really dramatic shots that no one is really going to be able to see with the naked eye so the first shot is it's very dramatic very extreme again under exposed by three stops in the camera it has a very moody field me looks like night time maybe evening she's a lady of the night well now so you've been calling it anyway this this next shot let's take the same shot exact same location for this letme or life in my camera compensation explosion comes to let more light in and just to show you how the exact same shot how it affects the mood when you let more of the natural light and so I'm going to go to minus on ly a third of a stop which is just a little bit on the exposure compensation social conversations on leon exposed by third so that's going it's getting dark in up this back down just a little bit make a little richer but it's still, you're going to see a lot of back and it's not going to be as movie so same thing, and I'm going to leave my camera conversation of minus two you see if I like that for this first shot now it now notices shot it's almost said it took away all of that drama from the first shot there's none of those dark shadows, but again, this I think this is a great images, something looks it looks like it's purely natural light. This is a great example of what I say, adding flash to taste. It doesn't feel flashy to me because it's not under exposed very much in the body, it's just explosive tiny bit. So I do see some shadows if you look there's from the little on why? What do we call that in the corner? And then the little chair you can see some shadows on the wall that the flash is throwing I can see some of it here just from the light coming in the window, but it's not quite as harsh, so it does dark enough. The shadows a bit makes everything a bit richer, but it's it's very it'll explain natural to me, it doesn't look doesn't look flashing, okay? And the one thing you can do and I forgot to mention on the very dramatic images may if you look profile I don't have much of a chance I have a joel on but I got some nice fat cheeks what these shadows dubai underexposed and really putting a shot on your channel really takes out that double chin or some of them didn't have a chance slims down their face if you do a dramatic light on one side take off half the size of the face so now my fat cheeks you only see half of one and you don't see a double little gobbler chin that I got and automatically make to lose weight I promise you your clients are going to like that when you can actually slim them down just by using shadows so many people are scared of shadows without shadows there's no drama you have tohave shadows in your work tohave drama in your images so the problem is with that flat light is easy floodlight everybody it's great that's what we do in our volume because we're required to but the problem is not everybody face or body shape deserves flat like it really makes a lot of people look bad and so you add those shadows for me I look at the shadows before I look at the light I look at the shadows and then I had light where I don't want shadows that's just the way my mind works a lot of people look at the light and add lite where they don't, where they see the shadows or whatever else I just look at the dark and add light and so to me it works great when you have that dramatic image and you see that shadow underneath their chance a lot of people like it but it takes off so much way if you use it correctly so we do that a lot no work as well let's talk a bit about light placement also I know we said that we don't typically use light modifiers because most of time when we're shooting outdoors again we're asking these flashes to give us every bit of power they have and when you put a modifier in front of your flash it absorbs some of that light and it doesn't it's not usable anymore you'll lose one and a half sometimes two stops of light when using a modifier so simple trick and I kind of started off doing this but a simple trick that I always do to make sure that people are short lint which is usually more acceptable unless I'm going for something that I wanted to look pretty harsh and lots of shadows I'll typically always have my subject turned their chin if this is light haven't turned their chin into the light I think two images in sequence and I'm gonna go back to that first more dramatic shot so I'm going to under expose by three stops and we're going to do to ones with a simple post change to show you how mohr acceptable the light can be so for this first shot when she looked straight at me and don't change is good now this should be very dramatic again because I'm exposing the camera should be pretty dark he's in this very dark see she's almost half lit turn your chin this way a little more about right there I'm gonna try to get if it might move the flashback with anyone I want it I want a good no shadow on it so you have work how we're gonna get rid of that comeback this we'll put it right on top of that um yes someone there instead of damaging the stool perfect part in this way just a bit I think plastic that fire I pulled I had my finger over like immediate they go great now see how this is in fact that's that's a little flashy to but but anyway you can see the shadows on her face it's very harsh it's she's almost half lit and now let me show you what it's simply turning her chin into the life continue chance it's like more more, more more right there maybe not so much me back like that now this should be a lot more acceptable it won't be his dramatic it is you notice the difference in those two shots this one is a lot more acceptable just by turning her chin into that life so typically I always have my clients I always direct intervention into the light because I think it's it's it's more acceptable is not as harsh you're not gonna have a harsh no shadow on their face this if it's a plus size model plus size client it really really slims or face down and they like that they like that a lot don't we want to get maybe a ah a student here today do a couple shots and make show me one is real dramatic and then another one that's close to natural light your next you're like oh good lacks coming in pushing back so I went back to zero you will be and I know this today so you're exhausted so I'm back to zero conversation in the body you could take it all of you okay you turned back to everything that zero so you're in complete control of what you want to do give me give me one shot that's really dramatic are one of your vision will be for this this yeah tell us your vision maybe maybe we can help you out okay one of the attorneys towards the window yeah so what kind of shift around a little bit there you and then let's see kind of lean back on the chair a little bit maybe put your arm on the barre go and like if you could move the flash boarded this way and then why don't you move? Move your head and look right at the flash but then turn your eyes look my way there yeah it might work you can try but you don't have to necessarily do it that way the farther your way you're a lot farther than cody when you flip it over it's gonna have a better chance of seeing you but when I'm like way back here like we were originally that lance can block it okay with the sixteen thirty five it's usually the lin so that blocks the light but with a seventy two hundred years that the lin the actual lends itself so what do you think of the damage you took? Uh actually don't like it's your last day yeah it's a little bit too flashy for men and women like more moody and dark so what's the next step eso probably turned down the flash compensation perfect the flash or the exposure compensation the flash because I think it was too bright now don't do that here just hit this button here okay ten stuff okay, we'll see the number right there so wherever you are at then just adjust from there and I'll just good to see that work that's a little bit better by one more shadows so maybe move the flash more that way so flat you were flat lightner now we're going to do a little more dramatic yeah so maybe even more closer to the window it's a little bit better like that was going on like that I think things are a dramatic um what else you want me to uh let's do one where it's not so dramatic ok something that's a little softer something that you would give to a your client it's not so you know what it looks so gadhafi so so basically I'll probably just put the camera compensation a little bit more towards the center of that lesson zero nancy I'll just go down I go down one and here's the deal lots of times when you're starting just adjust exposure compensation you get the overall ambient light where you want okay then adjust the flash because when you adjust your exposure even by leaving your flash the same you're allowing mohr less and the light in and while this is fake or artificial light it's still part of the ambient world so you're going to allow mohr like of this coming into so all that's why I say when you're trying to learn this do one thing at a time don't change a bunch of things because you start changing a bunch of things and then you get the image of like yet but how did I do that? You know, the two biggest mistakes I see when people are learned this is one, they'll take three, four, five, two shots and then look at it and wonder why all the four before are all the same or they shot so fast and a little recharge, they all look different. I mean, if you're if you want to change something, take one shot looking if you find it and say, ok, it's around matt, if I like it, take another if not, I need to just something and also don't like you saying don't adjust to me things that wants to adjust her camera conversation and your flash conversation and then wonder what's going on. If you're doing too much when you have more of an understanding of it in more, mcgrath, then you can do three things at once, but all right, so let's, try this has left the flash compensation the same because the neat thing about t t l it's still going to meet her no matter what your exposure compensation, is it's still going to meet her? What it thinks is proper exposure so many times when you adjust your exposure, compensation firm or less and don't touch your flash compensation, you're still going to be okay sometimes it might be to broader too dark. That's why I say lots of times get that exposure first then leave your camera settings alone then only worry about the flash compensation and it it really helps simplify the process so the exposure is going to control the background is cody showed the flashes going to control the light on her you could get your background first then we're about the little guy okay, so this last shot what what did you like what do you think about that it's still a little too flashing on and more natural way okay so what do you uh I would think just move the back on compensation a little bit more toward you can move it closer to the center and you can also turn your flash power down. So now is that you said you want a little bit more natural light when you think natural light what would you do? You'd almost even exposure or a little above even exposure on your exposure compensation so exactly what you said you'd move it closer to the center okay, now should I leave my flash the same since that negative two right now? But but since it was so bright and flashy and the people can see it on screen since it was so flashy I would go ahead and turn it down a little bit okay? I mean, this is hardly any light whatsoever because you just gonna add since you and now that you're going on our black shirts calls this the things you're doing almost even compensation just need a little bit like just to give us the lightning right was not so much that's better that's more even fabrics I think that's great it looks it looks just like natural I shot when you could barely see the flashing can't just looks like it's like coming our way do another shot I'm going to just do another one and I want to turn this sensor away from the camera and we're going to see if this is the last fires I think I did what I did and you know why this glass lite is bouncing around up that glass coming back and bouncing right into here and I wanted to explain that so lots of times watch line of sight works you gotta look at if you have a reflective material such as window a mirror it'll all work. We've done a workshop before where we literally were inside the church and we needed to get a shot it wouldn't bounce we actually opened up one of the singing hymn books and opened the white pages and bounce the light off the white pages so you khun bounce this light off almost anything so sometimes even though you don't have a direct line of sight which we do here, we just artificially making non direct line of sight you can bounce that light off many different subjects. They don't think just because it's not a lot of sight, you can get the flash fire, you can't just have to think it kind of like playing a game of table pull you had to walk all the anc table to see all the angles, so walk around and see all the angles, and you can bounce that light from the master flash to receive this in many different ways, even a sheet of just regular noble paper will bounce the light takes that exact same shot, but turn your flesh off just to show everybody what that flash is doing in that in that image, because that looked so much not like natural light. Don't you see that she is a little? She should be a little muddy in that shot, so talk between the two and see if you can see the yeah see the flash. Yeah, so yeah, it's just kind of blood and this one's a little bit more little bit more shadow and that's exactly how we do on a very cloudy day, we'll make just a little bit of kiss of flash just to brighten it up to make it look like a little sunny to show that she's got beautiful eyes if you don't show those eyes in the image, your failures, a photographer in plain and simple, you're not showing your client off in their best and so just that little bit of flash and their eyes really shines it up and makes them looks it's amazing when you just pop the eyes, how much stronger portrait is so that's? Great! I didn't see the image, but that looked sounded great, but it's great tossem let's. Um, let's do multiple multiple like her in your real quick, I kind of do the same thing a little bit more. The next big thing don't don't be I know you're embarrassed or maybe nervous don't be I mean, I promise you what you're feeling well, mike, seal it all every single one of his gunther suit. This is a learning experience. If you have issues, you have problems. You let us know we will work it through. Yeah. Yeah, e thank you. Okay, so first thing I do is you tell me they basically what I would do when I'm learning, why would he turn off my master flash? Okay. I wouldn't even worry about my flash at this point because that's one part of the equation. One less thing I got to think about right now. So right now what I would worry about your cameras in manual mode or a v mo depending on how much light you have but I would look at and get the ambient light don't even look at her face don't even worry about her at this point get the ambient light so you're getting the composition that you want horizontal vertical the framing everything and how much ambient light you wanted the image first that's the first thing you want to do so you're going to get that camera settings that and I know this is our camera you're not used to go for it yeah it's a wide angle lens so you see she with this thing it's a little okay, I want to go so not knowing your camera sorry how do I just the wanna go slightly darker ok, so let's for your first one let's do a big adjustment and then your second you can give it more of what your vision was so for the first one um unexposed by full through three says yeah, so starts you start your metering and then you can look through your view finder and you'll see that you'll see you're not turn this well here and it's determined that there was a gun should be dead yeah sorry about that in crime I mean, how much is that I'm exposed by uh by one okay let's make a bigger just like a big big ones go go full three please that's all very good ok so you see exactly what it does is nice and dark it's not even a real images now you're adding whatever you want is what we do with mike he went really really aggressive and got really really under exposed that he didn't really almost natural like shot so you think about what you want for your vision that's what we kept saying you're the artist you figure out what you want in this this shot right okay um I'd like to add something flowers are you having with thee and be alive in your flash you want uh where's the revered review that's the main thing before you had flash yes I like the background so now cody just said you dad now you've got you don't touch the camera settings anymore you leave him alone the only thing you're gonna justice your flash compensation which is right up here cody I'll show you how did justin on your master flash if you don't if you have like a wireless transmitter we have a pop up flash on a nikon or seventy you can control it also in your body your camera for everyone out there listening but for us we like the master flash because you can actually see the power right there on the back of your camera on the back of the flash and again as we said earlier there's like two things you change one of the exposure which you just change you're done you're halfway home now is just the flash compensation so where do you want me so now you want flash where do you want me? I'm your voice activated lights big boy tell them where you want um I would like you about your shoulder height this angle that angle where you want me I'd like to try over here on this side that doesn't mess up the other camera angles know their stuff okay so I've noticed you notice when I came around here is to show you I mentioned earlier I'm right here the part that receives a signal from the master flash was here as I rotated around now when I did that it's gonna be backward so I need to rotate this face you instead okay and I just turn this off of slave like an idiot okay? I'm gonna have you look toward your chin towards the flash please and then looking at me okay okay when you're doing this if you're gonna work with partners something when it fires especially outside say yes or fired yes it communicated there's lots of times they will be frustrated you can't see it fire you get good I can feel we've done this so long I can feel in this last goes off how much power it's coming out of it okay, so I want to adjust it down again now that that was pretty flashy you flash if your taste corrects credit again that's probably most likely because the tpl seeing her black outfit and saying hey that's not a flight I want more light that's why that's? Why zero conversation it's giving you too much so simple solution is to under expose with your flash compensation that okay? All right, yeah, there was a lot less power from another flash that I don't like the results what are you doing? Do you think of that? Better? Better? Is that enough? Is that enough? Lighter here's the other thing I think is good you might add just a tiny bit more flash it, but you have to be aware of your lcd screens that what it is that's exactly what I was going relates to on your computer every lcd I don't care ifit's axing camera body is going to be a little bit different and the people that are really technical on photography this is one thing they this is one big argument that they're going to fight over that they don't. I like to use the back of the lcd and their eyeballs for their images so what we've done and it's a valid point it's a very valid point, but we've done is everyone of images we know what are lcd is what it's going to be like on the back of our computer or in our computer when we have it in color corrected monitor so like for r five d mark to that we have if it looks good on the back of the city it's probably gonna be almost two stops underexposed and realize so we almost have to blow it out on our lcd to make it look good so every camera's going to be a little different oh and so you're just gonna have to get used to that from trial on air if you're going to do this it's not really hard it just something for you to be aware of so I know we're going on the back of this and that's fine for what we're doing today but maybe you know your camera your camera might not work the same so you need to know what that comparison looks like when you get a new computer okay do one more it's better it's also now the other thing you need to worry about and this happens all the time code and I get bored you were doing this or the way cody and I working lots of times he'll be shooting and I'm like hold this and I'm like looking around for the other shot then I'll just just kind of kind of way to get over there oh then you forget you're holding this life so when you're holding life it is extremely important I know this we keep making fun of their where the light stick boy and all this other stuff but this is an extremely important job don't underestimate the importance of the person holding a light yeah because this is what's going to make it you can do all the thought process and everything and if you don't angle that like just write the difference in this and this is a great image and nothing I mean that's this is missing here this is hunting hitting it if you got somebody just look around playing with bugs and stuff this is you're gonna have issues yeah right can I have you go back to that side thank you threw the ball if I'm in your image let me know to you all right what did you change in this part I'm changing the exposure I turned off the flash at the moment ok so you're going to make this look closer to natural light yes but a lot look let more ambient in oh right like that you pretty much nailed it already you didn't your flash was already set from your other one against us ran doors you're not having a adjust a bunch is not competing with much light so all you did was um decrease your exposure compensation for what you're letting I guess increase exports come station to let more light in I think that's great