Lessons
Class Introduction
03:05 2On Camera vs Off Camera Flash
08:39 3Camera Based Settings
13:58 4Sync Settings
10:00 5Flash Based Settings
08:33 65 Step Plan For Using Flash
05:55 7Wireless Flash System
11:54 8Conquering The Master System
06:54Lesson Info
Sync Settings
Let's spend some time now talking about the nikon synchronization modes there are five basically five sync modes on the nikon cameras and they impact the look and the feel of your photo and I think there's a few things that I really want you to learn today to come away here in the audience and out there in internet land I really wanted to learn synchronisation mode because it matters and then the other thing is I really want you to learn, you know, the communication protocol so if you're kind of fading in and out of paying attention now the time pay attention be men not be men but beam in all right? So first let's let me show you where the synchronization modes live I'll repeat that again and then I'm gonna talk about this photo that you see here on the scene of the screen of my awesome son matthew already so back on the camera really quick I'm pushing the flashing button in and I'm rotating the rear dial and we see these different synchronization moves there's a red eye mode there's a...
mode that says slow and there's another mode here that says rear and then I let up and it says slow rear so let's go through those real quick I'm going to move over to the tv to explain this so the first synchronization mode is ah it's front curtain shutter front curtain and that's also called normal so the empty box the little flash thing on the back of the camera that the box is empty we call that normal sink that's also a front curtain sink ok so here's what happens I pose this photo for the book that I wrote just to show the scenario of what happens in a front curtain sink so remember your camera has to shutters front curtain opens want and then in front current sink when does a flash fire right then right there the front power and that's why you see him frozen here on the screen so curtain opens power now the shutter stays open and if there's any ambient light in the room his movement is registered by the ambient light or I should say this way the ambient light registers his movement so here it is front curtain sink in slow motion open the shutter flash fires he runs he blurs curtain closes all right makes kind of sense it makes sense but is that a cool photo or not a cool photo she likes it she likes it well what what might be wrong with it looks like he's michael jackson doing the moonwalk right because people don't move like you know like a super man took off and then he would flew backward that would just be kind of funny so most of our movement and action photos you don't want to use front curtain sink rather you want to use rare currents sink now that looks normal the other one just was cool because it was a cool effect but this one is what we actually expecting her photography imagine your kid jumping off a skateboard ramp and you want to get the nice motion blur behind him or her so that's a rear curtain sink so again slow motion curtain opens son moves the two flash fires and freezes him in the scene and then the rear curtain closes and now the exposures over so rear curtain sink that's really where it's at for movement dynamic action any time something is moving in your photo think rear curtain sink just in case there's going to be any motion blur you can also think this way rear curtain puts the blur to the rear front curtain puts the blur to the front that's the easy way to remember that so this is where you see it on your camera all the nikon cameras air are slightly different in terms of where they actually show this uh some cameras showed on the top lcd panels from showed on the rear I've got to hear this I think this camera remember which one this was maybe a decent fifty d eight hundred but it shows the word slow there in front okay so at the risk of boring everybody with graphs and tables I have to show this because I think this this helps you understand the synchronization modes so bear with milwaukee through it first is synchronization mode normal red eye slow red eye slow slow rear in rear all of these are available on your nikon cameras normal we've already talked about normal normal is a front curtain sink in other words normal means that it's going tio fire the flash at the beginning of exposure the other interesting thing about normal sink is that it typically sets the shutter speed for one sixtieth of a second turn on my info stream and push this but in in make sure we're at normal so here's normal again it's the empty box and if I'm an aperture priority and I'm like f say five six or if we go up five six what's my shutter speed a sixteenth of a second even if I go to f eleven of sixteen it's still a sixtieth of a second it starts getting faster once I go to a bigger aperture and that's just because the ambient light in this room is pretty bright so any time the light is low normal sink gives you a sixteenth of a second so the question people always ask is why and what why does it go to sixty well it's night cons way of cutting out the ambient light so think of normal sink as you're at an event here at a wedding and you want to cut out all the ambient light and just use flash so that's how I think of normal sink normal sink is just flash all right red eye reduction mode don't use it it's annoying in fact it's so annoying I'm not even to show it to you here's what happens a red eye reduction mode the flash goes like this it goes putt putt putt and then it actually takes the picture so now let's say you're taking a picture of me and like smile for the camera mic and so I go look at the camera and then here's what I see as the on the receiving end pop pop pop and then power so what do I do physically after that first pop I'd look away and I start having a conversation with my wife and then your photo gets the side of my head so red eye reduction mode the whole purpose is to cause your pupils to get smaller and prevent light reflected back into the camera so off camera flash what we're learning today you didn't have to worry about red eye reduction vote ok slow sink well we talked about slow we actually didn't talk about slow yet so anything with the word slow means that you're allowing the camera to include ambient light in fact that's what I have here flash plus ambient all right so what are the situations where you want flash plus ambient light well you're at the beach you want the ambient light you're sitting next to the north facing window on your house you want that nice ambient light so any time you want to include ambient and flash together you're going to use slow sink flash okay so the word slow means it allows the ambient well we'll forget the red eye slow that's even worse than just red eye so and kill it we got slow rear so let's talk to that one slower here that allows the ambient and it pops the flesh at the rear it's my favorite flash mode when I travel when I rock climb when a mountain bike when I'm in the middle of a city in new york or seattle and I've doing street scenes if I want that blur I do slow rear because it pops a little bit of flash to kind of freeze the movement and it allows a little bit of blur says a really dynamic looking photograph I really like slow rear sink and then finally we have just rear and the word the one where says just rear that appears in manual exposure mode you can't get just rear in aperture priority mode it will be slow rear so we can explain in more detail if their questions on that when we get to the q and a so all that to say we got all these sink modes and I just talked forever about like a single hand just talk forever about what what all these think mose are but let's simplify it that's what today is about simplification really for me it comes down to just two modes normal sink and slow rear sink I tend to shoot an aperture priority predominantly and so therefore it's the slow rear normal think any time I'm in the studio right exclude the amit and slow rare sink any time I'm travelling and I'm outside on then if if you're a manual mode shooter I'm looking at you internet land you might choose rear sink so your flash always fires at the end of the exposure these other things you can just forget about we'll get about it so sink modes
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
James Stone
This class is an excellent primer on Nikon's Creative Lighting System. Mike does an excellent job simplifying what can seem like a complicated system. I enjoyed it and saved it to watch again as a refresher.
Fred Morton
So, here's the deal. If you can't get to a Mike Hagan course in person this is the best next thing. I have know Mike for 6 years and he never disappoints. I took this course through Nikonians about four years ago and found this to be not only a great review but a significant update from what I l learned in the previous class. Mike is one who never rests on his laurels and as a teacher he is constantly updating and improving his work. Speed lights are so much more complex then most people understand and Mike use his knowledge to take that complexity and reduce it to a set of clear and understandable methods. So glad to see that Creative Live has included him in their line up of instructors.
Marlon Ornek
Mike is a great easy to follow instructor who you can tell knows his subject. Thank you. A great course that I would recommend to anyone with Nikon gear.
Student Work
Related Classes
Lighting