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Lesson Info

Metering with Mixed Light

the way we designed each course is to show how much you can do with just a very minimal amount of gear. So lighting to one kind of follows along, and it shows how much you can do with just a single off camera light so we can teach you all about the gear that you need to set it up. We're gonna talk about the types of gear that we like using in the course what the differences between them are. There are differences between flashes. So what we want from you all is for you guys to tell us what questions you guys have regarding lighting gear. We've done a lot of, like, kind of teaching and conduct. We want to do a lot more. Q and A this go around on answer. A lot of questions have been kind of queuing up, So if you have questions on gear, what we like to use, you know, different situations. That's the stuff that we're looking at. So let's start out with. I know we talked a little bit about light meters earlier, and you talked about not using an actual light meter very much. But if you're ju...

st getting started and you're taking New York flash off camera. How do you go about mixing light, ambient light and flash? How do you think about how your meat during Cool. It's a really great question. This is one of those things that we talked about right at the beginning of lighting. Wanna One is ambient to flash balance. I don't know. I'm picking my camera cause I want to pick up a pen and, uh, my razor. Okay, let's do this. Remember the whole shadow drama thing, right? We talked about that. In terms of, like, your subject. We have a similar diagram in the course that we we refer to as ambient to flash balance. Okay. The misnomer is that most people think when you introduce flash into a scene, it can't look natural. That's not really the case. Most of us think that way because we think when we first get our flash that the flash has to be firing at full power. We have to be seeing it, and it's gonna be overpowering. And then they go, Oh, I don't like that. Look, I love natural light. Well, if you want an image toe, look, Let's say Mawr natural versus more dramatic. The only difference is more flash less ambient And this side less flash mawr ambient. Did I say I say lesser Maurin inside? Okay, so this side is more flash. So you want an image to look dramatic? We pump up the flash, bring down the ambient light, less ambient light. You want an image to look in the Latin Natural, Less flash power mawr ambient light introduced. So we go back to the question of story and purpose, right? What we looking to achieve with an image got erased. So let's just look in the scene. If I wanted this scene to I'm gonna first think of what I want to do. Let's say I want to do something that's more on the natural side, right? Well, I'm gonna first before even touch a flash is just decide on what I want my ambient light toe look like. Okay, so I'm gonna bring this up. I'm gonna say, you know what? I want the immune look to be somewhere like around F two. I want to be 1 202nd and I saw 200. This is where I get that nice and airy Look to the image. Unless that I bring then Danielle into the frame right here. Let's say I put it right here. Okay? Danielle, let's have you. Look, I want you to turn and look out toward this side, so we're gonna pretend that you're wearing a wedding dress right now. Okay, on. Let's just say that I want you, Teoh. Like one of my favorite kind of wedding dress Poses is a step with a drag so that we would get a pull on the dress, okay. And why you'd like to have a bouquet in her left hand and have a dragon arm back a little bit, so we can kind of see space. And have you looked down to the left side right there? Okay, let's have you do that, but just do it. Blew it back there. There you go. Okay, I got a flash. Bang. Do it again. OK, so let's go ahead and look at the image up on the camera. Now. This is a very natural kind of Brighton area looking image, right? This is step one on figuring out what to do with your flash. Why don't you figure out what the scene looks like first, how you want it to look. I want a light and airy image. This gets me to that point. But then you say, But you know what? Be really nice If I had a little kiss of light on her face or on the dress or something else and then we go toe adding the flash so that comes at a later step. We've decided with our story and purposes, we've set our Ambien exposure and then we go. Now let's figure out what we need to do with our light. Cool. I would demo that, but we have a lot of questions coming through. So why was I was actually going to ask you? Because one of the one of the questions is about how do you determine your exposure, then, like you've just exposed for the ambient light? What is the process than in terms of you? An aperture priority? Are you in manual when you start adding those flashes in? So we're shooting everything in manual just because we don't want anything to change. I'm going to show you the unpredictable nous of even like after priority, right? So I use spot metering always in manual mode. If you're going to spot metering, always use manual. So let's talk about real quick meeting. This is a photo, one on one topic, but it relates to lighting one of one lining to and everything. So let's just go through a couple different things now. He's gonna look different on each camera, but let's call this evaluative or matrix. I think Nikon calls their matrix. Call this center. We call this spot so different options in camera, right when you're when you're me During in camera, we generally will use spot. And what that means is the camera is going to tell us the exposure reading based on this tiny 2 to 3% spot in the frame. Otherwise, if you aren't center weighted average or any of the averaging methods, it's telling you, this is what the meat oring is in camera. Based on this area, the frame center weighted average means it's averaging the scene, but placing weight on the center. Okay, this is evaluative. This is the most confusing one because everybody has. Every camera maker has their own version of this scene based program where they try and guess what you want with your shot as literally There's an algorithm where they try and guess what you're trying to do. They based it off focus. They base it off composition that base it off everything. And you know what? More often than not, it'll actually get you close to what you want, but it doesn't quite get you there. And I don't want to teach you guys anything that doesn't get you there 100% of the time. Okay, so I want to show you guys, if you're in evaluative the reason why we're sorry If you're in spot meeting right now, I'm in spot metering. You can see my, uh, metering mode right here. I don't know if it's a little tiny little thing right there. If I flip it, that little one is spot. Okay. Looks like that little dot If I'm in aperture priority, it is. Now I'm I'm saying to the camera, I want to set the the aperture. Mr. Cannon. Mr. Cannon, I just want to set the aperture. I want you to handle the shutter speed, and it's gonna use that little centerpoint to figure out my exposure. Right. Daniel, Can you stand right here. Perfect. Now, if I just composed this So Danielle's face is my center point. We make sure I'm actually focusing. So, Daniel Spaces, that center point let me make sure the, uh, compensation is not at zero. There we go. Compensation. So basically what we tell the camera you saw that 1st 1 is really under when you're in any of these other modes, right? You're telling the camera this here's that little graph zero negative one negative 21 And even if you get their experience But you guys haven't played with these modes, it's helpful to understand how they work just so that you kind of get it in your mind. So what we're doing is an aperture priority. I tell the camera, I want a neutral exposure. I wanted zero. What you think is a neutral exposure than the camera goes. Okay, you've selected a neutral exposure with spot metering, which means that I'm gonna give you a neutral exposure while Onley taking information from this little spot. Or if you put it in this one. It says I'm gonna give you a neutral reading based on this area of the frame. So you're telling it what area? The frame to give you that reading based on right now, Watch what happens here. So let's make sure that this works. Okay? I'm just going to take a quick shot. Perfect. And now I'm gonna move my spot down a little bit, so it hits her chest, and now I'm gonna move my spot up a little bit, so it hits the sky. Now I'm gonna move it right a little bit. So it's against the brick, okay? And what we're gonna see with each of these is because we're allowing the camera to choose the exposure. As we move around, you're going to see the Is it going? So the 1st I always have issues with this camera. Well, here you can look at this. This is where replaced the spot meter over the windows. So what did it do? It went upto 1 4000 of a second. Now they're coming. Okay, this is over the brick. So now it pulls it back down to 11 25th of a second. Okay, there's the window. There's just over her skin. 1 61 60th of a second. So why would we give the camera that control. I mean, there's there's not really a reason because what we've done is we've made it very difficult in post. Now we have all these different exposures coming through that we have to figure out now. The thing is that, obviously, I'm not shooting a composition like this one generally like That's not really a great composition, necessarily. But what we need to realize is that as we focus on our subject and we compose the frame that meter, this area may not be. Where are subject actually is right. I mean your subject. If you go back to the happy family, they could be like here. Your subject might be here, and you're meeting off the wrong places. So get out of any of the assistant modes. Shutter priority After priority. There's very little reason to do that. It's so once you get used to it, adjusting your settings manually becomes muscle memory. It's very quick. It's very simple. Use your live you until then to help you cheat a little bit right when we're using spot metering. Why do I love it? Because when I'm shooting manual, I can use my spot metering to select exactly what I want exposed a certain way. And just think of it this way. If I want a dramatic image, I want this guy to be a little bit dark, right? That not what I would do. I put my spot meter. Let's say that the window is the sky I put my spot meter up to the sky and I go All right, I'm just gonna just down, So make sure I'm in manual, so I'm just gonna pull that sky down to 1 8000 f two and lo eso. And now when I fire this, I get my dark sky. So let's say that I'm doing a portrait. Okay, so there's my dark, unfocused guy. Let's say I actually want to look like I know what I'm talking about. It's not something I usually dio just just this once. I want to know what I'm talking about. Right. Okay, let's have Danielle. Let's go. That flat lighting scene right now, You guys know that my exposure right now is a 1000 of a second F two and Lois, So I just messed it all up, right? I'm not gonna use live. You're not gonna use anything. I'm gonna get to a correct exposure in one shot. Daniel, stand right there. This is something that professional photographers like I meet so many tigers in this one little thing is still something that most people can't do in one shot. They need to take two shots or three shots. I'm using spot meter. I'm in manual. I just bring that spot meter right over her skin where I want to get a measurement off of. Okay, I'm gonna go right under this part on the right side. Usually I'll meet her for the brighter side of skin, and all I'm gonna dio is with skin tones. I generally like it to be a little bit brighter, so I'm gonna meet her 20 and then go up one stop, Okay? I haven't taken a single shot yet. Right? Is ready with my clients all set up everything. Do all this kind of stuff set up everything. Take one single shot. See, this is gonna be the best shot that you guys have each other so far, and then we do one shot someone to pity the second half to I said 100. I go one shot and I wouldn't ask her this because she's had a lot of pictures taken over some. My soup rice is definitely not any better than that one. So I'm not going to say that's not the best rodeo because you're, like, well supervised. Did this well said that really cool fun, one with the mist and stuff that was pretty cool. So one single shot, though, and we have a correct exposure via spot metering the Emanuel. And now, once I have that my If I was in an aperture priority or shutter priority, anything else it be constantly adjusting, depending on where my spot meters being placed. But once I'm in manual, I could shoot there with consistent exposures all way up until she changes positions and we shoot a different light direction. Right? So this is why we shoot manual. This is why we use spot metering and spot meeting comes into play with lighting because you're gonna first decide what you want your seem to look like Place your spot over whatever you want in your seem to be wherever it is, you want the sky to be dark. Put this con spot me over the sky, adjust everything so the sky's dark, bring the frame down, composed their people and then just add flash to bring people out. That's Azizi this