Lessons

Lesson Info

Flash! A Drama in 4 Parts

The flash a drama and four parts okay so I need you guys to hop up a swell because we have parts for everybody okay so what we're gonna do come on over here face the camera come on over come on over okay colby you're gonna be the camera okay kobe is going to be the camera okay so you're right here you're the state I'm in the camera can be the camera be the camp I'm the camera okay good good you're the camera all right country you're going come over here you're going to be the flash okay you're the flash in fact we're going to give you a flash to act this out okay you're the flashing the flash you're the flash me to flash on the flash awesome ok come on over here kim you're going to be our subjects to just walk back here we're gonna stand right here okay right there all right so you're gonna be our linds so where's aren't there we go come stand right here hold this yes turn around so you go and you know hold it just like this okay now we still need a couple more so john cornyn tell can ...

you help me out okay you're going to come over here on this side john's gonna be the light so it's almost blasphemous like the initials j c I'm the lights ok you're not the way you're just the light okay you're the light all right, so let's talk about what happens um and so jobs we have a special part for you. We've discussed this earlier. Ok, so here's what happens? We have our camera who's the camera I'm the camera and you say I'm the camera okay, now go like this this is just the shutter release. Ok, so we're making this ridiculous so you can really get into your brain. So when you go to your camera and you press the shutter release just half ways it's halfway there we go. What happens is the camera says I need to start figuring out the light. So say that a new surfing it's like you need to figure it out. Okay, so what's happening is the light is over here over here like, okay, the light streaming in right? So the light comes over here light streams in through the lens, it goes through the lead uh, to the camera, right, this's a little ridiculous. I love it so light goes through the lands, it goes to the camera, the camera says who I need to change some shed settings to make that look eighteen percent gray, which we know is what, one hundred percent wacky, right? Ok, so you're doing that, so you've done that have pushed this halfway down, okay, now that all is handled differently depending on the mode so you might be in aperture priority mode you might be in sugar party mode might be in manual mode you might be in green dialled auto never but maybe okay but however you have that set up that's gonna have happened differently and guess what we're going to dive into that to today to figure out how those air different because they affect the flash differently okay then after that that's part one right so light has come in through the lands were you're still good yeah okay all right so it's gone to the camera the camera said I got to figure out the light eighteen percent it does that all right now we have a flash right the flashes over here so hold it up on the flash flash okay so the flash guess what does the flash and the camera do they know yet how bright the flash should be no they don't know they don't know so the flash has no idea yet how bright it should be and there's something else that's wacky um I need one more kelsey can you come and be in the the drama I forgot I have one more part kelsey is going to be in the drama we're gonna move you this way just little bit so in between the lens and the camera come right in here we have the shutter so good like this kelsey okay yes the shutter so guess what the light has to go through the lens right can be the light come on be the light the light has to go through the lens and asked to go through the shutter right yeah now behind behind the shelter right there's also the aperture that controls quantity right this is duration how long quantity all that's half all right I told you we're going take this apart so that's next that's part one part two is this we have to figure out how much light from the flashes the flash yes I'm the flash from the flash okay so that's an awesome seventies thing so now what's gonna happen is we're going to push this all the way down a chunk ok now here is the interesting thing before the light right you're ambient light specifically come over here at me like I'm so bossy so before the ambient like gets to go through the lens through the shutter into the camera and macon exposure we have to figure out the flash exposure because we still haven't figured it out right flash you don't know yet right? No you don't know so what happens is there's a secret little flash that happens it's ninja like put that on josh we have a ninja that you might not know about this happened so fast that most people don't even notice hey it's called pre flash and so I love this you never know what you're going to have people do. Okay? Ninja, can you see? Not blindfold? Ok, come on over. Ok, so we have a ninja here, so when I push this down, this happens that fast ninja light comes from the flash. Okay, so you come from the flash, right? And you come over here. Come back. Were you? Come over here to our seven inches is can you bounce off the subject? Uh, you go through the lens. Tt all monitoring right now. Do you go through the shutter? No, he does not go through the show. Why not? Because we know if this shutter is open open, there is no light meter right hand to the face. Sorry, there's no light meter. So this is closed. Ninja light goes through the little mirror. You can take that up now goes through the mirror, goes up too dependent prison we talked about before and now the flash knows something and the camera does something so you could be over here. What do you know? You know how bright the flash should be because ninja pre flash did its job, bob okay, so let me refresh two parts we're gonna do this slowly I'm gonna act out all the parts I push this half away, light comes streaming through the lens shoot up in through this thing to the light meter the camera says I know what I should do to get a proper ambient light exposure I pressed this all the way the flash fires in india ninja comes over here yeah I called the pre flash comes in through the lens for up into the pen to prison and now the flashing the camera talk and the cameras hills the flash how much light to throw out so we get a proper exposure from our flash then here's what happens though you really like come on over part three is that communication sorry so come over here you're now flash light light from the flash part three is this all that stuff has happened? The camera tells the flash from things the camera says hey I want you to illuminate everything or I just want you to eliminate this part or things like I'm shooting in this aperture value I have this white balance I have all these things so there's communication going on that's part three then and by the way this happens like that then this is pushed all the way then shut her opens so light from the flash comes flying through what bounces off her subject goes through the lens through there comes in here so is ambient light shuttered closes yeah having exposure that's what happens isn't it crazy and it all happens like this could you that fast okay you guys going to down? Good job. Good job. All right, so this is pretty crazy. So what we're doing here and this is important to understand is that we have to understand those steps so I'm gonna refresh you again without the crazy drama because I think it's important so when I have my camera jay, if you've watched videos by the way online on you you're something of people using speed lights you've probably seen that pre flash it looks like the double flash looks pretty cool so I push my show to release halfway we have light coming in the camera is mita ring that light telling uh our aperture or shutter or whatever what to do and I push that all the way then this has the pre flash ninja that fires it comes in it tells the flash all kinds of things I push this all the way this opens up ambient light comes in to flash fires it bounces off, it comes in a proper exposure it closes we're ready to go ok, now let's see if we have questions because we're sort of the head so I want to make sure we have questions and if not, we're gonna keep on going all right? We have questions we have questions get but we got susan have a question from our friend sam cox from loveland, colorado when using my flash and detail mode is the cameras response time the time between pressing the shutter button and actually taking a picture significant significantly longer than with gtl turned off um so if, uh shutter like between this uh when you push this and the flash firing and meeting and doing all that stuff is there a big difference between that and having everything in manual mode? Is that what we're saying? Yeah, how long does it take for that meeting to happen when using my flash and teal mode I guess you're asking about the cameras response time is it significantly longer then what tl turned off no it's that in fact let me show you how fast it is I'll show you how fast so this is t l turned on right? We're just gonna take a picture of you guys right here right now okay that fast and then tl turned off we'll just put it in manual mode you're gonna be over exposed or you go for it here we go and there's really no difference there's really no and you can see I'm just totally blasted you guys, which is a so no there's no difference in fact there's something that we're going to show at the end of the day if you're shooting and low light it's gonna be faster because you haven't auto focus assist so it'll help you focus and we'll shoot faster okay a question from tim say bring at what point does during the flash and four parts does the focusing occur great I've skipped that so the focusing occurs when you press the shutter release halfway so when you first press the show to release halfway through cameras me during the light and focusing that happens at the same time great thank you and that that is one thing by the way, if, uh the lag between when you push this and when the camera fires the biggest thing that's going to make there be a lag is the focusing not the media ring it's the focusing that takes a long time question from picks by les so does that mean that exposure compensation is not used in manual modes? Uh we're gonna get there through the answer is, um there is exposure compensation, but you do it yourself. So that's, what manual mode is you manually do exposure compensation I just under exposing our overexposing and the cool thing is about to in a little bit go through every single mode on your camera aperture priority showed her priority in manual mode not every single but those three the ones that count on and we're going to explain what happens when you do expose your compensation um and how that works and then when we get to the manual mode part, you'll go off course that's what happens? So yes, there is exposure compensation, but it just doesn't show up there's no exposure compensation button several folks, including s f photography, sarah barnett and love my whole what if used back button focus? What if you use back? It's just it doesn't change anything to do would flash. All it does is if used back in focus, and by the way, if you don't know what that is, there is a button on some cameras and you can program that justice auto focus on and some people instead of pushing this halfway to meet her and focus like to push this halfway to meet her in the button on the back to focus on dso it's, you can change when the camera focuses, so what that does is as far as the flash is concerned, you can be focusing, oh, and then go ahead and meet her and flash so there's, I don't think there's a significant difference that honestly, I don't shoot enough with the backlighting focus, which is never to give a real hands on. This is my experience answer, but theoretically there shouldn't be really any difference except for speeding up when your camera focuses in controlling that question from tim see, bring at what point during the flash and four parts does the focusing actually occur? So, it's, when you're you push the button halfway the shutter release halfway that's when the camera focuses because it's the same thing. So remember our showed her over here remember this guy girl? Kelsey? Um, remember that the camera can't meet or the light while the shutter is open, because when the shutters open, the mirrors are up. When the mirrors air up, nothing is being routed to the auto focus sensor or the, uh, the exposure meter and so it's, when you push the shutter release halfway down, the light goes through there, and those two things happen at the same time. It's more a pre flash questions for you okay, let's, talk about pre flash zug zug would like to know. Does the so does the camera make a second exposure calculation after it talks to the flash? It does, yes, so here's what happens when you, uh, when you push the shutter halfway, that says let's, talk about ambient light and it sets the depending on mood, says the aperture correctly saysthe shutter correctly or you're doing it yourself manually, right doesn't do any isso stuff, which we'll get to, um so it does that you push the button all the way down should release all the way down ninja comes out free flash boom goes through and what happens is that the camera is saying ok, here's the flash going out and it has to know one of the things that has to know is what are you illuminating so, joshua stu for second I keep talking to you but it's going to use you for a second I'm gonna put you or did you might fall off okay, uh come over here so I want to have you stand right here right here. Okay, so these cameras over here going to show us that there's a difference between where josh is here and where this wall is back here, so one of the things that the flash has to do is figure out exactly what its media ring and this is going to apply to spot metering matrix metering, evaluative all that stuff. So if I am standing here taking a picture the flash that pre flash is going to bounce off you and come back right? But what if you're not the one I want to expose correctly? What if it's back here that I want to expose correctly it's going to need more flash? And so what will happen is you're going to be over exposed this is going to be exposed correctly or you'll be exposed correctly and this will be under exposed so those, uh meeting modes and how you meet her will really make a difference, and so that second, when we push that's, when the flash and the camera talking to figure out what the exposure should be, so if you've ever had a picture where you had somebody here and there, like a dark background, maybe at night and that person is totally blown up, just over exposed what's happening is when the ninja flash goes off, it goes right past you few and it's trying to illuminate the wilderness out here and it's getting to nothing, I just there's nothing coming back, and so what the camera can do is misinterpret that so the camera can go, oh, gosh, nothing came back, we got one percent grade, we didn't get anything, and so it will crank the flash all the way up, and so the light comes out, and what it does here is it makes you into a white pillar, and still we have black because the flash is stupid, and so is the camera. It doesn't know that this is what we're going to eliminate, and so later we're going to talk about how to solve those issues. But that's a long answer to a short question, but yeah, it's, that pre flash that's when that meteor ring happens, unless issue with your flashing manual that when you do it mainly what? Yes magic how does this all change if you're using one of the new mir lis cameras because you don't have the pen to prison and all that stuff in there it still does the same media ring I'm not sure how it does with the but it still does the same process okay, so what you learn here were deployed it will apply yeah it applies tio cameras and even the puppet flash does the same kind of thing the question from cause mob are there any situations such as far distances in which the pre flash is not adequate yes when you have uh well I just described when you're shooting outside with a black background you can have the pre flash misinterpret what you're trying to illuminate and illuminate the entire try to illuminate the entire sky which is impossible because it's not reflecting off many things the pre flash won't work you can also have problems if you're too close when we're going to get to get into the day um if you're shooting rapidly you can have problems because your batteries air are keeping up with what's happening and so you'll have fluctuations in the flesh so that little pre flash can cause all kinds of complications on dh that's specifically for studio shooters the pre flash determining what the output of the flashes is the most frustrating thing because if you don't know that's what's happening you're not aware that there's, this little ninja flying out there and coming back with false information, saying, oh, you need to be full blast, when in reality you don't need to be full blast, you need to be sort of toned down, and so we're going to get to those. How do you figure that out and control that? But the under thing that's really important to understand right now, two different flat, two different exposures, like from the flash ambient light. One is controlled by light coming through the lens. The other one is controlled by the pre flash, telling us what to do at the pre flash gets it wrong, it's always going to be wrong. So, yeah, there are. There are things, and we're gonna be day two and day three. When we put this into practice, we'll show you those.