Lessons
Introduction of Working with Flash
17:42 2Reasons to Use Flash
04:11 3Mixing Flash and Ambient Light
19:14 4Understanding Flash Duration
13:00 5Direct Flash Done Right
06:22 6Direct Flash vs Bounce Flash
11:30 7Light Qualities
13:19 8Overhead Bounce Light with Fill
17:46Lesson Info
Perfecting Your Images Using OCF
So let's get into off camera flash eight steps to perfecting each scene an image when using off camera flash now, this is kind of a mental process like you, khun use this for now, just to kind of get a gauge on what you should be doing when you go set something up eventually becomes second nature, so I don't go into a scene and go number one got to do this number two it's time for this number three, but the first thing that we always start with is is the number one question I get asked during live workshops is what your settings, what your settings, where everybody wants to know your settings, there's the funny thing actually tell all my students that the one question I don't want you to ask for this entire shoot for this entire two days, that we're going to be together is what your settings and the reason why is because I want you all to decide what look do you want for your image, like it shouldn't really matter what your settings are right? Do you want a closed down depth of field l...
ike, do you want it to look like everything is sharp where we closed down the aperture and we have lots of depth of field? Or do you want to look where everything's blurry in the background? It doesn't matter those steps that's step number one deciding what you're aiming for if I'm doing a shutter drag automatically I know that the main thing there is my shutter speed right so everything else is really kind of irrelevant so we're deciding on depth of field you want a wider clothes on appa sure to want motion slower fast shutter speed then we go to number two synchronization this is the one I keep saying this is the one tricky part about clich synchronization is one of the tricky thing with flash flash is have a difficult time synchronizing with your shutter speed when your shutter speed is too high okay what that means is if your shutter speed is above one two hundred a second your flash can't fit the shot in before the shutter closes again and that gives you two options you either use high speed sink or an nd filter but two options are very similar in their overall kind of purpose and everything I'm going to show you guys and the filters okay this is a tiffin and eighty two millimeter one point five so this is a five stop neutral density filter I'll let you guys pass this around you can see that basically what it does is it blackens out the entire frame okay so it's reducing the light of the entire image so if you're shooting outdoors and you're shooting an f one two on our really fast lens because you want to get super blurry background what's your shutters be probably gonna be like one thousandth of a second right to get there's no way you're flash can fit in that time. So what we do is we add like, say, a five stop where we can basically reduce the shutter speed it'll cut down the amount of light entering the frame so we can slow the shutter speed down to one, two hundred seconds while still shooting at one point two the other option is using high speed sync now full feature flashes like the six hundred ex artie and this vote takes metro's. They do have high speed sync. The problem with this is when you're asking your flash to do high speed sync. Um, what's happening it's not actually firing at once, so in order for your flash to basically fire off a frame or fire off a shot quick enough for your shutter speed. This is what it's doing? Okay, now you can imagine if your flash has to fire fifty times in the course of that little one a thousandth of a second, your power is down, so when you use high speed sync, you lose flash power tremendous amount of flash power you get maybe five percent of the power of your flash when you're using hyper eyes be sync depending on the shutter speed hire the shutter speed the more pulses this thing has to fire to fit one in so on andy filter well, it kind of does something similar right because that five stop andy filter it cuts down light from ambient and from your flash correct but it's five stops in general if you're going to like twenty thousand the second you're losing like eight to ten stops of light so I can use an nd fire at full power and still get my flash like still get more power out of my flash basis so that's the one benefit of having nd overdoing high speed sync high speed sink anything that both high speed sinking I love pro photos their new be ones and be tuesday do high speeds think they're fantastic but you still lose power a lot of power okay, so keep that in mind so we've chosen our composition let's say that we're going to get one for thousands of a second because we want to shoot a f one point two and I saw one hundred then we're going to need something to slow down we have to think about synchronization that's why synchronization is number two do we need to add an andy filter or do we need to use high speed sync if you find that you're using high speeds thinking you get no light that's because your flashes can't do it? They just can't put out enough light said you're ambidextrous jher. So again, this goes back to to want more dramatic of a look, or do you want a more natural look? Choose your light direction in quality? Are we dealing with a couple? Should we light into her face? Are we shooting solo or what are we doing in this set? We're going to take a test shot. We're gonna look at the flash balance. We're gonna look at the highlights and shadows the biggest thing to deal with when you're doing off camera flashes. And now, in addition to dealing with your gear, you're looking at where my shadows falling, where the highlights going. We're all those things we were doing that before, but the gear was simple. It was just our on camera flash. Now we're actually thinking a little more right light color and white balance. Do we want to corrective? Lee change? Why balance or corrected or change it for stylistic purposes we pose, we frame and we shoot what I say there. Go to town, go to town, bring lots of batteries and then analyze your highlights and shadows. So any time I change a pose, any time I have them do something different I always zoom in, look at your highlights and look shadows. The one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're first turn off camera flash, they'll fire something like that looks amazing. They'll get in from the computer. They'll zoom into it, and he got a shadow going across the girl's side of the face because he blocked her right. So zoom in and look at where the highlights and shadows falling. Make sure it's not distracting.
Class Materials
Bonus with RSVP
Ratings and Reviews
BALPhoenixPhotography
Not only is this a great class, but Pye is entertaining to watch. I'm a natural light photographer and I wanted to learn more about what a flash could do for me and my business. After watching this class I have not only learned more about flash photography but also learned that it can help boost my photos and create more beautiful photos even for my family clients. Great class I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about flash photography.
samphotopro
Great course, Considering that I am a professional photographer that is always searching for new ways to work and make my workflow more efficient and my work more creative, I find this class to be very helpful and interesting. I already own 3 pocket flashes and I realize that I don't exploit them as I could. It also made me realize that I was more in the «the more gear you buy» mode and not enough in the «exploit your gear and be creative» mode. So for the price, I think it is worth it !
Ali Plantz
"Working with Flash" was a great introduction for learning the basics of using a pocket flash, as well as providing opportunities to explore more advanced concepts related to light and its manipulation. I would definitely recommend this class for anyone who is wanting to familiarize themselves with the how flash can transform your photos and how its control can provide a creative avenue with artistic results.
Student Work
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Lighting