Lessons

Lesson Info

Know Your Light: Mixing Ambient and Strobe

All right, so um we've been talking about light uh we did a little bit available light that we kicked in some strobes um and I tell you to be really just transparent as as a photographer trying to shoot pictures and is a teacher trying to teach pictures uh it's it's difficult in time constraints to get both of those done correctly shoot the pictures correctly and to teach correctly and it's kind of like to do one or you do the other so these teaching days where I'm shooting or just maddening for me um and one thing that we're talking about during our lunch break was I was going to do my sixty minute portfolio um and just shoot you shoot and try to shoot as much as I could in sixty minutes, but I feel like I want to answer more questions I feel like I want tio demonstrate more from based off questions coming in from you guys on the internet so I think I'm going to take what limited time we have today and spend more time answering questions and talking through things then just simply sho...

oting a whole bunch of pictures um let us know in the chat room if that works for you so we're outside and you don't have an indoor space to work with your shooting outside uh now we have available light and we're in a like, tricky situation we have shade here but if I just walk a couple of feet then we're in full on son all right, so the light difference between we have airplanes and light straight full sun and shade is is a number of stops all right um I'm the kind of photographer that I prefer shooting in the shade all right? My clients typically want to shoot in the shade too especially this like mid afternoon it's not great let's let's look at our awesome students and crew over here if we look at all their eyes their eyes are kind of dark. Um the sun is like right overhead it's not the prettiest light in the world now there are pictures that can be made in full sun um cliff mountain her is a photographer I respect a lot and he loves this kind of like like I won't give me a minute mid afternoon full sun like he's coming from a photo journalism newspaper world where you've got to go out and shoot pictures in full sun and two in the afternoon that's just what you have to do you have no control over that timeframe so he had figured out how to do it and he likes that and I'm not saying he's wrong I'm just saying my personal style is I'd rather work in the shade all right my clients typically rather work in the shade as well if it's a hot, sunny day you stand in them out in the sun there sweating there glistening and you don't have a makeup artist that's a problem you get him in the shade there little cooler also it's a little easier on the eyes all right, you go stand in full sun and your subjects are like this again bad light indicator or bad robert de niro impersonation one of the other that's going on there so hang out in the shade all right um how you doing? It is still hard with the light that we have right? And yeah, you have blue eyes and lighter colored eyes typically when you have lighter cut you're more sensitive to bright life you get someone with black eyes dark, dark, dark brown like my five year old joshua he has like black eyes and he can handle bright better right? Um so you have to be aware of that, right? So I'm going to start off again with just simply going over it one more time. What is our ambient exposure? All right, I'm dealing with ambient light available light um and I'm in the sun what is my light source right now? My light source is the sky all right and there's a lot of skies stretching out that way and if I need eyes to the light eyes to the light then her eyes are facing that way because the light sources that big sky out there so when I walk into a location and if I'm shooting available light I say what's what's where's my light where's my light there it is now if this was a really narrow alley between two tall buildings than the light source would be more directly overhead than it is now, this is an open al I don't know if we can get up kind of shot of this but out here in this open alley there's a lot of just big vista of sky so that's a light source so my subject is facing into that light source and I'm watching her eyes and making sure that light is getting to her eyes if the highs are dark and lifeless and they don't have ah you know a nice pop of light to them then when you take that picture, guess what? They're going to be dark and lifeless and not have that nice pop of light now we have a tunnel light out here, so I'm thinking through my settings what is it going to be? Um I want to be a tie, so one hundred I've got a twenty four to seventy two eight linds on my camera at the moment I'm going to just start with a simple headshots start with what you know start with what you know just start simple we'll start with a simple head shot um but you've gotten head shots when we did that and you're like, oh, I'd like to do something more interesting than just a head shot so her desire coming here today is to get something something more interesting than just head shot so I'm like, ok, so I've got to shoot something more than the head shot head shots pretty simple basic picture so I've got to think through well, I got to do something different um I need to do something creative so I want to keep her in this environment but shoot a picture that doesn't look like it's in this environment or something so what I flip the camera around on oh wow look at that right? So that means I'm probably going to flash is all right, so I'm going to shoot available light then I'm gonna had a little bit of flash ah so you see what phil flashes and how to achieve a fill flash and then we're going toe kill the ambient light and come in with strobes kind of thing it's kind of the idea that I have in mind so we're gonna shoot a couple pictures of you and then you'll be done and then we're gonna pull raven and um and no, no, no, no, I'll uh I'll let you know when I need raven that way she can stay inside and stay warm so what? I'm getting ready for that I'll say but I didn't mean my next person okay? So I'm looking at the eyes looking at the eyes and sometimes it's kind of weird I've got to study the eyes so what does that mean? I'm staring at them directly I'm looking at reflections and catch lights and shadows and but I'm staring at them in the eyes so I'm usually like ok, I'm just trying to judge my light I'm staring at your eyes but just know I'm not like trying to stare into your soul I'm just trying to judge light and all of that kind of thing that got one hair kind of come in frontal and I whips hey that works um so I'm in shade so let's get that white balance over to shade the book of the boom there we go uh, shade I'm a two point eight I'm gonna goto s o one hundred I need to find out what my shutter speed will be right? I need to find out what shutter is so spot meter of the face or senator waited on the face just hanging out there going I gotta take a meter reading and I'm going to go like plus they're just start there it's gonna be two, eight, three, twentieth of a second and take a picture and that looks pretty good so I zeroed out my meter and then kicked my shutter down. One more click from zero to give me a plus one third exposure. Look at it are my rgb are read history ram looks fine. I'm not peeking their my total overall hissed a gram looks good. Um, so I'd say a two point eight three, twentieth of a second, and I'm set all right, and I can be shooting just some head shots. Now I want tio evaluate how the eyes are looking and I think I need a little bit of extra light in the eyes. All right, eyes look okay? I'm not sure if we can see on this tethered monitor or not, but what's happening is right underneath that I live, um, the eyebrow it's a little dark. Um, and then some lines under the eyes a kind of dark because the light is mohr above her than in front of her. So I need to fill this area in with light. And I have one of two options of doing that. One is a reflector. All right, just a simple reflector. And what I need to do is catch the light. Which right now, the light, the easiest light aiken catches above and then kick it back from underneath. All right, so I'm gonna place this just on your lap kind of thing and just see how that and I want to take it away and bring it back and that's adding a little bit of light a little bit the next thing I could go to would be a silver reflector a silver reflectors goingto have more of a kick to it but with her having blue eyes all right and already at kind of your problem hey, honey makes here um with her already having kind of a high sensitivity to the bright light as it is if I kicked this silver right underneath her it's just going to be too much this is too much I need a little extra light it's pretty nice light as it is, but I need a little extra right she had brown eyes and silver reflector and I think I'd probably be good, but I think right now I bring silver and I'm frying her eyeballs and she's just going to like this and that's going to suck so high she flash all right let's bring the hot shoe in thank you, mr dan. Now I'm going to go shoot through what I need to do is I need I like this and be of light right now it's pretty good I just need a little extra so I'm going to my flash all right now I'm not going to do straight flash because that's gonna be a hard light source mixing in with softer light I need a soft light chasing in with that ambient together all right so I have found when I'm doing like headshot or uh just simple um simple straightforward portrait's mixing when I need a little fill flash I prefer a shoot through umbrella sixty and shoot their umbrella this is to be an h store brand the impact um it does not take an impact very well all right so let me set this baby up you doing all right yeah you keep your sweater on stay warm till we're taking pictures like absolutely like um if it's a little chilly out here in seattle and you want your client always always always be comfortable so keep your coat on until let me get all my test shots done let me find all my exposure let me get everything set and then if I need a picture without that coat on then at that point we take the coat off but everything is set before them that makes sense you're in the service industry you're in the service and make sure that that your client is king or queen whichever they want to be all right now who can tell me an issue I have I'm going toe turn this flash on pointed at my subject and try to fill the flash in with the ambient I'm a two point eight three twenty eighth of a second what issue of my running into it? The moment sink, speed, sync, speed the fastest shutter speed I can use with this setup I have right here is like one hundred twenty fifth of a second toe one sixtieth of a second, I'm it three twenty, right? So I have to get that shutter speed down now at two point eight at three twenty eighth of a second, I also one hundred I'm at a good exposure if I start opening up my shutter speed and stay at two point eight, I'm kind of hosed because I'm gonna over expose the ambien are you following with me? Because if I just shoot a picture here of samara at two point eight at one twenty fifth of a second and I've been coming here and take a shot perfect, all right, I am starting to oversee exposed her face. I'm getting like blown out blinking highlights on her forehead, so I'm a nice so one hundred and let's say that's bottomed out on my eyes so I can't drop by I s o n e lower to bring the sensitivity of that ambient light down, this is all we're reciprocal start to make sense, okay? I can't bring I s o I'm bottomed out at one hundred I'm in to a that's where I want to be I want to shoot it to a but I'm in three twenty right but I need to bring my shutter speed down about a stop but when I do that eye over exposed for ambien at that aperture my only other option to now go to well I have to but my main option what's in front of me right now is dig shoot at f four if I shoot it have four then I can go to a slower shutter speed as I go to a slower shutter speed I can start to kick on this flash and I know this flash and I now with those alien bees I need to be a one hundred twenty fifth of a second with this flash and a low power setting I can get by with like one hundred sixtieth because it's flash duration is faster than those alien bees inside there right? So I can kick one hundred sixteen of a second that's about the stop I need right now, right? Because I think of it I'm at two fifty I need to goto one twenty five I'm really at three twenty if I need to go to about one hundred sixtieth I'm living right at the edge of the limitations here now I could say well get myself in sb nine hundred here in an espy nine hundred here and do high speed sinking and do all of the other five eighty e x two five eight e x I forget which came round home um and I could do the, you know, tl system high speed saying blah, blah, blah, blah, blah but I'd be sitting on eight hundred something dollars where the flashes that's a lot of money. This flash right here cost one hundred fifteen bucks a hundred bucks like mannequins you an alien being a vagabond and a light stand and I get you a lot of light, I think it's, I would rather spend my money over there. We'll talk about spending money on photography more tomorrow, okay, so I have to shoot this at f four, but I want to shoot it to eight we'll know in my gear and knowing my limitations dictate ok, you've got to shoot it up for well, I don't want to. My only other thing is I could put a one stop neutral density on my lin's one stop of neutral density filter on the lens would cut this light one stop and then I could be shooting I I don't have a neutral density filter, I do have one but it's three stops I don't need a three stop neutral density, I just need one, so there's always a compromise always, always, always, always a compromise. You want to do this, but the all your gear can do is this so you live with it. So I'm going to shoot a f four at one hundred sixteenth of a second. I also one hundred. Perfect right there. I will push all my equipment around when I take that picture, she is just perfectly exposed. I can't take another third of a stop, mohr but I got to kick in just a hair fill in the eyes just just just a little. I don't want this picture to look lit I wanted toe look very natural but I want the eyes to look better than they are now. So in comes the flash now flash happens in a fraction of a second bam and the only way I can control this exposure is with my aperture aperture controls. Flash exposure, shutter speed primarily controls ambien, she's sitting in a lot of ambient light right now, so I'm kind of controlling that was shutter speed and aperture. Remember, ambient available light comes through the same aperture as your flash does, but my flash is going to be primarily exposed by aperture. Now I have flash power settings on my flash. I can be at full power I'm going be a half power I could be a quarter power again we spent three days on power settings and all of that am picture I don't want to just sit here and go over it again and again and again but I have flash power here I can change this in stops I can change my appa churn stops what I need to do is bring my flash power up britain down until it looks just right at four I'm shooting it f or this needs to be f four and when this hits f four I'm good I don't know what that is I don't know what power setting it isthe so you start somewhere quarter power started quarter power f or my as well right it's always a good starting point tomorrow you doing all right back there? You're good all right now I'm not going to take this light off to the side it's going to be right over my head because I need that light chasing in with the ambien the main of the ambient most of it is coming in this direction and the flash has to just chase along with it it's not going to go with some different direction from the ambien for this kind of shop all right, we gotta sandbag um I'll put that on there like so I'm flying an umbrella, which means if I just say wind really loud next to it it's going to fall over right if I don't have a sandbag or if I don't have a dan bag, then I keep a foot on my stand that won't necessarily keep it from falling over, but as I'm over here shooting like this and if this thing starts to blow over, then I at least have a point of contact physical contact to my stand so if it starts going over I feel it and I could reach back around and grab it otherwise you're shooting, you're looking through your view finder you're looking at your subject and they're sitting there looking at your camera then you see him go when you see that on their face looked so your view friend you know crap, there goes my light bam right? You want to at least be able to feel contact with it. All right? Okay, okay just hang out there. I'm still trying to figure it out no idea what I'm doing so you're the pro here, okay? Um I'm f four but one hundred sixty eight of a second I hope my pocket was a draw on and not turn your flashes on in your pocket wizards and make sure they all work that's currently they're not please stand by channel one way go let's get them all on the same channel where it kind of helps and I'm going to take this picture one hundred sixty of second f four and if she looks over exposed at that point when this flash fires then I know I'm getting too much light and so that power needs to come down if there's not enough of the light kicking into the light end of the eyes thing the power has to come up I need more like dimmer switch turned it down turned it up making sense everyone followed with me so far I just need a little bit of time being like all right, excellent looks great I think about being outside is, um that the hair blows it just looks great like you don't really get that inside without turning fans on and all of that okay, uh info that's about right there where I needed to be. Yes, yes. Now, uh can you get back shouted back on my camera? Um you have this big, huge screen here that you could use you got this big screen here when you shoot a vertical shot sometimes it's just it shows up like this I want to turn that stupid thing off toe where uh rotate so auto rotate on lee on for computer that way when I hit play, I have my full screen toe look at the picture and not this little sliver of it if I've got a big screen on the back of my camera I want to maximize that as best as possible all right, so we have with flash and without flash with and without uh class folks come up here real quick I'm gonna show you and the quarter power seems to be right there this is without flash all right now watch her eyes on me actually zoom in to the eyes so that's without flash and then well yeah all right just sneaking in a little flash to clean those eyes up these eyes need to be rebuilt in photo shop because it's just too dark and if I bring my exposure up in mora then then I start losing skin tone and things like that like ambien is just perfect then I need my flash to just sneak in to it so the eyes open up and not adding a whole ton of extra exposure into it in fact I think probably my light can come down one third of a stop where's where's there where's our fifth beatle for six people all right over there. Okay, okay. Oh you're seeing it on the monitor over there can you see that all right? Yeah, all right, excellent. Ok, so I'm bringing my flash down one third of stop I a quarter power was just too much those are the on these hot she flashes were going third increments, so just bring it down a third. Just a little. Just a little bit. A little tiny bit. All right, we're almost ready. Take pictures. All right? I'm just going to one more like test it. Boom ba boom ba boom look at the eyes. Eyes looked great and info no play info info. My red channel is not blowing out my history. Graham looks good. I'm f four at one hundred sixteenth of a second. I'm not losing any part of my frame to sink speed issues. Um, I'm a quarter power minus a third on my flash. I'm an s o one hundred. Um I can go ahead and go white ballots uh, probably take white balance to flash since that's kind of bouncing in through there it's going to be somewhere in between and I'll deal with that in post production f four hundred sixty eight of a second I s o one hundred quarter power minus the third fill flash this without it. So let's shoot a few without the sweater. All right, now that my exposure is set now that all that's all done, I can take some pictures all right and these don't look lit the final picture is just not going to look like you live it did you just needed a little bit of flash how you guys doing? All right, it's all right all right good, excellent right there. Perfect. Just chin up just a little bit excellent a f point to the eye recompose remember that this is a head shot so I might need a little extra excellent right there clean background excellent that's great, right they're wonderful now I like this shot on there good. I shot one with her hand in the shot but typically on head shots you don't want the hand in the shot I don't know what it is but that's kind of a head shot rule like no hands right? Um all right oh, I like that I like the hair in the face just as a shot you know it won't be for your head shot it all now turning your face back to me good my lights not changing so my exposure doesn't change right light isn't changing exposures and changing I shoot fifty sixty pictures however many I shoot twenty pictures sixty pictures here all consistently exposed all the same exposure all the same lighting conditions it's going make my life in post production easy I'm about here shooting aperture priority and my meters reading different things as I change compositions around my life is not so easy in post production right there good, I'll shoot a couple of horizontal is out here it is just for your facebook page, right? Everyone needs some new facebook good, just a little hair out of the I watched the details. Another nice thing is, once you've got bring it here on your face once you're not worried about exposure anymore because I stick my head out from once you're not worried about exposure anymore, you could just be watching details, you can just be interacting, you could just be talking to subject as long as this is working. This is working lights, not changing exposures dialed in how much of this am I worried about now? Not, I'm not even thinking about my life, I'm not even thinking about my exposure, I'm not thinking about my lens, I'm not thinking through that stuff because I thought it all through, locked it all in and started shooting, so make sense, so once you get this locked in and you know, it doesn't change that frees you up to shoot, right, right? So is actually before you turn into a popsicle, all right, right there, excellent chin up, just a hair down a little bit down from there down right there that's awesome, perfect right into the right in the camera, good becoming kind of close here, wonderful, the info thing is in my face, which I don't want to be improved and I hate the info panel here on the back because it's sitting there right my eyeballs I'm shooting good right there accident a little more serious and then bring that smile back wonderful turned right to me right there drop that hand down just a bit right there good hold that a little more of a smile I can sell your toothpaste smile there we go awesome and that's good, good good good yes I can sell your stuff hire me to sell your crap I need a job awesome all right good so I shot the head shots I say ok cool put your sweater back on hang out for a second I want to uh I want to do something a little more dramatic alright dramatic what does that mean? Well usually when it's all light and airy and lots of light it's not very dramatic typically we're talking about when things go darker when there's more shadows uh we think of that is more dramatic right? I'm a drama queen I like the drama I like to bring it uh bring it and make it dramatic so um when I'm thinking dramatic I'm thinking my light needs to be dramatic this is not dramatic lighting so is it bad lighting? No is just not lighting for drama right? So I don't make sure I don't poke my subject with I got lips all right? You didn't see that celeste no um so I want more dramatic lighting, big soft boxes massive umbrellas octo banks usually aren't that um so I'm going to more pinpoint lighting on going to use a grid I think um so the light here is really quite nice it really is it doesn't need a whole lot but I'd rather take this environment and turn it something different right? So if I want dramatic darker lighting here then I have to take this light and make it darker and add light in some where else right? So I need if this isn't dramatic lighting yet I need this to be a dramatic shot then I have to take this ambient light this available light and under expose it and once I get this under exposed then I can bring in a flash and that will be my light source so if I'm in a situation where on the light it is kind of the fork for dramatic purposes then I need to under expose it I'm going to under expose it with aperture and shutter speed right because I want to use stroke let's get the carter set up because it turned on ready to go we got the ellen chrome quadra going on um on awesome little light four hundred watts second light it's tiny it's lightweight and it has mohr power to it than a hot shoe flash all right um can pull this shot off with a hot shoe but I want to be a full power on that thing and it's got to be really close I'd rather have a little more room to play with so if I need to do that I go to a bigger light now it's a more expensive light this set up here is ah I think it's close to fifteen hundred dollars all right um I personally been lusting after this light for some time um and I rent it when I need it because I can read it for I will get it for white like fifty bucks for three days or something like that like fifty to seventy five bucks I can have a fifteen hundred dollar light for two or three days for not a whole lot of money so when I know I have jobs coming up where I need that little extra punch a light I just run it right now all right? And again tomorrow as we talk business and numbers and pricing and photography and and the math of all of this we talk about purchasing equipment or not purchasing equipment and when you do it when you don't do okay, so um I have to under expose this whole city situation right here so I'm gonna look at my ambient light meter reading right now and I'm a one hundred sixty of them second I also one hundred I'm already it may sink speed I'm on my lowest I s o I know I could cheated fifty but I'm going to keep it one hundred um so the next way to make this darker is to start closing down my aperture that's the only other way I can start to make this ambient darker is to bring the aperture down because I can't go to a faster shutter speed why? Because I'm going to this it's not some tl system it's not some nikon creative whatever system it's just it's just a pocket wizard and it's just a flash and I got to stay at my sink speed there's my limit so as I meet her my situation and I bring it toe like f eight it's telling me I'm too stops under exposed whoops re telling me I'm too stops under exposed I see a little bit of ambient light still but it's really dark I want it more I need it maybe three or four stops so let's go toe half eleven and man f eleven is pretty dang dark I see a little bit of detail in there I bet if I goto f sixteen at one hundred sixteenth of a second it should be like full on black there we go so f sixteen right here f sixteen one hundred sixteenth of a second this ambient light is gone now I can bring in a flash but that flash has to be at f sixteen aperture controls flash exposure aperture controls flash exposure aperture controls flash exposure if my am pitcher right here is f sixteen that light right there's got to be f sixteen when that light hits my subject it's got to hit her at f sixteen not f eleven I could go to f twenty two but I'm going to stay at sixteen reason being this lends at f twenty two looks horrible it just all falls apart so f sixteen it is all right now here's what's gonna happen I'm gonna have you standing here I want to kind of shoot this picture here uh not really the lights going to be kind of falling off is that more comfortable if you're not all right cool go I'm going to start I'm going to this I'm going to start with one. I hear you're a little closer to the wall there and you're going to be this very kind of strong kind of stance looking up that way kind of thing and I'm just gonna bring this spotlight on you and when the spotlight gets on you then um you're not going to move a lot you're gonna have to kind of stay in place kind of things so just get comfortable I got to get my light set on you I've got a twenty degree grid on this little q flash here I am at my full power I know I got to be pretty close up to full power won't take it the full power yet I'll take it the half see if I can pull off f sixteen out of half and then I just want to just pop this little light so don't look directly into that I don't know where it is pointing at her yet so I'll just take a shot and see yeah it might be close so f sixteen and I want to bring that power up down up down until I meet f sixteen I could come in with a flash meter click make a decision very quickly you don't own a flash meter you'll have a chance to win one of two this weekend on creative live because taconic has given us to flash meters to give away I'm going wide angle I'm not firing my life I'm turning on my pocket was it I am now to firing my life good may have you actually step a little further away from that I want to get her shadow kind of falling down below her a little more so she's further away from the wall and this goes up a little higher and it goes up at f sixteen it was too dark all right so booth right there good good all right we're almost dialed in here looking right over my head excellent! Yes that's kind of awesome now uh my lights a little too much often this direction so I gotta rotated around watch how much I rotate this life watch this ready? Ready? Here we go. See that? Not much perfect just like that big, strong I am woman hear me roar fan testicle I love the light on your face really handles this like very well uh, guys, when working with female clients don't don't ever be the guy the g w c guy with camera that's like oh that's really sexy oh, that's so hot yeah, because it kind of weird. All right, mama kelly, you're good looking dude, you might get to pull that off. I can all right know your limits, right? Know your limits, everything? What? The gear that you have to work with normal um s o I don't do that, but you have to give a compliment, especially the female clients. They wanted it so I'm not going to go. You look hot. You look gorgeous. You're so frickin awesome or whatever I say I say, oh, I think you're gonna like your eyes in this picture. Your eyes look great or your face really looks fantastic in this light, right? I'm complimenting without being a weirdo, right? It's obama weirdo and she starts feel uncomfortable like, was he trying to pick me up or something like the shoots off so just don't be that guy all right just don't be that guy but have you ever been on photo shoots like that before where the guy yeah you like it or not that confluence of fantastic right? Yes, we set up and you feel it's easier to do more things right take risks exactly without the guy being a weirdo, right? So I'm not trying to get her phone number because if she booked me I already have it. Ah, zach soldier so let's do one without sweater uh let's put it just over here on the apple box. We're pretty close to it perfect just like that awesome I'm strong hear me roar chin down just a bit eyes down a little uh uh uh look right there. Hold that awesome fantastic great. Yeah. So we're getting this kind of like dramatic theatrical spotlight all right, so if I shoot this available light again uh let me turn this down. What was I was an f four at one hundred sixty of them a second looking over my head again. So that's the available light in the lit class going around for a second available light right and lit so I'm killing the ambien but bringing in the flash available later on live available with when you need to sign on let's say six just stop start for you yeah I want to see where is this ambient like going to go dark so I bring my meter in bring it toe minus two and then I go another stop it starts blinking at me and that tells me three stops right um when it's just it's somewhere below two stops under exposed when it's just blinking at you have minus to take a picture you go I want it darker close down some more click there we go now if I had a light meter I could come in here making it a few adjustments look at my meter and go okay three stops under expose is going to have sixteen damn light leaders are great for that uh you don't have a light meter which many don't you have figured out on your own so I use my in camera meter to measure ambient bring it down to stops plus another stop click evaluate and go let me take it a little more then that determines my aperture and that determines my flash power and I'm currently a full power four hundred watt seconds all right that's about like an alien b eight hundred fairly equivalent kind of thing alien the sixteen hundred six hundred forty one seconds this is three hundred twenty one seconds all right, so uh ready can you hold that for me? All right? So just like that uh well that I'm gonna change this up a little bit I'm just going to change the direction of this life and I want to sneak some of it across this wall none and I don't work around it it's fine and then I want to have you standing kind of profile facing this way on dh that's probably she way over your head isn't it right there now she just got a lot closer to my life than she was before I still needed to be f sixteen but now she's closer to it I probably could bring this light down a half stop or so as you change distance from flash to subject because you change distance exposure changes you get them closer to the flash it's brighter on them you get them further away from the flash it's darker on them inverse square law all that stuff so when I start, I have an idea okay? My flashes ex sort of ish distance away from my subject, okay? I won't change it up and do something different. They just got a lot closer to the flash. Okay? They're closer the flash so I still need to be an f sixteen but now they're closer to it so I probably don't need full power as you're moving your lights as you're changing things around, understanding how all this gear works you khun b moving things around in making adjustments before you take your first test shot now I probably have to tweak that power up and down again but at least I got it a little closer to the neighborhood where it should be all right all right, you get how you did fifteen all right, so you're kind of looking off that way just doing a test shot just turning on my my pocket wizard what's that all right? Awesome. I want to see a few more over here tomorrow then we're going pull raven you do tio do you love it? I want to stay exactly like that now I have killed ambien I've got this spotlight on her um I love this shot I want a little more ambien to sneak in so either I can open my amateur up or I could slow down the shutter speed one of the other now my aperture and my flash power or sitting there good right now it's a finding that sixteen so I'm just opened up my my shutter speed a little bit otherwise I gotta walk back over there change that fiddle around with this one hundred sixty two the second aiken just just click that down a bit. I just want a little ambient coming back in love that right there another test shot yes um ah goodman or some sort of loop is fantastic you have outside yes love it just bringing a little ambient back in now let's ah remove the uh the sweater I nearly said don't say that all right, perfect now you're top of your head your bangs were kind of going up uh little too much there's a bump there yeah hurt chin down just a little bit and don't look directly into that light and I want your right foot out in front of your left a little bit perfect I'm not really seeing her feet but as you change your feet around that change is sort of the shape of your body, your whole body and your posture and everything so you just learned like oh move your feet I'm not seeing the feet but I know that's going to kind of change the shape of the back stuff and you just try uh no, I actually move it back there were there were right there came down a little bit and bring your gaze down awesome she's off on a third I shot too fast my flash didn't recycle in time bring your face just slightly like look at the corner of that building over there excellent it's great if you can give direction in uh having your subject look, you know in once spot say if you say that corner that building they know if you just sometimes you can just say look a little more to your left and they fall into it and if they're not falling into it, start finding points of visual points that could look at that smokestack or look at that poll and then you're like yes, stay there, keep looking at whatever you're looking at don't stop that's awesome! I'm going to sneak in a little more ambient I'm going keep sneaking that ambient light and I still have now that's too much so I'm a fiftieth of a second f sixteen good upshot too fast it's kind of a slow like let's bring that elbow back again like it was perfect I like the shape there making my triangle making sure yeah awesome! And then I'm gonna shoot one available light so we could see it available light versus lit so that's f four and if you remember your settings I know that this is a four one sixteen of a second, right? Because already took those settings has my life changed? No, not really. So what? I started shooting twenty minutes go whenever I started babbling on others that light and now it's same life so I can just bounce right backto available life if I did it for one hundred sixty second at four hundred sixty of the second half for one hundred sixty seconds, I don't have to re meter until that light changes so available light feeling step over here in the shade available light all right and lit available and lit and I don't have to do it in photo shop I can just do it with light just build on the bank is popping out just giving a nice you know shape but just making it more dramatic thank you smile ok do you want me to know I love it so this is our available light and then lit yeah high five all right, so head on it we're good all right, so dan let's get that braun color set up with an umbrella all right now um I usually spend, like, an entire day teaching, you know, flash on ambien and all of this and, um I want to kind of hit on these subjects again today. One of my main things I'm trying to drive home is all right no your gear know what he'll do know what it won't do all right um let's say I've got to come out here and I want tio shoot a portrait of rave in you just hang out there in the sun until I'm ready alright stays warm is you can't uh I have shoot a portrait of ravens and I want this blue sky back here as part of that shot it isthe three o'clock in the afternoon in seattle um and it's a bright blue sky unbelievably so right? So that is ambien right ambien shutter speed is going to control my ambient light aperture controls my flash now I've got a like a heck of a bright ambient light source and again sync speed and I'm done know the limits of your gear so to control that and be like what is that blue sky right now I don't know so I'm gonna get my meter all right I need to find out uh that sky is I s o one hundred one hundred sixteenth of a second at what aperture I also shutter speed aperture I mean I saw one hundred I'm at shutter speed of sink one hundred sixty eight of a second and now I need to find apertures so spot meter or center waited whichever ah blew part of the sky and zero out your meter until uh take a picture of it focused on cloud take a picture all right so what it's telling me is that sky is meeting at f eleven at one hundred sixteenth of a second and when I'm looking at this picture the sky looks pretty good I'd actually like to make it a little darker how am I gonna make it darker makeup right from f eleven two anything I but it was my next stop eleven sixteen sixty eight eleven sixteen right thes they're being lazenby welding is right down the hall uh ah I'm channeling safer so if I shoot that sky up there and have sixteen it's a little darker all right, so there's my sky at f sixteen when I take the blue sky and I under exposed to stop is blue so all right I need to take a picture of rave in against this blue sky okay, so that means I have to shoot her and I also one hundred one hundred sixteenth of a second f sixteen again over here like we had have sixteen right? This was at sixteen to cut all of that light now I'm just trying tio just back that light off a bit f sixteen that was a straight flash with grid but pretty much a straight flash that full power when I started it at full power and that was f sixteen right now I'm gonna stand rave in here she has this awesome dress on and I don't want to do grid spot I want to do an umbrella or a soft box any time you start putting diffusion uh modifiers on your light you're now losing light by the tune of a stop or two so if that's it full power straight at f sixteen and I'll lose two stops a light out of the diffuser that now means I'm where f sixteen and I lost two stops the light out of my light what is it sitting at f no, I've lost two stops I'm it's sixteen eleven eight so that light over there in say that sixty inch umbrella is going to lose me two stops of light so when I shoot a picture here of raven against that blue sky and I know it needs to hit her it f sixteen if I go to my cuadra are glazers quadra um I'm going to be two stops off no your gear no your gear no, you're freaking gear because I'm over here setting up a shot and I swing around to this shot take a meter reading and what's going through my brain right now is I want an umbrella that takes two stops that's a f sixteen at full power two stops out of that that's f eight so I'll get full power f eight and that ain't enough and not even going to try to go to my life caught you flash because the quadra is like twice as powerful as the hot flash right? And dan, I'll probably need that over here so I need a whole ton of light I need f sixteen light right here that's where we bring in the brown color all right, bron color I, uh getting to use let's pull it right over here ish range all right, ravens let's come on up all right, so you're doing fine I just keep it on to stay as warm as possible once I get everything set then we'll be good so if I stand rave in here I'm standing her in full sun and actually if I stand her here in full sun this is in full sun that's in full sun all right? So the her exposure here is going to be kind of equal to the sky, right? But this isn't really great light and it sure isn't very comfortable to be standing in like that sixty inch umbrella is going to be more beautiful light than this, right? So if I step her into the shade someone here you're tall so you're like here so all right, so if I step her into the shade then that gets her out of the bright bright suddenly but now she's three stops or mohr darker than the sky that's why this light has to come in because if I expose for her right here available light that sky goes white because it gets over exposed to she's so much darker in the shade and she is in the sun right? And plus I want to under expose that anyways so if I'm under exposing that I'd be under exposing this and should be dark here that be dark and nothing's working out right? So she comes into the shade but the big sky is behind her I control her with flash I control that with my amateur shutter speed combo following along as I've worked through these scenarios each one is building off the last every meter reading I took is coming back off another as I'm working with one light in one scenario I'm thinking about my next light into the next scenario do I have enough power from this light to do it no I don't I need to go to a bigger light for my next show okay so miss rave in you're going to be standing somewhere in this range out of the sun but just like here you step and you just stepped right out of the sun facing these awesome dumpsters yeah right here coming a little more a little more right there okay she is out of uh son and now she is a silhouette if I take a picture of rave in uh you're just hanging out I gotta get my light set so you just you're doing great and I take a picture of her against that sky she is a complete silhouette against it that's f sixteen at one six th of a second right and she's a total silhouette without any flash all silhouette no detail so that means I have the light her I look at the sky and ago skies great I look at her so she has no exposure on her at all she has to be lit the sky looks also made one hundred sixteenth of a second it f sixteen that means the flash hits her at f sixteen this comes in I want to find a more interesting shot this goes so right where you from from here from here a local native like lived here all your life kind of thing well you say that with a sigh like why do you say that with the side like you rather oh yeah right well why'd you get born here come on in here into the shade just a little bit more I gotta get my light on you a little bit more um so if you could say all right I'm moving and I'm moving to where they came and I was somewhere like all sun warm like a complete opposite from seattle yeah they've been to the cayman islands before no but all my family's ok so you got family and not loving it you're not saying it with a lot of enthusiasm it is gorgeous here in the summer yeah yeah yeah that's the little secret of seattle no it's rainy stay away actually gorgeous in the summer ok um I got full power right my full power yes no no we can keep on going let's go ahead and get on up to full power just see what happens ten we won't take this thing to eleven all right now twelve hundred seconds out of this broad color mobile aid to our pack pun alight ka bam three grand three thousand dollars now I could get five six out of my hot shoe flash eight eleven sixteen three stops a light I need each stop a light there's about a thousand dollars to stop right helicopters okay, great. You're doing great keep the keep that on just kind of look sort of about this way perfect right there. Hold that turned my pocket is about that booth is this up all the way it is I could take it to fifty I also fifty, right? Um it is uh but I still need that much light because here's what's happening that's f sixteen and I I could bring it down to f eleven but I still need that like three stops of light punch I need to bring the sky and the light and equalized them. I still need that because what happens is once the once this light and the sky is equalized she is properly exposed. This guy's probably exposed then I have room to start moving, but as I change eso down, I changed since david to the sky and the flash equally. So if there's a canyon of contrast issues from bright sky to a silhouetted subject and you're changing I s o you're going like this neutral density on your lin's goes like this what you need is to bring light up to here then you can I also or neutral density upper down as you need until you get sink speed then you can't go beyond all right this has got to get closer because I need a little more light now I am breaking portrait rules I'm shooting up at a female client females have a many of you like want to be photographed from under here you like that no no and enough people understand that they go hey, wait a minute why are you down there taking a picture of me so I usually kind of you know explains say ok I want to shoot the shot it would be up against scots is kind of cool dramatic shot don't where I know it's like breaking the rules but you're gonna look great trust me no double chins why is there not going to be a double chin shadow right? I'm going to bring a shadow I don't have a tally late who amount I'm on you um I'm going to bring a shadow under here if this isn't lit then you don't see this if I bring my light down too low then this umbrella is going to fill this all up with light if I'm down here with on camera flash and shooting up at her guess what the light comes up here so here's her chin the light has to be higher than it following me right? Okay so I want the blue sky, I brought it closer to her because I needed a little more light on her closer it gets the brighter it gets and that's perfect right there even hold that I had to clean spot that looks great chin is in shadow let's do some without the best awesome and let's see let's just just put your hands together kind of come forward a little bit just need to sneak her out of the sun and bring her hands up now just kind of like you're slow kind of great right there and I'll bring your face this way eyes to the light isil like isil like now, I'm not going to have her look at me as soon as she looks down at me, this all thickens up, so I'm just going to keep her looking in that direction. You don't have to look directly into the light source don't blind yourself now. I liked her hands, she she brought her hands up and just naturally fell into something, but she's hold held them there too long. I've been jabbering too much and now they're frozen and it gets kind of pious see weird looking, so just kind of like your lathered so slowly just keep your hands, fingers moving and drop your hands down a little bit a little more and just moving your fingers around like just think of it like ok, I'm blathering soap on my hands or lotion or something like that that way it looks natural head tilt over just a bit and chin down a little right there awesome hold that good I wish she won without flash and then I'm going to shoot one available light all right and you know the available light has sometimes available I has this quality to it is like that kind of looks nice so I have that shot it's available light you take the sky bloat the white it's all gone it's just pure white and the light on her is nice you go oh that looks got a nice I want to keep it but then I want the sky I got that shot too I have both right so available light then I bring in the sky but she's dark and then I like her alright available light skies gone I bring sky back she's gone bring them back together that canyon of contrast I'm talking about way got to go back to the flash now have a nice soft box or a nice umbrella on this this time of day with that bright of a sky if you want that kind of a shot you got to get a big light and like chase was saying earlier it's not just for show you don't show up because you just think you're driving up in a mercedes to impress people because I need that much like it would take me eight it can in five eighties in that umbrella to get that much like how much would a cannon five eighties cost me? Three thousand two hundred eighty dollars, and I get that for twenty, nine hundred so that's actually cheaper than eight cannon, five babies, right? But I'd need eight cannon five, eight or so. When you look at that, you think that's eight hot shoe flashes or ten hot shoe flashes and ten brand new hot shoe flashes from canada from nikon she's, five hundred dollars apiece. You know we're talking five thousand dollars. If you got ten of them that's insane for three grand, you got that, and you have that much light. That would be someone asked me yesterday. How do you do two point eight with a hot shoe flash or shallow depth of field? We're going to get to that.