The next feature of the flash his flashes are crazy, right? It's like why so many features the next feature of the flash is first curtain sink or second curtain sink oh, yeah that's okay, first corn sake on second currency gets a it's a good topic a good topic for sure if the topic that I use heavily at all my jobs for ninety five percent off my exposures I'm gonna use first curtain sink let me explain the differences first currents sink when the shutter opens it's going to basically fire right away and then the exposure's made and any closer the shutter rights that's great! So if you want people if you just want to do regular exposures you just flash you the exposure opens the flash fires the exposure closest there's your exposure perfect. But if you want to bring in the ambience off the location so if you want to make it look like you never used to flash at all, you probably should use second currents sink because what that does the exposure opens takes the picture on and on when the...

picture's done and the exposure's done right before he closest the flash will fire at the very, very end so let's say you're shooting if you're shooting at fast shutter speeds anything faster than, say, eighty eights of a second, okay if you're shooting at eightieth of a second it says it's a pretty fast exposure first curtain thing is gonna be probably your go to is just gonna be anything to be like really fast fires and then he closes the exposure right if you're shooting at sixty eighth of a second or forty eighth of a second is because you're trying to bring in the the ambient light into the into the exposure if you want to do that you're going to blur your gonna do camera shake is going to blur the people in front of you but if the flash fires at the very last second and he freezes them you get to keep the ambience on your subjects are frozen are still it's not confusing to anyone that totally clear so in the first one if you're shooting are slow shutters possess a one fortieth because you want to bring in the ambience of the location and then you fire and then you fire the flash at the exact under the shutter opens then it's gonna take forty eights of a second before the before the shutter close is that's a lot of time especially if your hand holding it you could very easily shake the camera you could sneeze you could do whatever okay I always had a sneezing problem in slow shutter speeds it's like slow shutter speeds but you okay? I don't know what that was moving on so if that if you're in the slow shutter let me just show you a slow shutter here here's twenty of us back and just listen to that sound microphone is like right if he fires the flash fires right away and then if you move the camera in that forty five a second you're just gonna have blurry everything but if you want to shoot for example again receptions or moody moody porters at a bar or hotel lobby I just put it in second currents sink then I used my slow my slow shutter is going to bring in the ambient light into my sensor and I'm not gonna worry about the subjects being blurry even though I'm a very slow shutter because the flash is going to fire at the very last second before the explosion closest on is going to freeze them is that cool? So just say like awesome it is awesome because it's extremely useful yeah, okay, um let me see here, let me see here I'm going to do oh let's do a first curtain think someone good I'm gonna do a first curtain sync and she's going to blur at twentieth of a second all right, can you walk a little bit slowly welcome left and right, okay, this yep start coming this way look at the cameras mile suhel you just kidding, okay, good blurry I'm a twentieth of a second or my shutter speed if you're wondering if you can tell she's blurry on that side of her face okay it's not gonna work now we're going to go to second curtain sink and we're gonna put the flash to fire at the very last second before the shutter closest that little life will go plenty will free sir and then even though we're a twentieth of a second she will be totally frozen okay so walk again slowly groups tried again ready go good man well maybe in too slow but it should be more in focus oh sorry do it again okay well stupid thing your flash needs to be pointed at the person that you're shooting that really does help like I was pointing at the roof it's not it's not freezing anything but the roof the roof is already frozen all right ready to go here we go okay good now I'm going to make the flash I'm going to make the flash more powerful the more powerful the flash that more freezing capabilities he will have okay so try it again okay look at it now I put more flash power on the frozen better frozen completely right now let's do something really stupid let's go to like a tenth of a second so that's super super super slow but now we're going to increase the flash power on dh we're going to zoom the flash head to make it more punchy okay okay I'm just assuming the flasher to seventy ready go try one more time that's really funny okay ready go okay take a look at this I'm a tenth of a second so the side that's farther away from the flash blurred but the side that got hit by the flash first froze so this is pretty much in focus that's totally out of focus isn't it funny how her face has only four inches of distance on because that lot the faraway side it's farther from the light it freezes that side of the face but not the side of the face totally weird and I'm pushing the limits I'm a tenth of a second okay so cool um this is important receptions if people are dancing you want to keep the ambience I lower my shutter speed to like forty fifth of a second and then the ambient light comes in and then everyone is frozen in the dance or they're all like and it's like super ambience if you're shooting you don't want to shoot receptions where you flash and you flatten the whole scene all that money people spend on flowers and light and the corps just goes out the window that way so you can go a slow shutter speed as long as you're not like three seconds you know just something reasonable like forty sixtieth you should be able to freeze everyone and keep the ambiance going a lot to take in on a segment on speed lights. But throughout the day today, I'm going to be applying everything we're talking about. All these things will start to make more sense throughout today. I just have to kind of explain them, and then we'll put him in. We'll apply them.

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10 Elements to Look For at a Location

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Roberto Valenzuela

Roberto Valenzuela is a photographer, author, and educator based in Beverly Hills, CA. As a member of the prestigious Canon Explorers of Light group, Roberto is considered to be one of the most influential photographers in the world.

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topics covered in this class

Lighting Portrait Photography

Ratings and Reviews

MizUniverse

Im sitting in my office listening to Roberto with my earplugs on and I know I have already left 2 reviews but he's so funny…. my family comes into the office asking me "whats so funny" Roberto makes me laugh out loud with his jokes but at the same time, he is SO great at teaching. Im watching for second time to make sure all his good info is ingrained. HIGHLY recommend you take his workshop on Picture Perfect Lighting if you truly want to take your photography to the next level! WOW thats 3 reviews now…can you tell I am impressed

Maureen T.

I'm taking a portrait photography course at NYIP online. one of the mentors there recommended the posing book by Roberto. I ended up ordering at the library the posing and the perfect practice book. I fell in love with both books...ended up buying them and signing up here for the year membership just so I can take all of his photos courses. I spent most of my weekend doing perfect lighting course here I am in love with the way that he teaches! He makes something so difficult and challenging for me make sense. I also like that he challenges us photographers to be true professionals. I am thrilled to have discovered Roberto and already noticed my photography is better in the short time that I've been studying him.

EDUARDO LLERANDI

I can say enough about this class, the best class ever I've seen about lighting. Roberto Valenzuela, as a professional photographer and artist is the best also as a teacher. If you are beginner, enthusiastic, o professional photographer and want to craft and master lighting for ever and ever, please buy this class. Thanks Creative Live for the opportunity of been part of this. Roberto you are the best. "Eres el Mejor Amigo, Gracias"

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Speedlites: First Curtain vs. Second Curtain Sync

Speedlites: First Curtain vs. Second Curtain Sync

Lesson Info

21. Speedlites: First Curtain vs. Second Curtain Sync

Lessons

Intro and Who This Class is For

3 Groups for All Lighting Scenarios

My Progress in Lighting

Analyzing Circumstantial Lighting

Circumstantial Lighting Q & A

Using a Reflector the Right Way

5 Behaviors of Light: Overview and Angle

5 Behaviors of Light: Inverse Square Law of Light

5 Behaviors of Light: Relative Size

5 Behaviors of Light: Relative Size Continued

5 Behaviors of Light: Color

5 Behaviors of Light: Reflective Surfaces

5 Behaviors of Light: Q & A

Location SWOT Analysis and 10 Things to Look For

Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

Overview Q & A

Speedlites: The Basics and TTL

Speedlites: Manual Flash

Speedlites: Zoom Flash

Speedlites: Zoom and Rotating Flash Head and Reflectors