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
Overpowering the Sun with OCF
Let's do this and we don't have the son obviously this room and because it's photo week we're not doing stuff outside so let's do this I don't want to just demonstrate a simple light setup that we use to overpower the sun to overpower the sun with a like you could actually do with like one single flash a lot of times I do this I'm gonna show you what I'm doing um I'll get one of these guys so this is the west con triple threat this is the cheetah speed bracket they're both they have three prongs on right? The difference is this is a hot shoe bracket. This is a cold she bracket meaning this isn't going to fire off anything it's just to mount your flashes this is actually gonna fire off your flashes if you want to hook up a pocket wizard so you can actually hook up a pocket with her right in here and rather than using three pop quiz it for three flashes, you can fire all of them with just one. So it actually gives you that control. So if you do use pop quiz or something, then you have th...
at but we're going to do is just put this up top from a little stand we're gonna mount our flags I'm kind of like breaking the rules right now and not really tying it down e okay, so because these have internal radios this is what I love about not having like a pock wizards and cables and stuff like that anymore is that I get to fire all these just from my control and fire them all from just my own camera flash I can't even use the just the radio commander for it so we have a three flash set up and this is a simple way to overpower the sun and the reason why you can do you can overpower the sun with a direct clash with one direct flash you can do it. The benefit of this is I can run all the flashes of the lower power setting. Okay, so I ran them all at one half or one quarter power so my recycle time's up I get more light and so forth it's not going to do too much in terms of like improving like quality people like because it does it like open up the light source yes and no like it's slightly bigger. The problem with this is that if you get this to close your subject you're going past three different shadows okay in different directions so generally when we do this setup it's going further away but for the shot we have to meet rose just on you can also stack them we sometimes you're stacking next each other firing from again look you see how we're going into the girl's side firing into her side leaving his face in the shadow there going to be at around half to full power we're shooting this f fourteen is a one hundred and five point four kelvin okay this is just this is shot like kind of up high for so we get skye we get ground there's a shot down low and we're just putting the sun like right between them so we can get that nice little flare coming in this is the same bounced technique that we were using earlier the room of the white the white over silver it's that the only difference here is I put it this little jail another bilko jail he put a gel in it I bounced off the left side right in your face and what this jail does that changes the color temperature of the flash so if naturally if the light that's going on your subject is very warm very orange what would you do with your white balance you drop it down right you drop it down to compensate when you do that with the sky at dusk your sky becomes this rich blue and that's what that look creates so just add a gel you pull it down so that her skin tones look great and then the rest of the background is goes blue really simple that was just that bounce technique I forgot to tell you that okay, the next thing I want to mention I'm gonna click through these slides quick is, uh you don't always need to use flash and this is another one of the kind of common misconceptions that we get so here's that bounce shop, by the way, with this balance we do something called feathering a lot where I have my assistant so let's say that this is the camera, right? And one of these flashes pointing towards me, my assistant rather doing this does this and the reason why is because I want the light to catch and feather up so that it's not hitting the ground as much doing this puts a giant shadow on the ground. It doesn't look that great. The only thing is, just be careful not to up let your subjects you need to make sure that this is same height is your subject a little bit higher, but then feather it towards the sky so that way it pushes the right amount and you don't get a lot of the ground. Okay, this is the one I want to show you guys we have this tendency is the diaries too use whatever gear we take with us. We're like, oh, if I took five flashes, I need to use all five of my flashes on every single shoot like if I took it I got to use it so we end up giving up really good shots and making them worse a lot of times so I'm gonna give you that example right here a great shot with this unnatural light with a beautiful silhouette. If we add flash that we don't do in a good way, it just does not look right and it doesn't look good and we do this a ton because we're like, well, if I took it, I'm gonna feel bad if I don't do that don't feel bad take your gear use what gets you the best look for the shot so my people know me as I'm a little bit year intensive and I'll have unlike carry things out like a big bag and I'm like we don't need that but they'll carry it like that the whole place and they carry back and they look like they want to kill me half the time okay, close ups on those shots you see him okay, the only difference here this is the exact same everything okay? I want to show you guys one thing we have a triple threat bracket and the lights are pretty far from the subject you can start to see, though, right here to see the replication, the shadow that's not unacceptable to me like I would still deliver that, but as you bring it closer, it's going to spread out for their part so just remember that one thing that we dio for ah, we do a lot of bottom up shots where we have our couples can actually show you guys can I get my couple in? Let me show just how this is done real quick we call it the lean so we'll shoot up so we get these dramatic skies a time will get down low on the ground so I'm gonna do is I'm actually actually shoot the shot I'm just gonna have us stand right here and just close up against each other so look towards each other they're going hold hands in the center, okay? And then what I want you to do is actually stand up straight, but then lean from the hip into the camera, okay? So when I'm shooting bottom up, like, down here, that lean actually corrects my perspective, okay? So we haven't lean to the camera, and then we shoot like that if I'm shooting top down on somebody like we'll get up high will shoot down where do you think they lean the other way? So they would actually lean to that side so those two little things will actually correct all that, like weird perspective distortion whenever you're going bottom up or going top down on a shot perfect job guys done for the day. I'm just getting stick around, you have a seat for a second, all right? So same exact everything. We'd have them lean again, the questions of, like what? Air your settings? Well, do you want to show a lot of the background and depth? We're gonna go widen the amateur, use an nd filter and make it all blurry in the background? Or do you want to show the detailed background if the details beautiful like this, if the scene looks great, you know, in those previous shots like this scene looks great. Well, guess what? Closing down my aperture not only makes it so I can seymour the scene, it also makes us I don't have to use an andy filter, right, so it kind of kills two birds, one stone. So if I have a nice scene, I'm just gonna automatically default to that, because it saves me time.
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