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On-Camera Flash

Lesson 4 from: Working with Speedlights in the Studio

Mark Wallace

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Lesson Info

4. On-Camera Flash

In this demonstration, Mark uses an on-camera flash to create a simple portrait. Mark explains the settings used and why this is perfect for some situations. We learn the difference between horizontal and vertical orientation and how it affects shadows.

Lesson Info

On-Camera Flash

now it's time to create a simple portrait with our flash on our camera. Now, what you'll see in this demo is that you can get some great portraits with the flash on the camera but to do most effective light sculpting light shaping and create the best portraits possible or food photography or whatever it is that you're shooting. We really want to get that flash off her camera but let's first shoot with the flash on the camera so you can understand what I mean. So Teresa, we're gonna have you go back on this white wall. I have my camera set up as we just did before. I'll refresh your memory. We're at 1 2/100 of a second. I. S a 100. I'm shooting at about F nine and my flash is set to just normal auto mode. There's no flash exposure compensation turned on. So this flash is an auto, the camera is in manual mode and so what we're gonna do here I have, I'm tethered here to lightroom so you can sort of see all my settings and stuff. So I'm gonna take just a nice portrait so I want you to come...

out about two steps, maybe even a couple more steps. There we go. So you're not quite at the background there. And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna zoom in and notice I'm shooting horizontally. So I'm shooting horizontal shot and this is an important concept. Okay perfect. Just like that is excellent. So I'm gonna take this shot here and we'll show you this in lightroom Now one of the things I want you to see. First off, right off the bat, you can see that were underexposed were underexposed because of that white background back there. Um The camera expects that to be great. So to fix this, we need to use a flash exposure compensation. We'll do that. Also notice the light under Theresa's chin. We have these really hard shadows but they're on access with the camera. I want you to pay really close attention to the shadows around her body. You can't really see any shadows around her body. And that's because the flash and the lens are lined up so they're next to each other like this. So all of this coming a little bit closer, they're like this they're on axis. And so the light isn't gonna show there's gonna be no shadow because everything is lined up. If that moves back and forth like this, you'll start to see shadows, so I'll explain that in a second. So the first thing we want to do is on a change the flash exposure compensation. So I'll go over here to the close up zones so you can see me do this. So we are going to make sure that this flash exposure compensation. I'll hit that, take this up by about a stop. I think that will work just right, okay, so now I'm gonna go back over here, we're gonna shoot that again. Same photo as before. Beautiful Theresa, I love that. Okay, now when we look in lightroom using flash exposure compensation, you can see that this background is now white. But again look at this shadow around her body so you can see no shadows here because the flash is on axis notice that her forehead is a little bit shiny. That is because the flash is going straight at her and so the light is bouncing straight back. That's not something we really like. And also you can see this hard light underneath her chin. So that's the flash on the camera. Watch what happens when I simply rotate the camera? So let me come in a little closer here to this camera. So when I have the camera like this, the flash um and the lens are in alignment and that's why we don't see any shadows, but as soon as I rotate this vertically, what's happening is now the light is to decide it's no longer on axis with the vertical axis here. So we're gonna start to see shadows. So watch what happens when I take the same portrait that we did before. So I'm looking right here. Great Teresa awesome now. Okay, now watch what this does here in lightroom, you can see that. That is really crazy light and not only is this crazy light but you can see this huge shadow right here, that's just because I rotated that camera and so with the flash on the camera, what's happening is we're getting two different lighting effects because our flashes moving when we really don't want it to. It's one of the reasons why we want to get the flash off the camera so that the shadows and stuff aren't moving around when we're moving the camera. Now this by the way, if I would go in here to the develop module, one of the things that's really cool about this type of lighting is really, really hard light. I can go in there, make this a black and white, I can maybe open up the shadows a little bit, make these whites right white. And now I have this really cool black and white shots that I think is pretty groovy. So there is uh there is some joy with using this shot. One of the things I don't like about this shadow is that it makes Theresa look wider because it's a perfect outline of her body. So it's almost like we've just took a marker and made her entire body whiter, which is usually not something that models like to see. And so uh this isn't something that we would normally do but watch this. I like this this black and white look. So what I want you to do is I want you to give me sort of like this and then what I'm gonna do is I'm going to keep that flash to the side and I'm gonna zoom in just a little bit. Let's have you take about a half step back a little bit more than that. There we go. And by putting her closer to the background they think we can control that shadow just a little bit. And so now we still have the shadow still a really hard shadow. But by putting her closer we're able to do some different things. So again I can go to black and white, you can make that sort of dark, you can make that a full screen vertical shot. That's something that could with a little bit more post production. I think this photo here looks really, really cool. We can get a little bit brighter right into the shot right here, you can see that we have this really cool catch light on her eye. The shadow works and so on camera flash is something that I prefer not to use. But in a pinch you can get some pretty cool stuff with using an on camera flash. But this class is all about getting the camera or the flash off the camera, sculpting the light and creating beautiful portraits in the studio. So what we want to do next is learn, how do we get that that flash off our camera? How do we control the flash? That's off camera? What are the options, What gear do we need? And so we're gonna head in there and learn all about that next

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Tether Tools Pro Kit Discount
Tether Tools Starter Kit Discount
Frio Grasp Mini Discount
NanLite_WALLACE5.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Erika Matkovich
 

This course has been amazing! I have learned more through this class than any other YouTube video. Thank you for being so thorough. You are giving me confidence to add OFC to my work.

Student Work

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