IntroductionIntroduction| 00:04 | Hi! I'm Derrick Story, Professional
Photographer and Senior Contributor for
| | 00:08 | Macworld magazine.
| | 00:10 | Welcome to the off-
camera flash photo assignment.
| | 00:13 | If you've ever looked at a beautiful
indoor portrait, and wished that you could
| | 00:16 | make that kind of photograph,
this tutorial is for you.
| | 00:20 | The key to success is moving the
flash off your camera, then modifying its
| | 00:25 | output to create lighting that's
more flattering for your subject.
| | 00:29 | Many enthusiasts never try this,
because they're concerned that this type of
| | 00:33 | photography requires thousands of
dollars of additional lighting equipment.
| | 00:37 | Yes, you can spend that much,
| | 00:39 | but I'm going to show you how to get
started with just a couple of speed light
| | 00:42 | flashes, stands, and simple
modifiers for your strobes.
| | 00:47 | Along the way, you'll discover
lighting fundamentals that will immediately
| | 00:50 | improve your photography.
| | 00:52 | I'll show you setups as simple as a
single light on a stand, then teach you how
| | 00:56 | to further control your environment by
balancing the output of multiple flashes.
| | 01:02 | Soon you'll be assembling your own
photographer's kit that you can take on
| | 01:05 | location, or use at home.
| | 01:07 | We'll focus on Canon and Nikon flash
systems that simplify exposure, allowing you
| | 01:13 | to concentrate on the
artistic aspects of your work.
| | 01:16 | But the fact of the matter is the
principles covered here can be applied to any
| | 01:21 | brand of flash system.
| | 01:22 | Once you try these techniques for
yourself, you can share your favorite shots on
| | 01:27 | our Flickr public group, moderated by me.
| | 01:30 | So, let's have fun, keep it simple,
and start making better photographs
| | 01:34 | right now.
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| What is off-camera lighting and how can it improve your photography?| 00:00 | So, off-camera flash, what is it?
| | 00:03 | Well, it's literally that.
| | 00:04 | We're going to take the flash off
the camera and do some very interesting
| | 00:08 | things with it.
| | 00:09 | Now the problem is, when the flash is
on the camera, there is only so much you
| | 00:13 | can do to modify the light.
| | 00:15 | You can put a few attachments over it -
| | 00:17 | I'm going to show you that - but
basically, that's the end of the road.
| | 00:21 | However, once we take the flash off
the camera, then we can start using
| | 00:26 | some things like this:
| | 00:27 | umbrellas, light boxes, all sorts of good stuff.
| | 00:31 | Now, the camera and the flash, they
can talk to each other wirelessly, which
| | 00:35 | is really slick.
| | 00:36 | That allows us to move these things around.
| | 00:39 | But you can also use a dedicated
flash cord and work like this, and so some
| | 00:43 | pretty good stuff, especially when
you're working in an event on location.
| | 00:47 | So, the real trick is, once you take
the flash off the camera, what are you
| | 00:52 | going to do with it? And that's
what we're going to talk about next.
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1. Gearing UpDedicated wireless flashes vs. slave flashes (automatic vs. manual exposure)| 00:00 | When you remove the camera from the
flash, you have a couple of different ways
| | 00:04 | they can communicate with one another:
| | 00:06 | Slave and Dedicated.
| | 00:09 | I'm going to start with Slave,
because it's the more basic of the two.
| | 00:12 | The way the Slave works is basically
you have a trigger that's attached to the
| | 00:16 | flash, and in this case,
this is a light trigger.
| | 00:19 | So if another flash goes off, this
sees it, makes this flash go off.
| | 00:24 | Pretty simple!
| | 00:25 | You can have as many of these as you want.
| | 00:27 | The other type of trigger is a radio trigger -
| | 00:30 | Same thing except it uses radio
waves, so we have greater distance.
| | 00:34 | In both cases, it's only triggering the flash.
| | 00:37 | There is no exposure information related at all.
| | 00:41 | Now, Dedicated is a little different animal.
| | 00:43 | In Dedicated, you have both exposure
and flash trigger at the same time.
| | 00:49 | Now, if we look at the camera here,
we can see a little bit about how
| | 00:53 | this works.
| | 00:54 | Right here, you have the
main trigger, right here.
| | 00:56 | This is what Slaves use and Dedicated.
| | 00:59 | This is what fires the flash
when there is a contact right here.
| | 01:03 | But you notice we have
these other contacts also.
| | 01:05 | This is where the
exposure information is conveyed.
| | 01:09 | Now, when your camera is on the
flash, they're talking to each other.
| | 01:13 | But you can also have this
communication go on with a cord, as long as they
| | 01:18 | match up, in this case Canon to
Canon. You can have a transmitter, again
| | 01:26 | though, you notice
they're matching up right here.
| | 01:28 | So then this is the wireless situation.
| | 01:32 | In some cameras, such as this
Nikon, the controller can actually be
| | 01:35 | built into the camera itself.
| | 01:38 | The main thing to remember is that when
you're using a Dedicated system, a lot
| | 01:42 | is being done by the camera and the flash.
| | 01:46 | This allows you to stay behind
the camera, think about composition.
| | 01:49 | It's the way that I like to work.
| | 01:51 | Let the exposure be handled by these
guys, and let me think about getting
| | 01:56 | a great shot.
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| Working with light stands, brackets, and clamps | 00:00 | I love working with the
electronics and the hi-tech toys, believe me,
| | 00:04 | but sometimes, it gets down to
just good old-fashioned hardware.
| | 00:07 | And that's what we're going to talk
about here, because unless you have a legion
| | 00:11 | of helpers to hold flashes and
modifiers and so forth, you're going to need
| | 00:16 | some stands and some clamps to work off-camera.
| | 00:19 | So, let me show you some of
the stuff that I carry with me.
| | 00:22 | So, we're going to start
with the light stand itself.
| | 00:25 | Now, I like something that's light,
that's easy to carry, and that folds down,
| | 00:29 | so it doesn't take up a lot of
room in the trunk of the car.
| | 00:32 | However, you also need a stand that
extends up above your subject's head.
| | 00:37 | So, l like a stand that
goes up seven feet or so.
| | 00:40 | That's really handy!
| | 00:44 | These will last forever.
| | 00:45 | You'll probably need two of them,
| | 00:47 | so you can have some lighting options,
but once you buy them, you'll always
| | 00:51 | have them.
| | 00:52 | Now, once you have your stands,
you're going to need a way to connect the
| | 00:55 | flash to the stands.
| | 00:58 | That's where these clamps come in handy.
| | 00:59 | Now, I like a clamp that has the hinge
here in the middle, and the reason being
| | 01:04 | is that you want to be able to adjust
the angle of the light, like this, while
| | 01:09 | you're working, so you can get
it exactly the way that you want.
| | 01:13 | So, if you just had a single post
bracket, you're not going to be able to make
| | 01:16 | those adjustments, and it will drive you crazy.
| | 01:19 | Now, most of the good brackets will
have a little hole right here, and this
| | 01:23 | is for your modifier.
| | 01:24 | You can see the way that it works
right here, where we have the umbrella going
| | 01:28 | through the modifier hole right here,
and you can just adjust it accordingly.
| | 01:33 | Very nice!
| | 01:34 | Then the last, of course, we have the
actual where you attach the flash itself.
| | 01:40 | Now, I have a bunch of fun little posts
and so forth, and basically what you do
| | 01:44 | is you just put the post right here and
you clamp it down, and then you can put
| | 01:49 | a little hotshoe foot on here.
| | 01:51 | It's not really a hotshoe.
| | 01:52 | It's just a little foot to hold your flash.
| | 01:55 | Now, what a lot of people don't know is
that when you have a wireless flash, you
| | 01:59 | have a little foot that comes with it.
| | 02:01 | It's a nice little stand, so you can
set your flash up on a table or something.
| | 02:04 | But these things also have, right
inside here, a little tripod socket.
| | 02:09 | See that right there?
| | 02:10 | So, in a pinch, you can actually use
these little feet for your flash mounting
| | 02:16 | hardware, right here.
| | 02:18 | This is what I'm using right here.
| | 02:19 | So, you have the stand itself, the
bracket, the light modifier, and then
| | 02:24 | the flash attached.
| | 02:26 | That's your basic system, and again,
you probably want to have two sets of each
| | 02:31 | of these pieces right here.
| | 02:33 | Now, over the years, I've picked up a
couple little tricks along the way, things that I
| | 02:38 | carry that I consider invaluable.
| | 02:40 | The first thing are these orange handle clamps.
| | 02:44 | These things are wonderful.
| | 02:45 | They are great!
| | 02:46 | You can buy them at the hardware store.
| | 02:48 | You can buy them at the photo specialty
store if you want to pay twice as much.
| | 02:52 | Go to the hardware store
and save yourself some money.
| | 02:55 | Now, I use them for all sorts of things.
| | 02:57 | You can hang things off
your light stands with them.
| | 03:00 | You can use them to bunch up the background.
| | 03:03 | You can even use them to pull the
model's shirt tight if it's a little loose.
| | 03:08 | They're very handy.
| | 03:09 | I like to have about half a dozen of
them on hand. Just pick them up at the
| | 03:14 | hardware store, clamp them
together, throw them in your bag.
| | 03:18 | Another little goody that comes in
handy, this is this little clamp here.
| | 03:21 | It's a little C-clamp.
| | 03:23 | It has a ball head on it.
| | 03:25 | Now, when you can't carry a light stand
with you, or there isn't room to set one
| | 03:30 | up, these things can be a
rather clever problem solver.
| | 03:34 | Basically, you just clamp
them onto a table or a chair,
| | 03:37 | that little ball
head with the tripod socket.
| | 03:40 | So, you could attach your foot right
on that and attach your flash. Or if you
| | 03:45 | want, if you want to start playing
with your Erector Set pieces here, you can
| | 03:50 | put an adapter into your clamp here,
screw it on like this, and then you can
| | 03:56 | even have a modifier.
| | 03:57 | Once you do that, then you can
put this just about anywhere.
| | 04:01 | They're very light.
| | 04:02 | They're very easy to carry around.
| | 04:03 | It's nice to have one or
two of these in your kit.
| | 04:07 | Finally, we talked about saving money
on clamps at the hardware store, but one
| | 04:11 | area you don't want to go to the
hardware store for is gaffer's tape.
| | 04:15 | This is a photo specialty item.
| | 04:17 | This is not duct tape.
| | 04:19 | This is gaffer's tape.
| | 04:20 | It's much different.
| | 04:21 | It's a cloth tape that's
very easy to tear, right?
| | 04:25 | Try doing that with duct tape.
| | 04:27 | The nice thing about it is
that it doesn't leave a residue.
| | 04:30 | So, you can take just about anything.
| | 04:32 | You can put it on there really tight,
pull it off, and you'll have no residue
| | 04:36 | at all.
| | 04:37 | You can actually use the same tape
during the whole course of the day.
| | 04:41 | It's a little expensive compared to
duct tape, but I've had this roll for a
| | 04:45 | couple years, and it lasts a long time.
| | 04:48 | So, these are the essential hardware
pieces that I use to hold my very expensive
| | 04:54 | electronic pieces when I'm doing off-
camera flash in the studio or in the field.
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| Understanding light modifier types and their use | 00:00 | One of the benefits to moving the flash
off the camera is that it's a lot easier
| | 00:04 | to modify the light.
| | 00:06 | So why would we want to
do that in the first place?
| | 00:09 | Well, let's get into that.
| | 00:11 | So when you are shooting with your
flash, you have this small area right here,
| | 00:14 | a small light source.
| | 00:16 | So the rule in photography is the
smaller the light source, and the farther away
| | 00:20 | it is, the harsher the light.
| | 00:22 | Now there may be some instances when
you want that, but when you are shooting
| | 00:25 | portraits, that's probably not the case.
| | 00:27 | What you want is a larger light source
that's more flattering, and that's what
| | 00:31 | these modifiers allow us to do.
| | 00:33 | By simply mounting the flash here on the
stand, rotating it around, and bouncing
| | 00:39 | it off this large umbrella, now
we have a nice big light source.
| | 00:43 | Because it's off-camera, we can move
it closer to our subject. That makes it
| | 00:47 | even more flattering.
| | 00:49 | Now these umbrellas come in
a couple of different sizes.
| | 00:51 | We have a large size here, and then
we have a smaller size for when you are
| | 00:55 | shooting in more, kind of, tighter quarters.
| | 00:58 | So you can go either way, and they have
all sorts of fancy ones, but I'll tell
| | 01:02 | you, the basic umbrella gets the job done.
| | 01:05 | They've been around forever, and
there's a good reason, because they are very
| | 01:08 | efficient, very useful.
| | 01:10 | You do lose a little bit of light
because you are reflecting it off the surface,
| | 01:14 | but because we are using automatic
flash system here, our Dedicated system, the
| | 01:20 | camera will take care of that for you.
| | 01:22 | So no worries there, but just be aware;
| | 01:24 | you are losing a little light
when you bounce it off that surface.
| | 01:27 | Now, when you are not shooting people
and you are shooting products, you may
| | 01:31 | want to use the light box, and
these light boxes are also quite handy.
| | 01:36 | We have one right here;
| | 01:38 | there is a white surface here.
| | 01:40 | The flash goes on the inside, and
then you have a reflective surface.
| | 01:44 | This is a small one.
| | 01:45 | They also come in larger sizes,
and in fact, they can get quite big.
| | 01:49 | So depending on what you are shooting,
you can choose the appropriate light box.
| | 01:53 | They are fairly affordable, and
they modify the light very well.
| | 01:56 | So this is another option when you
want a little bit more efficiency, and you
| | 02:00 | want a little bit more directional light.
| | 02:03 | Again, I tend to use these for
products, and tend to use the umbrellas more
| | 02:06 | for people.
| | 02:08 | So that's that situation.
| | 02:10 | Now there are times when maybe you
can't set up your umbrella or the light box
| | 02:16 | doesn't work, but you still need
to modify the light a little bit.
| | 02:19 | So here's one of my little tips from the field.
| | 02:23 | What I've done is I've taken a photo
disk here, and these are great reflectors
| | 02:27 | for when you are shooting natural light
stuff, and you need to direct the light,
| | 02:31 | I've actually used the gaffers tape.
| | 02:33 | You remember that.
| | 02:34 | Well, this is one of the 1,001 uses,
and I've actually just taped it right on here.
| | 02:39 | I can set this flash on a table or
something or if I do have my light stand,
| | 02:43 | I can put it there.
| | 02:46 | Now, I've managed to modify this light;
| | 02:48 | it's a bigger surface area.
| | 02:50 | But yeah, I can do it very quickly,
and I don't have to set up umbrellas
| | 02:54 | or mount a light box.
| | 02:56 | Then let's say you can't even do that.
| | 02:58 | You don't even have time to do that.
| | 03:00 | You are at a wedding reception,
and you have to shoot on the go.
| | 03:04 | Actually, I have a tip
that will help you with that.
| | 03:08 | This is an on-camera tip.
| | 03:10 | What I have here is a Gary Fong.
| | 03:12 | It's a light modifier just like this.
| | 03:15 | It's actually a dome that
goes over the flash head.
| | 03:18 | This is the original one, has
all sorts of different ones now.
| | 03:22 | But they all work essentially the same;
| | 03:24 | the light goes up here, bounces
off this dome, and radiates out.
| | 03:28 | Now it's very, very handy for
when you have to shoot on the go.
| | 03:31 | You can shoot like this.
| | 03:33 | Then if your flash head rotates, as
this one does, you can also shoot in
| | 03:38 | portrait mode, like this.
| | 03:39 | Then when you are done,
just rotate it back like this.
| | 03:43 | So you can use this when
you have to shoot on the go.
| | 03:46 | So we have you covered, no
matter what the circumstance is.
| | 03:49 | When you have time, I really recommend
setting up the stands and going for that
| | 03:55 | beautiful, big, flattering light.
| | 03:57 | But life isn't always perfect,
| | 04:00 | so sometimes you have to do things
like use the light disk or the Gary Fong.
| | 04:04 | The bottom line is is that when you
modify this small light source here and make
| | 04:10 | it bigger and find a way to
get it closer to your subject,
| | 04:13 | it's going to be more flattering,
and it's definitely worth the effort.
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| Using a dedicated flash cord| 00:01 | A convenient way to get the flash
off the camera is to use a dedicated
| | 00:05 | flash cord.
| | 00:06 | I am going to show you a
couple of ways to use it.
| | 00:09 | Now, you'll notice right away that
there is a difference when this flash is up
| | 00:13 | off the camera, just compared
to what we have right here.
| | 00:16 | Now the first way that I think is the
best way to use a dedicated flash cord
| | 00:22 | is on a bracket.
| | 00:24 | This may look like a fancy grip,
but it's actually a very important
| | 00:27 | photographic tool.
| | 00:29 | This distance right here is not a whole
lot, but it makes a huge difference when
| | 00:33 | you're taking pictures.
| | 00:35 | First of all, when the flash is up
off the camera this much, it eliminates
| | 00:39 | red-eye, which when you're shooting in
a darken environment, is very important;
| | 00:43 | you'll have no red-eye whatsoever
when the flash is up off the camera.
| | 00:48 | The second thing that it does
is that it lowers the shadows.
| | 00:52 | So you have the shadows of your
subject. When they are against the wall,
| | 00:56 | you won't have that kind of that outline;
| | 00:58 | it will move them down, and
it will be out of the frame.
| | 01:00 | So it's doing two very important things:
eliminating red-eye and getting rid
| | 01:05 | of the shadows.
| | 01:06 | Now this camera right now has
the bracket with a flash on top;
| | 01:11 | the two are talking to
each other using the cord.
| | 01:13 | I am going to show you how to use it.
| | 01:15 | I am going to hold the camera right here.
| | 01:17 | So when I am shooting in a
horizontal mode, like this,
| | 01:21 | I have the flash at a distance.
| | 01:24 | Here is the nice thing about this;
| | 01:25 | this is a flip frame,
| | 01:27 | so when I want to shoot portrait mode, I
just rotate it like this and shoot, and
| | 01:34 | I have that same distance.
| | 01:36 | I can bring it right back,
and we are ready to go.
| | 01:41 | Now the reason why I like using the
frame here is because I have a very
| | 01:45 | good grip on the camera;
| | 01:46 | I can steady the shot when I am shooting.
| | 01:49 | You don't have to have it though.
| | 01:50 | You can, if you want, just work with the
dedicated flash cord itself, and you can
| | 01:56 | hold the flash in one hand, the camera
in the other and then direct the flash
| | 02:01 | wherever you want, on the
subject like this, like this.
| | 02:04 | So you can shoot like this, right here.
| | 02:07 | Now, if you have a wall right here, a
white wall, you can bounce that light off
| | 02:11 | the wall, and you're diffusing it even
more, and as we know from our earlier
| | 02:15 | discussions, big diffusion is flattering light.
| | 02:19 | So there's a couple of different
ways to use this dedicated cord.
| | 02:22 | I still recommend having it on our
bracket because I think it leads to better
| | 02:26 | camera technique, but you
can hold it in your hand;
| | 02:29 | either way you are getting the
benefits of having the flash off the camera.
| | 02:34 | You are eliminating red-eye.
| | 02:35 | You're lowering those shadows,
and you are producing better shots.
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2. Basic Setups for Wireless FlashUsing one flash on one light stand for a simple portrait| 00:00 | Well, we're going to get started now
with what I really like to do, which
| | 00:03 | is take pictures.
| | 00:05 | Now, as you look around here, you're
going to see, there's not a whole lot
| | 00:08 | on this set.
| | 00:09 | This is our basic one-light setup.
| | 00:12 | We have a flash stand, the
flash itself, and an umbrella.
| | 00:17 | We have Katrina, who's going to be
helping us out today, and then we have me
| | 00:21 | and the camera.
| | 00:22 | And that's pretty much it.
| | 00:24 | We're going to do all of our
work with just a single light.
| | 00:28 | You can take this anywhere.
| | 00:29 | This is a very portable setup.
| | 00:31 | So, this is great for events,
weddings, and things like that.
| | 00:35 | Now, let me show you how this works.
| | 00:37 | I have my Canon camera here, and I
have a speed light transmitter on top.
| | 00:42 | This transmitter actually
talks to the flash itself.
| | 00:46 | Through this little window, it
communicates to the flash through its window.
| | 00:50 | Now, not only does it trigger
the flash, but it communicates
| | 00:54 | exposure information also.
| | 00:57 | Now, if I were shooting with my Nikon,
and let me show you how that works, I'm
| | 01:00 | going to -- hold that, thank you very much
-- I'm just going to pop the flash here.
| | 01:07 | This is a Nikon D300S.
| | 01:10 | What's neat about this, it has Commander mode.
| | 01:13 | What that means is I can disable the
flash part itself, but the camera can
| | 01:19 | communicate with a Nikon flash.
| | 01:21 | So, whether we're using the Canon or
the Nikon, we have to make sure that we're
| | 01:25 | using the appropriate flash. But they
both work pretty much the same way, except
| | 01:30 | the transmitter is actually built
into this Nikon D300S, pretty slick.
| | 01:35 | For now though, we're going to shoot
with the Canon, so I'm just going to
| | 01:37 | hang this back up.
| | 01:39 | Thank you Katrina, and take this.
| | 01:43 | The other thing I want to show you is
that you notice there is not a whole lot
| | 01:46 | of distance here between the flash
stand and Katrina, and that's because I like
| | 01:51 | having the light nice and close.
| | 01:53 | Remember, the closer the light and the
bigger the light, the softer the light,
| | 01:57 | and usually, the more flattering the portrait.
| | 02:00 | So I think we're all set up here.
| | 02:02 | Derrick: You're ready to take some shots?
Katrina: Sure!
| | 02:03 | Derrick: Let's do that.
| | 02:07 | Derrick: All right! Are you ready to go here?
Katrina: I'm ready.
| | 02:11 | Derrick: Good! So we're going to start out
and have you just look right into the camera.
| | 02:14 | Katrina: Okay.
| | 02:15 | Derrick: Now, what I'm going to do is I'm
going to have this set in Program mode.
| | 02:18 | It's the simplest way to go.
| | 02:20 | So we have automatic flash in Program
mode, and you're going to see what kind
| | 02:23 | of shots we get.
| | 02:24 | They are usually pretty
good, right out of the gate.
| | 02:26 | So, I'm going to have you look right
into the camera there, and let's just
| | 02:30 | take a shot.
| | 02:37 | Very good! All right!
Now, let me take a look at this.
| | 02:40 | As I suspected, because we have
the light nice and close to her, it's
| | 02:44 | very flattering.
| | 02:46 | I like just about everything about this shot.
| | 02:48 | I would say the only thing that I
would change is that that background is
| | 02:52 | a little dull.
| | 02:53 | We have a white background, but
here it's kind of a dull white.
| | 02:58 | Now, the way I can brighten that up,
there's actually two ways; one way is to
| | 03:02 | put another light on it.
| | 03:04 | But this is a one flash tutorial
here, so we're not going to do that.
| | 03:09 | Another trick though is I'm actually
going to move this out of Program mode.
| | 03:14 | I'm going to put it in Manual mode.
| | 03:16 | That allows me to slow down the shutter speed.
| | 03:18 | We're shooting at 1/60th of a second right now.
| | 03:22 | I'm going to slow it down to 1/30th of a second.
Leave the aperture where it is.
| | 03:26 | The shutter speed pretty much controls
the ambient light. The aperture pretty
| | 03:31 | much controls the flash.
| | 03:34 | So, the way you can brighten up a
background is to slow down that shutter speed
| | 03:38 | a little bit, let a little bit more
light in, and we'll see how it looks.
| | 03:42 | So, let's take a few more shots.
| | 03:44 | Now we're at a 30th of a second
instead of a 60th, so we've slowed it
| | 03:48 | down basically one stop.
| | 03:55 | Excellent!
| | 03:57 | Aah! See, just that one change, just going
from 1/60th of a second to 1/30th of a
| | 04:04 | second brightened up that background.
| | 04:06 | It's nice and white now.
| | 04:07 | It looks bright.
She looks fabulous!
| | 04:10 | I think we have a really good shot here.
| | 04:13 | Actually, I want to show it to you.
| | 04:15 | It's not a bad idea to share the
photographs with the model as you're
| | 04:18 | going through.
| | 04:19 | Derrick: It gives her some confidence that you know what you're doing.
Katrina: Great! Yeah.
| | 04:23 | It's not bad for just one light.
Katrina: Right.
| | 04:25 | So, very simple setup.
| | 04:27 | One light, one stand, a
flash, professional results.
| | 04:31 | It's great!
| | 04:32 | Now, you can start in Program mode.
| | 04:34 | Chances are you'll like what you see.
| | 04:36 | If you need to adjust a little bit,
maybe brighten up the background, just
| | 04:40 | move it to Manual mode.
| | 04:42 | Slow down that shutter, maybe go to a
30th of a second, and you're good to go.
| | 04:47 | This is a great setup, give it
a try and see what you think.
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| Using two flashes on one light stand for a fashion portrait (over/under lighting)| 00:00 | I'm going to show you a lighting setup
now that I think you're really going to
| | 00:03 | like, or at least I know you're
going to like the results it produces.
| | 00:08 | Now, it's called Over/Under Lighting.
| | 00:10 | As you look at this contraption
here, you can see this is a rather
| | 00:14 | unusual setup.
| | 00:15 | What I have are two flashes, a top
flash and a bottom flash, two umbrellas, but
| | 00:21 | only one light stand. That's it.
| | 00:23 | So again, it's very simple.
| | 00:24 | It's a little bit more complicated
than our most basic setup, but still
| | 00:29 | quite simple.
| | 00:30 | So, what I'm going to do right now is
show you how this works, and take some
| | 00:34 | shots of lovely Katrina.
| | 00:35 | Ready to do some shots?
Okay, great!
| | 00:39 | So, before I get into the actual
shooting, let me tell you a little bit more
| | 00:43 | about what's going on here.
| | 00:45 | We have the two umbrellas, as I mentioned before.
| | 00:47 | This one, this is our basic
lighting setup where we're reflecting off
| | 00:50 | the umbrella.
| | 00:51 | But this one down here, I'm actually
shooting through the umbrella, and that's
| | 00:55 | the nice thing about translucent umbrellas;
| | 00:57 | you can either reflect off or shoot through.
| | 01:00 | It gives us a lot of options.
| | 01:02 | Now, the important thing is that
we're creating this wall of light, very
| | 01:07 | strong frontal light which is very
flattering for the model, and because it's
| | 01:10 | coming from two different directions,
we get some interesting effects - all of
| | 01:14 | them good.
| | 01:16 | So, what I'm going to do now is I'm
going to start out in Program mode.
| | 01:19 | We're going to take some
shots and see how we do.
| | 01:20 | All right! You ready to go here?
| | 01:23 | All right, so here we go.
| | 01:24 | I'll just line this up
and take a shot right there.
| | 01:33 | Very nice! Okay.
| | 01:36 | So, as I suspected, these
look absolutely terrific.
| | 01:40 | Now, the only change that I would
really make is that I'd like to brighten her
| | 01:45 | up a little bit more, kind
of go for that fashion look.
| | 01:48 | So, that's going to be an exposure
compensation setting, and let's do that right now.
| | 01:54 | So, there is regular exposure
compensation, and there's flash
| | 01:58 | exposure compensation.
| | 01:59 | We're going to do flash
exposure compensation here.
| | 02:02 | Just go to the menu, go to my flash
control, and then I'm going to go to flash
| | 02:07 | exposure compensation,
and I'm going to go to +1;
| | 02:11 | +1, that will brighten up the scene a little bit.
| | 02:14 | Now, the other thing that I'm going to
do is I'm going to go to Manual mode, and
| | 02:18 | I'm going to drop that shutter speed
down to a 15th of a second and make that
| | 02:22 | background a lot brighter, too.
| | 02:24 | So, we've done two things: flash
exposure compensation +1, and a 15th of a
| | 02:30 | second for the background, and we're
going to go -- we're actually pulling
| | 02:33 | out all the stops here.
| | 02:34 | We're going to go for this high-
key look that I just absolutely love.
| | 02:43 | Excellent! Oh man, yes!
| | 02:46 | That's absolutely beautiful!
| | 02:49 | So, that's the key here.
| | 02:50 | Even though we have a very simple setup:
two flashes, two umbrellas, one stand,
| | 02:57 | and you notice when we're looking down
here, by the way, that we have kind of this
| | 03:01 | odd arrangement of things.
| | 03:03 | So, this is where I just use anything
that I can find, any sort of grip, and
| | 03:07 | then I sort of hold it
all together with my gaffer's tape.
| | 03:10 | So, you just do whatever it
takes to get this rig set up.
| | 03:14 | So, it's an ugly rig, but
it produces beautiful shots.
| | 03:18 | You've definitely got to try it.
| | 03:19 | This is going to be, I promise you,
in your photographer's bag of tricks.
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| Using two flashes on two light stands for a ratio lighting portrait| 00:00 | I'm going to talk about a
couple things right now.
| | 00:03 | We have two light stands now instead
of one, and we're also going to talk
| | 00:07 | about ratio lighting;
| | 00:09 | in other words, how do these
two stands relate to one another?
| | 00:13 | So, why do we have two stands?
| | 00:15 | Well, one of the reasons why I like
two stands is it's a very flexible setup.
| | 00:19 | In other words, I can have a light
stand here, a light stand here, as you
| | 00:23 | see behind me.
| | 00:24 | I can have one person, I can have
three people, I can have five people, and I
| | 00:29 | don't have to change my lightning at all.
| | 00:31 | So, this is a very flexible thing.
| | 00:34 | This is really good for like at a
wedding reception, anniversary, stuff like
| | 00:38 | that, where maybe you're going to be shooting
families and couples, all that good stuff.
| | 00:43 | So, how does it work?
| | 00:44 | Well, let me get into it a little
bit right now, and we'll drill down.
| | 00:48 | How are you doing Katrina? Yeah?
| | 00:54 | So, before I take some shots of Katrina,
I'm going to talk about what's going on
| | 00:59 | with these two lights.
| | 01:01 | So, you notice that I have them
pretty much at equal distance from her.
| | 01:05 | That way I can put her in the middle, or
if a couple of your friends came by, or
| | 01:09 | your husband came by, we could just put
them right in there, and you don't have
| | 01:13 | to move the light stands around.
| | 01:15 | Now, what if I want to adjust
the lighting in this setup here?
| | 01:20 | Do I have to walk over and grab one
stand and move it back, and move this one
| | 01:25 | forward, and do all that juggling around?
| | 01:27 | Then when another group came,
then juggle it around again?
| | 01:30 | That would drive me crazy.
| | 01:32 | Because of ratio lighting,
I don't have to do that.
| | 01:35 | Actually, on the back of my camera
here, on the back of the transmitter, I
| | 01:40 | have an A and a B, and the flashes work
out where that one's assigned a group
| | 01:46 | A. This one is a group B, and then I
can set this - the ratios or the strengths
| | 01:52 | of these two flashes.
| | 01:54 | So, in other words, I could go
extreme and have an 8:1 ratio, 8 being
| | 02:01 | the brightest flash.
| | 02:02 | So, this flash would be bright.
| | 02:03 | This will become the main light.
| | 02:06 | This one will become the fill light.
| | 02:09 | Then I could turn right around, make
an adjustment on here and go 1 to 8, and
| | 02:15 | have this one be the 8, and this
one be the 1, and change it around.
| | 02:19 | Or I could have anything in
between, let's say on a group shot.
| | 02:23 | I'd go 1:1, have a nice, even lighting.
| | 02:26 | So, that's what we're going to do right now.
| | 02:27 | I'll start out.
| | 02:28 | We'll do a 1:1, just get
nice, even lighting on you.
| | 02:31 | Let me just turn it on here.
| | 02:35 | By the way, you can also do
this with the Nikon camera.
| | 02:39 | With the Nikon camera, you
would go into Commander mode.
| | 02:43 | You would drill down into the menus,
and you could set the lighting ratios on
| | 02:47 | the back of the camera, instead of with
the transmitter, because on the Nikon,
| | 02:51 | you don't need the transmitter.
| | 02:52 | So, let's do a 1:1 right now,
so this is a very even lighting;
| | 02:57 | in other words, both flashes
are going to output the same.
| | 02:59 | There we go!
| | 03:00 | Let's do another one right there.
| | 03:04 | Now I'm in Program mode.
I'm keeping this simple.
| | 03:08 | We're letting the ratios be
the difference in the shots.
| | 03:11 | So, we've got a shot very nice, even lighting.
| | 03:15 | This would be great for a group
shot, be nice for a couple shots.
| | 03:19 | But let's say I want to do
something a little bit more artistic.
| | 03:23 | I want this light to be a little bit brighter.
| | 03:26 | So, I'm going to go over here,
and I'm going to set an 8:1.
| | 03:30 | So now, this is going to be the bright light,
and this is going to be the fill light.
| | 03:35 | So, we're going to get a little bit
of modeling, a little bit of shadow on the side.
| | 03:39 | Are you ready to go with this? All right!
| | 03:48 | Let's take a look at what we have here.
| | 03:50 | Now, this is great!
| | 03:51 | So, what's nice here is now I
have a brighter side, a main light.
| | 03:57 | I have a little bit of fill.
| | 03:58 | It creates some modeling on the face.
| | 04:00 | It's very artistic!
| | 04:02 | I didn't have to do anything but
change a few buttons on the back of
| | 04:06 | this controller here.
| | 04:07 | I didn't have to move
light stands around at all.
| | 04:09 | That's why I like this wireless setup.
| | 04:12 | Not only is it light, is it portable,
but it's very powerful, and I can do all
| | 04:17 | sorts of things by just
controlling the back of my camera.
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| Using two flashes on light stands to eliminate reflections | 00:00 | So, so far, dealing with off-
camera flash, we've mainly been shooting
| | 00:04 | people, and that's great.
| | 00:06 | But I have a bonus tip for you
that I think you are going to like.
| | 00:09 | We are going to shoot
glass and not get reflection.
| | 00:12 | Okay, now before I show you how to do
that, let me show you the way that we've
| | 00:16 | have done it before that's probably
made you as crazy as it has me, and that is
| | 00:21 | where you put the flash right here on
our camera, and you take a picture, and
| | 00:25 | you get reflection.
| | 00:26 | So let's do it.
| | 00:34 | Oh boy! Yeah, so there we go.
| | 00:37 | Just as I suspected. They have kind of
dully-lit frame, and then we have a nice
| | 00:42 | flash, a rectangle that's right
in the glass - not very pretty.
| | 00:46 | So I have a solution for you on how to
get around that and really be able to
| | 00:52 | shoot this kind of artwork.
| | 00:55 | So what we are going to do instead is we
are going to use our off-camera flashes
| | 01:00 | that we have been using all along.
| | 01:02 | I have two stands here with two flashes.
| | 01:05 | We are not using any modifiers at all.
| | 01:07 | Now here is the trick.
| | 01:09 | You need to have them at 45 degree
angles to the artwork, equal distance, at
| | 01:15 | the same power.
| | 01:16 | Now what I am going to do is I am
going to take off my little flash here
| | 01:20 | that drove us crazy.
| | 01:21 | We are going to put on our transmitter
so that our flash can talk, our camera
| | 01:27 | can talk to the flashes, and
you are going to take shots.
| | 01:30 | So let me show you how this works.
| | 01:33 | Come back over here.
| | 01:34 | I am going to align this up.
| | 01:37 | Now this time, our two off-
camera flashes are going to fire.
| | 01:41 | There we go, and you are going to take one more.
| | 01:49 | Excellent!
| | 01:50 | So what I have done now is that I have
actually neutralized one flash with the
| | 01:55 | other, and the way that I have done
that is having them at precise angles.
| | 01:59 | You can use this for any
type of artwork that has glass.
| | 02:02 | It's a lot easier than trying to set it
outside or do all these different things
| | 02:06 | because believe me, you will always
get some sort of reflection in the glass.
| | 02:10 | By doing this, by using our two off-
camera flashes, they cancel each other out;
| | 02:15 | you get a beautiful shot every time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting menus on a Canon camera and flash| 00:01 | So even though the specifics are going
to vary from brand to brand, and even
| | 00:06 | camera to camera, I want to show you
what I have been looking at as I have been
| | 00:10 | working with this Canon camera and
this flash during our photo shoots.
| | 00:15 | So, the first thing that I am going
to do is start with the flash itself.
| | 00:18 | So we want to turn it on.
| | 00:21 | Once we turn it on, we want to make
sure that it's in Slave mode, right
| | 00:25 | down here.
| | 00:30 | And then finally, what I want to do is
I want to check to make sure that the
| | 00:34 | Group and the Channel are set to A and to 1.
| | 00:39 | These are the default settings, but
you always want to note them just in case
| | 00:43 | you accidentally push
a button and change them.
| | 00:47 | The other thing I want to point out
is that the flash automatically goes
| | 00:50 | to E-TTL mode.
| | 00:52 | That's the Dedicated flash communication.
| | 00:55 | You don't have to worry about it;
| | 00:57 | as long as that light's on,
you are in great shape.
| | 01:00 | Now I am going to go to the speed light
transmitter that's on top of the Canon
| | 01:04 | camera, and I am going to go and turn it on.
| | 01:10 | Make sure that when you turn it on,
you only go to the middle button here.
| | 01:14 | Don't go over to Hold because that
will prevent you from making other setting
| | 01:18 | changes if you need to.
| | 01:20 | Then I check the Channel, right
here, to make sure that it's on 1.
| | 01:23 | Ratio should be off, but E-TTL should be on.
| | 01:29 | If it isn't on, all you have to do is
press the shutter button on your camera
| | 01:33 | part way to activate your camera, and
now that indicates that the camera and the
| | 01:38 | transmitter are communicating with one another.
| | 01:41 | Now we have the camera and the flash
together, and you can see that we are on
| | 01:46 | Channel 1 right here, Group A with our flash.
| | 01:49 | Up here, we are on Channel 1
with our transmitter. E-TTL is on.
| | 01:54 | We are ready to take pictures.
| | 01:56 | Keep in mind that these settings will
look a little different depending on
| | 02:00 | the brand, even depending on the
camera model, but this gives you the basic
| | 02:04 | terminology and the things to
look for when you are setting up your
| | 02:07 | off-camera communication.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting menus on a Nikon camera and flash| 00:00 | Well, let's take a look at
the Nikon camera and flash.
| | 00:03 | Now I haven't been shooting as much
with these two, but I have said all along
| | 00:07 | that you can do the same things with
the Nikon that you can with the Canon.
| | 00:10 | So let's take a look at the settings,
so you know what to look for if you
| | 00:14 | working with Nikon gear.
| | 00:16 | So let's start with the flash.
| | 00:18 | The first thing that we have to do is
that when we turn it on, we have to go
| | 00:21 | past the ON button and go over to Remote.
| | 00:24 | Now in order to do that, I actually
have to hold this button while I am
| | 00:27 | turning the switch.
| | 00:28 | I am going to try that right now.
| | 00:34 | That activates the flash,
and it puts it in Remote mode.
| | 00:38 | So the next thing I am going to go
look for is the Group and the Channel.
| | 00:42 | By default, they should be set to A and
1, and you are just confirming that by
| | 00:46 | looking at it right here.
| | 00:47 | Everything looks good.
| | 00:49 | So we are ready to turn our
attention to the camera now.
| | 00:53 | So let's turn our attention to the menu
on the Nikon, and I am going to start by
| | 00:56 | pressing the menu button.
| | 00:58 | And we are going to go to the Custom
Setting menu, and that's the pencil.
| | 01:03 | You see it in the left-hand column there.
| | 01:05 | And then navigate down to
the Bracketing/flash menu.
| | 01:08 | Once you are there, go
ahead and press the OK button.
| | 01:12 | And that brings us to
Flash cntrl for built-in flash.
| | 01:16 | So I am just going to go right down there.
| | 01:17 | I am going to hit the OK button again,
and now we want to be in Commander mode.
| | 01:22 | So I am going to hit the
OK button one more time.
| | 01:28 | Now you notice, by default, the
Built-in flash is in TTL mode.
| | 01:32 | We actually don't want it to fire.
| | 01:34 | So I am going to change it so it's disabled.
| | 01:36 | So I am going to do that by just
clicking, so that we get the two dashes there.
| | 01:42 | Once I do that, I can hit the side
button to move down. Group A is in TTL.
| | 01:50 | That's what we want.
| | 01:50 | That's the Group that we are using for
our flash, or flashes, and then the other
| | 01:55 | thing we want to confirm is
that the Channel is set to 1.
| | 01:59 | These are default settings,
but you want to confirm them.
| | 02:02 | Once you do that, you have to hit the OK
button again to lock these settings in.
| | 02:07 | So all I am going to do now is I am just
going to navigate back to confirm our settings.
| | 02:13 | So I am going to go ahead and hit OK
here, and then I am going to go down
| | 02:18 | to Commander mode.
| | 02:24 | As we see, our Built-in flash is off,
and Group A is in TTL mode, and we are in
| | 02:32 | Channel 1, and that matches
up with what we have up here.
| | 02:37 | So everything looks terrific here.
| | 02:38 | It all matches up between the flash and camera.
| | 02:42 | I am ready to shoot.
| | 02:43 | Keep in mind that this can vary
slightly from model to model, from flash to
| | 02:48 | flash, but for our settings
right here, we are ready to go.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Reviewing and Sharing Your ResultsComparing portrait lighting schemes| 00:00 | Well, we spent a lot of time in the
studio taking many photographs using these
| | 00:04 | different lighting schemes.
| | 00:06 | So let's take a look at the work we did
and see our how our changes that we made
| | 00:10 | with our lights and with our camera
settings affected our photographs.
| | 00:13 | So I am going to start here with the
single light, and this is the easiest of
| | 00:18 | all the lighting schemes.
| | 00:19 | You have one light on one stand, using
an umbrella, and you keep the light more
| | 00:24 | or less frontal, a little bit to an
angle, but not too far because since you
| | 00:29 | only have one light,
| | 00:30 | you don't want to cast our
shadows on the other side.
| | 00:33 | As you can see, the results are quite pleasant.
| | 00:36 | This is a very nice rendering,
| | 00:38 | very straightforward. And if you do
nothing else, in terms of moving the flash
| | 00:43 | off your camera, but to put it on a
stand, use a modifier and get that close tothe model,
| | 00:48 | you are going to improve
your photos many times over.
| | 00:52 | Now, the one thing that I wanted to
show you was that sometimes you may want to
| | 00:57 | brighten up that background a little bit.
| | 00:59 | In this case, we were shooting with a
white background that got just slightly
| | 01:04 | gray from the ambient light.
| | 01:07 | The way that you do that, of course,
as I talked about in the course, is that
| | 01:12 | you just go out of Program mode, go
into Manual mode, and then you can slow the
| | 01:17 | shutter speed down, in this case, from a
60th of a second to a 30th of a second.
| | 01:23 | And just by doing that,
you brighten things up a bit.
| | 01:27 | Now if you feel like that your model
is getting brighter as you do this,
| | 01:31 | then you can change that, too, by
changing your aperture, in this case, we are
| | 01:36 | about 4.5.
| | 01:38 | So if I just stopped it down a little
bit, 5.6, maybe as far as 8, but I doubt
| | 01:44 | it, then the model would go back to the
skin tones that we had before, but the
| | 01:51 | background would still stay brighter.
| | 01:54 | That's really neat that you can make
all these changes only using one light and
| | 02:00 | just a few subtle adjustments on your camera.
| | 02:03 | So this is a single light in the Manual mode.
| | 02:06 | I've brightened things up a
bit by taking it off program.
| | 02:10 | Now let's take a look at two lights.
| | 02:13 | This is our first two-light setup,
and this is the Over/Under, and we are
| | 02:17 | in Program mode.
| | 02:19 | I just think this is a wonderful
lighting scheme. And if you want to
| | 02:24 | differentiate your portraits from work
that a lot of other people are doing, I
| | 02:28 | would definitely consider
this in your bag of tricks.
| | 02:32 | In Program mode, on Over/Under, you get
more natural skin tones, but yet they
| | 02:38 | have just a little different look.
| | 02:40 | It just has a different feel.
| | 02:43 | Now, you can also use the same
lighting scheme to get something that's more
| | 02:48 | high key, more fashion-like, and that's by
making the two adjustments that we did.
| | 02:56 | One is that I increased the flash output
by going to flash exposure compensation
| | 03:02 | and going to +1, and then I took it off
Program mode, went to Manual mode, and
| | 03:09 | slowed the shutter speed
down to a 15th of a second.
| | 03:13 | So we made two changes here.
| | 03:15 | The lights are exactly in the
same position that they were before.
| | 03:19 | So you can see these two camera
changes make a very big impact on the
| | 03:24 | photo itself.
| | 03:26 | Now one thing to keep in mind.
When you start going to those slower shutter
| | 03:29 | speeds, you have to either have the
camera on a tripod or hold it very steady
| | 03:35 | because you can get camera shake,
and it can soften your photo a bit.
| | 03:38 | It won't be quite as sharp.
| | 03:41 | So keep that in mind if you start
playing with those slower shutter speeds, and
| | 03:45 | make sure that your model stays still, too.
| | 03:49 | So this is Over/Under in Manual mode,
and then we went to two flashes, and you
| | 03:54 | started out with the basic
two-flash setup on two stands.
| | 03:59 | So we had two flashes before on
one stand and one above the other.
| | 04:03 | Now, we have put one flash on each
stand, and you have made the stands 45
| | 04:08 | degrees, basically, from the subject, and
in this case, just one-to-one lighting
| | 04:13 | which means each flash was
outputting about the same amount of light.
| | 04:17 | So you get a bit of a flat rendering.
| | 04:20 | It's very pleasant, but there is
nothing very dramatic about it, and that's
| | 04:24 | because you have equal amounts of
light coming from two different directions.
| | 04:30 | So here we go.
| | 04:31 | So again, I think this is a
very flexible lighting setup.
| | 04:35 | You could have one person here.
| | 04:36 | You could have two persons here.
| | 04:38 | You can have five people standing there
and not have to move your lights around.
| | 04:43 | I think that's one of the advantages of this.
| | 04:46 | However, if you wanted to get a little
bit more creative with the lighting, then
| | 04:50 | you could do something like change the
ratios, and in this case, we have gone
| | 04:55 | from 1:1 lighting to 8:1 lighting.
| | 04:58 | And the 8 means, of course,
that the 8 is the brighter side.
| | 05:03 | So this one was set to 8:1, and
now we start to see a little bit more
| | 05:08 | modeling in the face.
| | 05:09 | It's a little bit more artistic.
| | 05:12 | As the model moves her head around, you
will get different effects because you
| | 05:16 | have two different light outputs.
| | 05:18 | Now, a trick is if you want to check
your lighting, go to the eyes and look at this.
| | 05:25 | You can see both of the lights in the eyes.
| | 05:28 | The brighter side, which
in this case is over here,
| | 05:31 | it has a bigger catch light in the eye,
and then the less light output is a much
| | 05:37 | smaller dot, a much smaller catch light.
| | 05:39 | So you can check your lighting
schemes by just looking in the eyes of
| | 05:43 | your subject.
| | 05:44 | So once again, the eyes do tell all, don't they?
| | 05:49 | And then of course, you can
change it around the other way.
| | 05:51 | Now, this side is the 8.
| | 05:53 | This side is the 1, and you can play
with your lighting effects that way and
| | 05:58 | then have the model move her head
around, and you can see how these two
| | 06:03 | different light outputs play out on her face.
| | 06:07 | And again, it's more interesting, in
the sense that you have lights and darks
| | 06:12 | in the same shot.
| | 06:14 | Now I will tell you right now that
it's not that one of these schemes is
| | 06:18 | better than another;
| | 06:19 | these are all useful schemes, and you
should really think about mastering them
| | 06:25 | all, and then that way you
can pick the one that you want.
| | 06:29 | Now I am going to exit out of this
mode for just a second because I want to
| | 06:32 | show you some metadata.
| | 06:35 | So here we are.
| | 06:37 | On the single light, you can see that
we are at 1/60th of the second at f4, in
| | 06:44 | Program mode, and I want to point out
that the ISO is at 800 here, and I can get
| | 06:49 | away with that these days.
| | 06:50 | I couldn't have a few years ago, but
I can now, especially shooting with the 5D Mark II.
| | 06:55 | It can handle these high ISOs and
still give you a very good rendering.
| | 07:02 | Normally, I would probably
work more like around ISO 400.
| | 07:09 | I wanted the flashes to
recycle quickly when we are working.
| | 07:12 | Let me just zoom in here and show you.
| | 07:16 | So, this is ISO 800, and the detail
and the noise control is just excellent.
| | 07:24 | So we can do that now because our
little strobes aren't just powerful as big
| | 07:29 | heavy studio lighting.
| | 07:31 | So, we do need to have our camera
sensitive to that so that we can have more
| | 07:36 | flexibility of how we set our exposure.
| | 07:38 | Obviously, you are going to
set what's comfortable for you.
| | 07:41 | I think the main point here is don't be
afraid to shoot at ISO 400, or even 800.
| | 07:47 | Take a look at your results,
and see what you think.
| | 07:50 | Now on this high key, I want to show you,
again, here is where we went down to 15th
| | 07:55 | of a second, and as I cautioned you,
you do have to be careful here when you
| | 08:00 | start shooting at those slower shutter speeds.
| | 08:03 | I am going to zoom in here.
| | 08:05 | When you start shooting at those
slower shutter speeds, you have to hold the
| | 08:09 | camera very steady to make sure that
you don't get any camera shake there and
| | 08:15 | soften up your photo.
| | 08:16 | A lot of times putting on the
tripod might not be a bad idea at all.
| | 08:22 | So as we just scan through these
shots here, you can tell, just by using one
| | 08:26 | or two lights, you have a lot of options.
| | 08:29 | You can create a lot of different looks.
| | 08:32 | Most of the time you can just
shoot in Program mode if you want.
| | 08:35 | It's very easy to carry around.
| | 08:37 | You can use this at home.
| | 08:38 | You can use this on the road.
| | 08:40 | You can take it to a wedding
reception and shoot family shots.
| | 08:44 | I want you to try these.
| | 08:45 | I want you to master all of these,
take notes, refer to your notes, then of
| | 08:50 | course, when we get to the part where
we are talking about sharing our images
| | 08:53 | online, I want to see your shots there, too.
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| Examining shots of artwork with reflective surfaces| 00:00 | While we were in the studio and we
had our lights set up on stands,
| | 00:04 | I did a nice little bonus tip.
| | 00:07 | This isn't shooting a model.
| | 00:08 | This is shooting artwork behind glass,
because there are times when we need
| | 00:13 | to do this, for insurance purposes, or
maybe you want to submit something to
| | 00:17 | a competition.
| | 00:19 | I don't know if you've tired this.
| | 00:20 | I have, before - where you put the
flash on the camera, or if the camera has a
| | 00:25 | built-in flash, you turn on the flash,
you point it out the artwork, and this
| | 00:29 | is what you get.
| | 00:31 | It's just not very good.
| | 00:33 | First of all, you've got this big,
old reflection right here, from the
| | 00:36 | flash, and then you get some kind of
collateral damage here of things that
| | 00:41 | are being lit up.
| | 00:42 | Well, let's just zoom in on them.
| | 00:43 | So, here's our flash, and then here's
this other stuff that's being reflected,
| | 00:48 | and then overall, it's kind of washed
out, and yucky-looking, harsh shadows;
| | 00:53 | just about everything that you
don't want in the shot is there.
| | 00:57 | So, what's the solution?
| | 00:58 | Well, the solution is to take two
flashes, put them at 45 degree angles, have
| | 01:05 | equal output, aim them at your picture.
| | 01:08 | I actually cross them a little bit, so
the flash from the side kind of aim it
| | 01:11 | right here, flash from this side, aim
it right here - have them both go off when
| | 01:16 | you take the picture, and son of a gun,
they cancel each other out, and you get
| | 01:20 | a much cleaner rendering.
| | 01:22 | You don't get the nasty
reflection, like we have up here.
| | 01:25 | You can't even tell, really,
that there is glass here, right?
| | 01:28 | I mean you wouldn't really know.
| | 01:30 | Now, the one thing I probably would
have done differently, after I examined the
| | 01:35 | shot, as I always do, is I think I
would have lowered the flashes a little bit.
| | 01:39 | I think I have just a little too high
here, and I cast a little shadow right
| | 01:45 | here, and that could be easily fixed
by just lowering them a bit, and then I
| | 01:49 | would have nice coverage, like I do right here.
| | 01:53 | But you can tell that this picture is
much different than this picture, so that
| | 01:58 | two flash trick is a good one.
Keep it in your bag of tricks.
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| Sharing your results on the lynda.com Flickr discussion group| 00:00 | Well, you've been looking at a lot of
my shots, and now it's time for me to see
| | 00:04 | yours, and I just love this.
| | 00:06 | We've created the Off-Camera Flash
Photo Assignment on Flickr, especially for
| | 00:11 | you, a place for you to try these
techniques that we've been talking about, and
| | 00:15 | then to share them, and then you also
get to see other people's interpretations
| | 00:20 | of these techniques.
| | 00:21 | So, this is very exciting!
| | 00:23 | Now, all you have to do is be a member
of Flickr in order to participate. And if
| | 00:28 | you're not already a member,
just click on the Join button here,
| | 00:31 | and you can sign up, and
it only takes a few minutes.
| | 00:35 | I think it takes maybe like
five minutes or so to do it.
| | 00:38 | Once you're a member -- and
you can do this for free, right?
| | 00:40 | It doesn't cost any money.
You can get the free membership.
| | 00:43 | Once you do this, then come back to our
public group, right here, and I want you
| | 00:49 | to keep a few things in mind. One of
them is make sure that you take a look at
| | 00:54 | the group rules right here.
| | 00:56 | They're very basic, very simple.
The main thing is that you can post up to ten
| | 01:01 | things each week, no more than that,
but ten things each week, and we do want
| | 01:05 | to see your photos.
| | 01:06 | I mean, that's the whole thing going on here.
| | 01:09 | The other thing is that this is a
G-rated group, so we know you're very
| | 01:14 | creative, and you're going to be using
off-camera flash for all sorts of great
| | 01:18 | stuff. As long as it's G-rated, we want to see it.
| | 01:21 | We're looking mainly at photos here, and
then I just want to remind you that the
| | 01:26 | only photos that should show up in
this public group are photos that were
| | 01:30 | captured with the flash removed from the camera.
| | 01:33 | So that means your pop-up flash does
not qualify, or if the flash is mounted in
| | 01:38 | the hot shoe on your camera, that's
not what we're talking about here.
| | 01:43 | These are only for photos where the
flash has been removed from the camera,
| | 01:47 | using the techniques that we've
talked about in this photo assignment.
| | 01:51 | So, this is going to be a lot of fun.
| | 01:53 | I'm to be hanging out there.
| | 01:55 | I'll be submitting some shots.
| | 01:56 | I'm looking forward to seeing your shots.
| | 01:59 | The URL is right up here at
the top, but it's basically,
| | 02:02 | flickr.com/groups/offcameraflashassignment.
| | 02:07 | I'll see you there.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | Well, we've reached the end of the road
on this photo assignment, and now it's
| | 00:04 | time for me to turn the reigns over to you.
| | 00:07 | I hope you've had a good time, and I
hope you feel confident now to take that
| | 00:11 | flash off the camera and take some good shots.
| | 00:14 | I want to remind you,
we have other photo assignments.
| | 00:16 | We have natural light
portraits and fill flash and backlit.
| | 00:21 | So, if you have enjoyed
this, take a look at those.
| | 00:24 | Go take some pictures.
| | 00:25 | I'm going to go take some pictures,
and I'll see you at lynda.com.
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