I'm getting ready for a portrait shoot and I have three strobes with me here. If you've watched my Foundations of Photography Flash course you know that with multiple flashes I can create really nice complex lighting situations. I can have a keylight, and a fill light, and back light. But there's something else that I can do with multiple flashes which is to gang them up to get me a couple of other things. And I do all that with something like this. This is a three-way flash bracket. These are cold shoes. And by cold, I mean they don't have any electronics in them, they're not going to communicate anything, and with these, I can build this cool little three way flash pod.
So what that gives me is a big increase in light. That can be really handy in a situation where I need to overpower some bright light. For example, maybe I'm shooting outside, and I want to use the sun as a backlight, which means I need a whole lot of fill light. I might be trying to shoot that with one flash and finding I don't have enough fill light. So by ganging up a bunch of flashes, I can gain that extra power. There's something else that I get from using multiple flashes that we're going to look at in a little bit. I'm putting the flashes on, on the gizmo here, and so you can see this is, is, this is all it is.
I now tilt them forward. And then, I just need to get it up on a light stand. What I'm going to do is set up on a light stand with a big umbrella, and that's going to be my light source. How to get it on the light stand really just depends on the nature of your stand. For this particular stand, I've cobbled together a couple of different little mounts and things to get both the swivel that I want and just to be able to get it onto my stand. One that I like about this Westcott three-way flash mount is it's got this hole right here in the middle, and I can stick my umbrella in there.
going to go ahead and do that. This is a nice big, this is not a shoot through umbrella. This is a reflector umbrella, so the flashes are going to fire into it. So, I've got three flashes running here and you may think, wow, that's great, you've got three times the light you normally would have. Unfortunately, the math doesn't actually work out that way. So if you think about what's going on here and you understand your basic exposure theory this should all make sense to you. With one flash at full power, I have a certain amount of light.
If I add a second flash at full power. What do I have? I have double the amount of light that I started with. And we know that a doubling of light means an increase of one stop. Adding a third flash at full power does not get me twice as much as these first two. It only gets me half again as much so I've actually only got a stop and a half more than I would normally get when i'm using three flashes. So it's not as huge an increase as you may think it is to get an additional two stops of light I would need to be using a total of four flashes.
So, you may think that oh, I had a second flash, I got double the light, I had a third I get triple the light and it, it just doesn't work that way. To get, an additional three stops, I would need a eight total flashes. To get an additional four stops, I would need 16 flashes. After a point, it's just better to go buy a really bright light. Still, this does get me some additional light. As I said, in situations where I really need to overpower ambient light and things like that this is great. In the studio, I'm probably going to be able to get by with just a single flash, so why have I rigged all this up? Well, because by adding these multiple flashes, there's another really good kind of sneaky gain that I get.
And we're going to see that when I do my shoot.
Author
Updated
12/23/2020Released
5/19/2013Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Related Courses
-
Photography Foundations: Composition
with Ben Long5h 29m Intermediate -
The DIY Photographer
with Joseph "PhotoJoseph" Linaschke2h 39m Intermediate -
Photo Tools Weekly
with Chris Orwig26h 18m Intermediate
-
The Practicing Photographer - New This Week
-
16-bit in Photoshop6m 23s
-
-
Introduction
-
Previous Episodes
-
Choosing a camera5m 27s
-
Let your lens reshape you7m 26s
-
Working with reflections1m 26s
-
Exploring mirrorless cameras7m 25s
-
Using a tripod3m 33s
-
Wildlife and staying present5m 58s
-
Why Shoot Polaroid11m 12s
-
Seizing an opportunity4m 4s
-
Shooting wildlife7m 24s
-
Using a lens hood4m 48s
-
Working with themes2m 48s
-
Setting up an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Processing an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Scanning Photos5m 37s
-
Jpeg iPad import process3m 17s
-
Warming up3m 26s
-
Taking a panning action shot10m 17s
-
Shooting a silhouette3m 9s
-
Using Lightroom on the road6m 28s
-
Shooting level2m 42s
-
Photoshop and Automator8m 54s
-
Softboxes vs. umbrellas2m 55s
-
Working with hair in post3m 28s
-
Exploring how to use Bokeh5m 38s
-
Shooting stills from a drone6m 57s
-
Working with models2m 40s
-
Tips for shooting panoramas7m 16s
-
Dry sensor cleaning6m 23s
-
Composing in the center2m 48s
-
Vignetting9m 56s
-
Inspire3m 29s
-
Minimizing camera baggage4m 24s
-
Working without a tripod4m 11s
-
Printer options6m 51s
-
Exploring lo-fi printing options11m 58s
-
IOS macro photography gear12m 25s
-
IR Conversion Part 27m 27s
-
Raw editing in Lightroom mobile10m 35s
-
Shooting a macro insect shot13m 5s
-
A brief history of photography12m 19s
-
Shooting with a Petzval lens9m 49s
-
What is a low-pass filter?4m 35s
-
Teleconverters and lenses5m 12s
-
Media card care7m 19s
-
Dual slot4m 2s
-
Exploring smart previews9m 12s
-
Flying and photo batteries5m 41s
-
Partial vignettes on photos8m 38s
-
360 image editing plugins6m 59s
-
Using a gimbal with an SLR8m 13s
-
Choosing a lens6m 27s
-
Switching camera systems7m 42s
-
Using 360 drones5m 41s
-
VR gimbals4m 16s
-
Working with a photo subject14m 26s
-
Posing a photo subject12m 53s
-
Framing and safety7m 7s
-
RAW converter options3m 59s
-
Drone flight7m 19s
-
Basic abstract photography8m 51s
-
Aspect ratio3m 40s
-
Focus lock on your camera2m 11s
-
Using the Astropad app6m 33s
-
Working with dim sunlight6m 33s
-
Configuring dual cards2m 52s
-
Long lens options4m 45s
-
Moving images from catalogs7m 47s
-
Photography education11m 7s
-
In-camera focus stacking9m 52s
-
Exposure isn't everything4m 17s
-
Why shoot film?8m 55s
-
Culling4m
-
Choosing a film camera8m 38s
-
Analog workflow9m 9s
-
Easily produce giant prints10m 15s
-
Luna Display4m 19s
-
Choosing film7m 50s
-
Photo fads4m 46s
-
Portrait lighting techniques8m 32s
-
Diopter control2m 56s
-
Loupedeck for Lightroom6m 48s
-
Printing small3m 37s
-
Lens flare removal6m 28s
-
Paper choice for prints7m 39s
-
Aspect ratio for portraits2m 33s
-
When in doubt2m 24s
-
Looking vs. seeing2m 44s
-
Do you need a carnet?5m 23s
-
Scan large items6m 17s
-
Create an honest portrait5m 34s
-
A portrait assignment3m 23s
-
Am I good?5m 59s
-
Boredom4m 13s
-
Clichés4m 29s
-
Finding inspiration5m 42s
-
An everyday project5m 47s
-
Learning from students4m 56s
-
Life as a project5m 27s
-
Why take a workshop?4m 33s
-
Photographic honesty2m 52s
-
Up to interpretation3m 27s
-
Photographic style3m 40s
-
Photography drills6m 31s
-
Digital chores4m 23s
-
Photos and words4m 11s
-
Stay-at-home exercises3m 45s
-
Understanding your medium2m 28s
-
Darkroom for iOS5m 15s
-
iOS image editing extensions2m 58s
-
On set: Simplicity4m 5s
-
On set: Corners2m 19s
-
On set: The build4m 30s
-
On set: Same pieces, new set3m 18s
-
Choose a price first3m 20s
-
Rewind: Choosing a camera5m 41s
-
On time and in tune3m 3s
-
Avalanche for aperture4m 8s
-
Evaluating a wide-angle lens6m 14s
-
Auction catalogs4m 56s
-
Get out and shoot (safely)3m 45s
-
Do ruts exist?2m 24s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Understanding the three flash setup