How to Shoot with your First Flash with Mike Hagen

Great course. Mike is terrific at explaining everything really well. I have been asked to shoot at a charity function and have never done this before. I'm feeling much more confident now.

This course provided a ton of information on using flash. His presentation style is very easy to understand and follow. Loved the course!

Great course more informative than the first flash course, now using manual on my Nikon D600 and flash. Love the way Mark teaches so easy to understand and follow along.

Thanks Mike after watching this course I am now shooting in Manual mode which has allowed me to get the photos I want. Great step by step instructions and explanations.

I appreciated this class quite a bit. Mike explained things in terms that were easy to understand and took the intimidation factor out of knowing which flash modifiers would work best for me. I recommend this class 100%

Wow, fantastic course. I was able to learn stuff I can immediately put to use. Impressed with Mike's knowledge and his ability to communicate it. I wish I have take this course years ago. Thank you!

Fantastic course - Mike is an engaging and entertaining teacher and this course was just what I needed to start using my external flash with confidence. I have had my external flash for a few years but have rarely used it as mastering all the settings was daunting and the results I got were inconsistent. This excellent course changed all that and I'm having great fun taking much better shots with my flash. I highly recommend!

What a wonderful course! I am so much more confident about using my flash now. I've had a Nikon SB-700 sitting in my cameral bag for over 2 years. I've used it twice, but never could grasp the technicalities of it, so it just sat there. I was intimidated by it. But, after taking this course, I'm actually so excited to use it, and my understanding of light is much better. Thank you.

I had the pleasure of attending one of Mike's flash classes in Boston a few years ago. He is by far the best teacher I've had for learning flash. I would highly recommend this class and his other class on using multiple flashes. It is the perfect duo for working with flash and I still refer back to both theses classes when I need a review or when I am trying to teach someone else how to use flash.

Very comprehensive, well thought out course. Mike is an excellent instructor. I highly recommend for those who bought a speedlight and have no idea how to use it.

Such a great overview course. Getting the concepts of ambient light and the flash light as two separate things to manage and then use for the look you want is clearly explained. Then managing the camera settings and the flash setting. Great clarity to now build on. Thank you Mike .

I was one of those photographers who bought a flash and did not used it for quite a while, primarily because I wasn't sure how to use it. Mike does an excellent job in this course providing a good background and comprehensive understanding of how to use a flash. He expanded my knowledge and motivated me to make greater use of my flash. Thank you, Mike!

Great course! I particularly liked the way Mike progressed through the class building on learning foundational activities. I have recently changed my entire camera & flash system from Nikon to Olympus which meant that I needed to re-learn my flash photography techniques. This course was very helpful in accomplishing this goal. I would highly recommend this course for photographers that are new to flash or those that want to gain a deeper understanding of flash photography. Thanks Mike for this course. Keith Pinn

Very informative class for a newbie to Flash photography. Mike Hagen's class is concise & comprehensive. I have several books on flash photography but this class gave me more aha moments than everything I've read up to this point. Highly recommended!!

As the title implies, this is a great first course for flash users. Covers camera settings, flash settings, flash modifiers, and all the key first elements to single flash use. I learned a great deal and definitely recommend this course to new flash users.

Great introductory course for novice, a lot of useful information.

Gained immense knowledge on Flash Photography. Thank you Mike for this amazing class!!

Love this class. Great instructional style. LOTS of information, but given with lots of context too. So flipping useful! Mike is fun and loose and really knowledgable without being self-promotional. Great class for beginners.

Great quality and positive mood education on single flash photography. Recommended for beginners, absolutely!

Really terrific class for beginners or slightly experienced in flash. I highly recommend this, especially if you are just getting started.

I have been stumbling around with flash photography, not really understanding what I was doing or why I was getting the results I was getting, some good, some bad. And that was even after taking a couple of courses on using flash. Mike provided so many ah-hah moments in this course! Finally, I understand my speed-lights and how to use them. Excellent course! If all of the Creative Live classes are this good, the year-long pass I bought will be the most well-spent money ever.

This class is AMAZING!!! I've taken other flash courses before, but I still felt lost. I have my flash, but never drag it out because I am so unsure of how to work it. In the first half hour of the course I had so many "Ah Ha!" moments it was exciting! I finally get it! Every question I've ever had about flash, speed lights, speed rings, soft boxes, strobes...etc. was answered in a simple engaging way. The instructor didn't drone on and on about stuff that didn't pertain. Every single thing he said had a teaching point. Very impressed! Thank you!

Very informative. Instructor is very knowledgeable. I am beginner-intermediate and still deciding what gear to buy, so the gear lists are very helpful as well as the class. I like how he showed how to actually attach the speedlights to each stand and accessory. Of course this is something anyone can figure out, but it's nice to have someone show you and give you tips, like the sandbag. Where I am, and the type of photography I'm currently doing, I would have probably not have needed beyond lesson 20 or so but I will definitely return to these lessons as I need them. My only criticism is with some of his explanations, he used 25 words when he could have used 10. It could cut down on the time a bit. Otherwise great class.

Mike really covers flash photography thoroughly in this and his other flash courses. He has a great ability to teach, be fun, and is a tremendous wealth of useful information. I highly recommend this and his other flash classes as well.

a well structured course providing you a basic knowledge on speedlight usage that makes you prepared to continue with other more advanced courses where photography with flash techniques are explained, language is very easy to understand for non-native English speakers. I found also that the way Mike explains things is the way I would like to listen about issues. I have watched another basic course by other pro and it was nightmare, all showing up, no structured knowledge shared... very much recommended