Skip to main content

General Q&A

Lesson 17 from: Lightweight Location Lighting

Kevin Kubota

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

17. General Q&A

Lesson Info

General Q&A

you need to if you want to use high speed sync and off camera flash you're gonna need a pocket wizard tt won tt five that's their flex system they're actually given away to those systems on the show um but that's the only way that you can control the power or to use high speed sync eyes to use one of those actually there plus system may work but I'm not percent sure of that plus system works with high speed seen just a question from fashion tv can you explain in this scenario why it was again that you have the flash is at a higher level than your higher level angle than your subjects what are you looking for in that light uh I want to come at a higher level than a subject so that it it emulates natural sunlight which would be coming from up above if you start to bring the light from the side or from around then it starts to look definitely artificial in time it comes below the subject's head it looks artificial because the sun really never does come from that angle so we're almost alwa...

ys trying to bring light even if it's a portrait light slightly above the nose and down it shapes the face better uh it's nicer for her for anybody when they're stretching their necks out a little bit so they can she can look up and the light coming this way would slim her face down you know for anybody that looks better question from michelle I've um she says before you put the nd filter on you tried to raise the flash the flash is both one stop each did you do that by raising the flash to plus one because the f stop in shutter speed posted on the picture did not change yes the shop shutter speed wouldn't change I didn't change my camera just changed the flash okay uh is that what your question was yeah raise the flash up stop each because I wanted to stop more light because you were putting the nd filter on and you knew that you were gonna need that extra yeah it was before the indy I raised the flash stop each because I wanted one more stop of light and I was the point was if you have two flashes and you want one more stop do you raise one at what have stopped each one half f stop and they actually both have to go stop and I think that was before but the indie and didn't give me enough light lit yet even at that point so we decided to switch to the indy filter was that that was using high speed sync which didn't give me enough up would I think that definitely answered their questions thank you way have talked about this earlier but does the nd filter change this from summerland does the nd filter change the quality of the image of regards to sharpness green in color uh yeah and empty indy filter if it's not a good one will definitely make the image look weird if it's a good andy filter it will not I found it if I use it at its maximum all the way minus eight stops setting of a little bit shift in the color but it's not bad enough that I can easily fix it when I bring into light room but I have ah I can focus through the thing and almost full density uh the sharpness is actually really dead on its great but in the cheaper ones have had problems for sure I'm not sure if you answer this already but tom on the roof what is your usual u usable highest sinks speed sync in other words at which shutter speed does it make now does it no longer makes sense to use high speed sink because of power loss well the higher you go the more you lose so that's a hard question to answer because it depends on what light you're trying to compensate for if this was full sun and I'm trying to really add a lot of light to them you're probably going to be forced to use close to eight thousand six thousand shutter speed and you're gonna have very little from your high speed saying um in this lower light situation as you can see I had these two flashes on full power in the box and high speed think really still wasn't giving me enough so we had to switch to the indy filter and we'll do that we're going to shoot another shot with mohr of this light as the main light and so it really depends on how high ugo above your flash sake so if you're only at six hundredth of a second or eight hundred a second you probably would be flying with high speed thank you and lose a ton maybe half of you no one stop a power out of the flash all right so we're gonna do put these on c to gonna go back to manual mode so we can manually walk through the power settings there going put these both on sea to you wouldn't and put them both off the manual mode as well all right you guys someone we're gonna change the company guys we're out here we're going to shoot them mohr here with this more as a backdrop little further behind them and I'd be more like uh kind of portrait you guys looking into the camera for something this one okay so we're gonna change the settings on here this is still in a matter of front seat to test firing it way could move this too much here listen already then I'm gonna scoot on back and you guys can come like right about there so again we're looking for is a base exposure and you guys can look towards me this time yeah right on I'm gonna open this up so that I could see what I'm doing we'll lock focus on her and I want you the savior you're right hand just got to go in your pocket or something so I'm clutching her like that so it's a little too great all right so I'm gonna take a base exposure I want minus one in my background so turn my indy filter so I get minus one and we'll see where our flash goes way can't soothe all right so with the nd filter I get a lot more output again from my flash and we can see here that it's it's too hot right now but that's how muchmore output I'm now getting a heck of a lot more so I'm gonna bring those down both one stop alicia is now diligently reducing the power of each flash one stop so I can bring my total exposure down one stop right okay and there is good here ugo right down to stop on each okay try the uh try another stop but then something went down at all time just double check that we went down to stop good he's in the back them right there you're a little bit in the shot leash and I think that you're fine right there okay here we go want teo and it's just they're a little bit too much to the scythe here we go what I have no idea what you just said way theo neutral density here is uh approximately a stop and a half no more than that yeah about uh almost two stops of reduction okay we're looking pretty good now we're close to our ideal setting there ah little that's pretty good okay at least just come live it to the front of them and we're gonna make sure feathering that across their ugo and angle it up way okay okay peeps cut more shots like that although we got a hair in the wind in the hair from this uh yeah love it okay all right here monday you got a little bit of smile for me buddy I'll let you wear my belt lease you could do a smile nice alicia higher just a little bit on the box there perfect awesome okay yes you got the hair in the wind and oh yes all right nice okay so let's sze change your pot's up a little bit and the last thing we do is we add a little ah we had our little twinkle light and then we'll be ready to move what about your other life you twinkle like girl come help me way we're gonna send this twinkle light behind us channel c too to match what we've got going on there we're going to set the power on this manually and we'll start off with half power because we're using a grid but with it removed the road grid removing the intersection it's a little bit of a warm gel in there and this is going again boom shoot from the back light him up uh if we don't have a lovely assistant like gorka waken put it right on here that's what great thing about a grill pod wang and he's gonna be in writing them like that we'll see how that works can you guys watch that and tell me if it fires okay yes I did thank you right answer that was the right answer okay nice happy portrait again living up there we go great and we'll see what power splendid okay we could see the difference now that backlight just made a nice little ram made her hair go low a little bit at a little separation between them two and beautiful little background next so let's shoot a few more just like this thing that's what I'm talking about the most important that you should ever know about photography way made ten million dollars last year with that one tip want one you need any more but one wow I'm not a man let it gotta love jets okay cool look beautiful there lights working yeah yeah all right no more lovey dovey stuff and then we'll have the six session wrapped up here like it you can put that right hand on her somewhere there might put her in there yeah good no tongues now you guys come on I'm just getting that beautiful they're ugo cute now but if you just gotta bunk your foreheads together like you're just looking at each other they're yeah you're all happy about this good and they're looking right here together terrific that was nice love that right there okay awesome thank goodness all right so those guys at home you guys can kind of see him over there we got a nice little edge light darkened on the background of stop or so so that we can keep that minimize but still have a little sense of story and our main light now is the main light coming down and the existing light is the fill light question we'll have a question from charlie g thank you why a grid and not a snoot on the speed light why grid and not a snoot that there that actually is a snoop right now so I took the grid out of it so that's the nice thing about these road grids is you just slide out the grid attachment and you're gonna stoop so really is a snoot and when you would use a great is when you want it tighter beam in this case I don't really care if it's tighter beam I want may have its spread enough so that it covered them they they move left to right a little bit it's still gonna cover so it is this new good answer so way were still using that neutral density felt throughout the rest of those switch over here okay question from kevin artie would would you use flashes outdoors without boxes and just bear if you needed more light from the flash is for sure if as long as that direct light was the style of light you're looking for if I use direct flash here on them I would not have anywhere near this nice soft shaping on her face would be a hard edge shadowy light so if it was more just an accent light where they're just hanging out we just wanna boom hit him that could work but you're not the reason I'm using double flashes I want to use it in this box and because the box absorb so much light I have to double it up ok a question from fashion tv in singapore yes over there are you highlighting that whatever flash or light we add that the shadows miscast must be in the same direction as the actual shadows cast by real sunlight does dude your images to be visually visually logical that's a great question do they need a visually logical I think to some degree if it's a if it's a more traditional portrait type image that you want to be visually convincing as logical then yeah I think it makes sense to have the shadows cast in the right direction the style of lighting the same uh mohr you step away from traditional into editorial or artsy fartsy or your own kind of wild porta creation the less it matters you know I think it becomes down to again do you like it does it look good like that doesn't work um sometimes having contrast ing lighting from different directions adds a sense of movement and energy and just disarray that actually works for the shot depending on how quirky the shot is to begin with okay question from inca from cyprus is kevin fully on manual if so how does the minus one third evey work on manual I thought it was used when something was an auto like s o r richer or center yeah uh we're out on minus one third evey right now but if you're on if you were using auto aya so and you did minus one third it would actually use the auto eyes so to go minus the third even if you're on manual some of the new cameras they changed that so once you're in manual you it's just on manual just locked into whatever you say um I'm not on using the minus one third if that's what she's referring to this question might have been from earlier too okay um but there is no compensation on these here I'm just full manual right now two hundred of a second to point a think think is asking how would the exposure compensation affect the annual annual meeting in full manual yeah so for my cameras um when I'm shooting full manual have auto eyes on the exposure compensation will actually give it less exposure than whatever I've said using that ottawa so okay great question from fina is it possible to use a flashlight in this situation for lighting for some of the film late I don't have a box if it's a really powerful flashlight have to be a pretty slap you know right now because we're in a kind of overcast situation with flashlights that have may actually work to add a little twinkle light on dh claire you wanna just grab a couple of them from the flashlight bag in there let's go just see how much we actually get from a flash like that's a good question you know when can use a flashlight when you have to bust out of flash so well graphical flashlights were quick and just throw on there and see what they look like okay I'm gonna ask this question because people just continue to ask it so let's just answer it again this is from h shave one seventy in finland not one seventy one one seven one seventy fbi seventy I'm not sure of shape I've got a friend named one seventy I thought that was ok so the question again about focusing on the shots the question is are they both in focus in all of the shots at f two point eight and over one hundred miller hundred millimeter type crops or do you check that they're both in the same plane all of the time and then they say night shots kevin knight shot oh nice shots okay thank you quite another few people are asking they don't understand when they're not cheek to cheek how you're getting them both in focus yeah and that's a good question and a lot of the time is like here I'm really trying to ensure that they are in the same plane you know they're really they pretty much are mean her eyes his eyes were in the same plane is mine well when they're doing other things like when he's naked on her stuff like that I'm focused on her eyes if he's slightly soft it doesn't matter because his eyes are closed and he's in the background so that kind of shot I'm not worried about it um if it's something again where they're both eyes to me then we're gonna make sure yeah they're in the same plane and that's something I'm conscious of so I'm not going to shoot this portrait from here you can see this angle right here and if they turn towards me and I focused on her eyes he would definitely be slightly out of focus so we're going to keep them in the same plane yes answer your question okay do you see the flashlight was already flashlights ready flashlight in the house let's see alright so lithe strobe might make him crash maybe let's try it I'm just gonna just just beaming on them six easy I'm not going to shoot this but if you just look we'll just see how much we could get so if you guys just kind of huge close together and say we had a little flashlight you could see it does a little not a whole lot you know and this is pretty close with a five hundred lumen light so it may have a little twinkle to her eyes is that kind of hurt your eye a little bit we gotta get you remember so actually does add a little bit of a twinkly to her she doesn't like it so it opens up a little bit so you know it's a low enough light and you get it close enough to them uh it may add enough to just at a twinkle but it's really not gonna shape it like this the quality of the light when I'm using it like this is not that great you know I want it in a box I want something more interesting but as a edge light or something you can see it probably is not going to even show up doubting you're seeing anything really happening from that on her hair did you see something from the behind you can see actually yeah I feel like it's doing more than it was to her face okay on the hair light so in a low light situation but anytime's if you're indoors if we're in a restaurant where you go inside the thing and your shopping and soon as you move from this bright sunny or overcast sky this could actually quite a bit flashlight so can we have about fifteen more minutes until break do you want to do wanna keep going do you have some more busy when kevin comes back teo sorry if the sun was out full power how would you change the flash settings and the style would you add one more flash in the box or what else would you do if the sun was out full power um first of all would make sure that the sun was back lighting them so my son would be their rim light if it all possible um so if my son was over here we'd have to I'd move them over there and shoot that direction so that I could still have the camper but have the sun as a back light and then I would have to probably go to full power now these air both on an eighth so I've still got quite a room to play with just the two flashes so um I've shot in full sun undergoes full such that same situation and they'd be ableto under expose a full sun let scene and still get it lit in the foreground with two flashes in a small box remember yesterday shouldn't example of when we didn't have pool were made son looked like evening time that required three flashes at full power three flashes at full power with my indy filter tio to balance because with a dark and so much to make it look like evening that that did require the full three flashes at full power so if you would just tell us again and maybe I don't know if we can get close up on how those two flashes are connect did how there have together from everyone ends for me what is the normal kevin pelota this is this is um they're embarrassed they're attached if you can't see up close here this is the bracket that comes with this little kid from voter flex and one bracket holds one flash and I bought a second bracket and attached to the top to the speed ring by just drilling a little extra hole well I can locate the locating pin and then it has a screw hole ready to screw right him so you need to do is buy the floating flex kit with this angle bracket for speed lights and buy one extra bracket and drill yourself a little hole and you'll see where it goes as soon as you try to attach it there's a little pin and it doesn't go anywhere make all get in there that's all I gotta do on then you have him upside down one to one if you're gonna do the three flash had a picture of it on my pdf that if you are buying the video you can download a pdf and see pictures of this up close up pictures of the three flash up close so you can actually see exactly how it's put together but the three flash there's another hole you can see right here barely that I drilled and this is where the bracket would move on each side if I had three flashes so this could be one two or three

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Kubota - Lightweight Location Lighting.pdf
creativeLIVE Kevin Kubota Lighting Diagrams.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Karen Witter
 

I LOVED this class and I don't hesitate to recommend it! Kevin did a great job explaining how to incorporate additional lighting for on-location shoots and what those items would be. Then he illustrated those ideas for the class in various types of shoots. I loved the gear he recommended and especially his DIY suggestions. He has a great sense of humor and I felt like I was right there in the class. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who shoots on location and wants to make sure they're not only using the best lighting options but also the best lightweight lighting options.

Renata
 

I am enjoying this course so much!!! I am 100% happy with it. I just became a big fan of Kevin ! Great personality! Makes the use of flash a breeze. I just want to go outside with my gear and have fun now! thank you.

Maxx Walske
 

This workshop is fantastic! Kevin goes over every little detail you need to know for Lightweight Location Lighting. He shoots during the workshop, instantly shows the image and talks through how to see the light and make the proper adjustments for a fantastic image. He includes details about all his gear and post-processing tips, too! Kevin is incredibly inspiring! The course is easy to follow, fun and worth every penny!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES