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Speedlights & Modifiers

Lesson 4 from: Speedlights

Roberto Valenzuela

Speedlights & Modifiers

Lesson 4 from: Speedlights

Roberto Valenzuela

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Lesson Info

4. Speedlights & Modifiers

Roberto explores the science of light and explains how your settings impact the end result.
Next Lesson: Off Camera Flash

Lesson Info

Speedlights & Modifiers

All right, guys segment to segment to is very much focused on the actual speed light section one I focused on some principles ofthe light is that a frustrating subject? Absolutely it's a kind of a little bit scientific and complicated? Absolutely, but everything is needed to understand the concept of speed lights as a whole. So it's, very important for you guys to realize that if you're going to be a cook intern about food and if you were going to be a food expert, you need to know about food chemistry, so you understand what? How does the food affect your body and so forth? So, yes, you cannot talk about food, science or or food in general if you're going to be a food person and not discuss the benefits of certain foods, see what I mean? Potassium who wasn't about potassium? Nobody but do you need potassium? Yes, you need it. Why do you need it? This is why you need so once you understand some basics, I'm not going crazy. I could even get get out more, but I'm goingto that the thing i...

s it's important for you to realize that these are tools so we can communicate okay? When I talk about color temperatures and we talk about balancing the color balance, now we know what we're talking about instead of just thinking that I read light this twenty two hundred because when you see a red light in front of you, you put your camera at twenty two hundred to balance it well, some people think that if you put the camera twenty two hundred is because that light that red light is twenty, two hundred and it's not the whole camera deal is a balancing act. If you have a very red light source, you need to tell the camera that is a very blue light source so then that to balance each other out, so yes, it's it's important to know that you know if you have a light or city that's fifty two k or fifty five k fifty five hundred k and you don't need to do anything because you could just tell the camera sunlight or daylight because it's basically already balanced for each other, but when you get into the extremes from the blues to the reds, you need to kind of understand how to balance those extremes, especially when we start talking about how tojail your your speed lights when you're talking about jailing your speed lights, you need to know why you're doing it and what's gonna happen in your camera so let's move on because we have a lot to talk about during this segment um, windows, when when you hit when you flash something or light hit a subject three things happen. Okay, that like and do three things. The first thing is that the subject can absorb it if you feel your arms right now that light is absorbing. Your light is actually your arm is absorbing some of that light if I put a flashlight on your hand and keep it there for a minute very close to your hand. Your hand is going to start getting warm. The reason is because that light is actually going into your skin and it's absorbing it. Ok, some of that light also reflected that's. Why? I can see your hand. Okay, so the second thing is when light hits another subject, another type that subject can have ah, can have can be reflected or it can go through it. So if you have, like, if you have a water bottle, you can see life can go through it. Okay, if you have a reflector, if you have a reflector, life can be reflected or it can be absorbed. All right. And we'll discuss why those three things are important. You guys know, remember super ice, right? Of course you do. You know why she uses those styrofoam things. See, there you go, it's not quite it's to absorb a higher percentage of that light, see when the light hits this board not a lot of the like it's of sort because it's so shiny and so the light hits it and he goes through like basically ninety per cent of the light gets reflected out of this. This is important when you're talking about speed lights because if I was to point my speed light so we'll be able to photograph brit and I want to point it at this you are going to be a recipient off almost a full blast off this the full blast it's almost like going like this because this is basically bone poem reflecting ninety percent of this material needs to be considered for you to discuss the lights okay, so so super ice if you think about it that way she uses those boards to absorb some of the light, which is how she gets that super soft light. Amen. The reason why we need to discuss a little bit of science is because of this reasons awesome when you have a styrofoam on material which I don't have one now, but if you were to have a stare a phone and put it over this, a much larger percentage of that light is going to be absorbed, reflecting back a percentage tatsu is comfortable working with and she knows that that provides a beautiful look because he doesn't give you speculate highlights does that make sense if I want to photograph this if I wasn't photographed bridge and I was going to bounce the life from here and I did not even consider the material that I'm bouncing that light off you're going to continue being one of those people sitting at home frustrated because you don't know why you cannot get that beautiful soft light with a very harsh light source bobby can I borrow that mirror that sitting on that table please? So if I painted my flat with nice glossy paint and expected to get what super ice gets it's not gonna work it's not gonna work it's not gonna work okay, thank you. Take a look at this this is a mirror. This is the opposite of what surprised you think this's the opposite take a look I'm going to try to point it at you bring on I'm going to see can you see that? How does that feel in your eye it's probably not great, right? This is basically reflect reflecting pretty much one hundred per cent of the light is actually being reflected back at you if you want to solve it in the light you need to ask yourself is the light directly hitting my subject or is it bounced if it's bounced? What keyword what is a bouncing off off? Is it bouncing off off something extremely reflective if the answer is yes you're gonna have a very reflective result on you very speculative highlights very bright it's going to give you that shiny spot on your forehead is not attractive you want to learn about speed lights take a second to understand where your bouncing your speed lights off off ok it's very simple if you bounce it off black velvet what's goingto happen to that light you might want to keep your microphones out the whole time what is the model uh well it'll absorb much higher percentage but there still be some reflective but always won't be speculum it would almost absorbed ninety eight percent of the light it would almost suck it now why would you want that on by the way sometimes I do that sometimes I grab my black flag and I bounced the light off of it and I pointed out the groom or whatever because sometimes I want to be able to reduce light on his cheek to give it that shadow that I want if I don't want straight up flat light I can put a black flag that light it's gonna hit and he's going to be absorbed he won't reflect on his face is beautiful it's a beautiful thing you want soft light put something that absorbs a good percentage of the light and it bounces back the other and it's going to be super soft because that material spreads alight evenly across so many millions of direction it's that it feels shadows everywhere but with a mirror the angle gets hits the mirror on that angle is going to basically go directly at you giving you a speculum highlight in your face it makes sense but if I absorb a lot of that I hit this this sire a phone or whatever and then those lies that light's going toe millions of directions now andi basically feels up your light giving your soft look then we understand this stuff good good this is why it's very difficult to talk about the subject of flash because you're talking about light and lightness to be understood how it behaves so on in the third one is if if the leg goes through the object like a translucent surface but can I borrow that that small translucent where's the smaller one no that's a glass one it's right there and I get the small one right there behind the blue letter that's right there all of you guys on the internet I want you to do me a favor look around your house right now and consider where you will consider bouncing the light off if you're going to consider bouncing off your carpet is going to absorb a lot of any fits like a black carpet because it's the material of the carpet is going to absorb a lot of it anyway white is going to give you the most reflective after a mirror but if the white kind of sort some of that light like a stare a phone you're not going to get hi reflected with still very soft light this is a translucent surface notice the notice bobby's hand you can still do it but it's not as clear as a piece of glass that makes sense so the light actually gets through here but it starts to come off make it the race of life get broken up so you have a material like like a translucent surface like that light basically comes and hits it then it gets broken up here and it slows down because of the material and then it comes back at full speed again this section that it starts to slow that and some race or speeding up on some race of slowing down it's called refraction, which is why you see a martini glass or something you can see the little glass can events it's because the light rays are actually refract refracting off off of the material why's the school because if you wanted to photograph a really cool pink and I give the monk and I can't allow it, see everything that we're discussing has a purpose and the purpose is to apply you want a photograph beautiful elena, which is awesome totally lover you want a photograph, helena, you want to photograph it with your spear lights or something like that right if I put a window a pure window in front of her, you're going to see elena he's gonna have a reflective surfaces, the windows reflective. So do you have to be careful of what you want to do if you want to photograph alana, but you want the light to transmit through the material, you're going to get an artie abstract version of her some offense, very cool stuff, let's see, can you go behind the frosted glass? Go ahead and lift this up really close to her? Can you start seeing elena right through it now if I put a flash behind this and I put a stronger light source in front of it, you're going to get a really cool version of her because that light's kind of coming around, but the race of life, they're hitting this, which are going to give you on artsy version of her. Okay, let me see here actually take out a flash two just for you guys that want to know I'm going to do a quick, just a really quick experiment this with this so here's my flash head, flash head, I'm not going to get too much into this, but I'm going to basically make this, I want back flash, so I'm gonna make this my master. I'm going to leave it a ptl looks it's a quick example ptl gives you speed manual gives you control gives you speed manual gives you control okay I want speed I'm going also turn off the light that's coming out of this so I'm going to just turn it off so this light will not shoot anything will not affect my exposure it's just going to be a communicator okay because this is the master this is the guy that goes on top of my heart you I mean the other flash he's going to be there so I'm gonna make this the slave and I'm gonna put it in group a just a group a week of being groupie who cares I'm just gonna quickly sample okay radio transmission green okay bobby can you hold this light like right here elena can you just hold this close to your face like that yeah okay I get that a little closer to you but keep staring at it take a look thiss serious look it's because the light is not quite hitting her perfectly and reflecting back into your eye so it's reflecting going crazy and I'm going back into your eye so it's transmitting that's why gives you that abstract field tow it okay so this is why understanding what the difference in transmission absorption and reflection means you guys understand so let me repeat history every subject that you hit can have three kinds off of ways a well it would react to the light hitting it the first one it could be transmission so the level go through the material like in this case the second khun b it can absorb it and evil and when you absorb it produces you you lose the light it's invisible now it's absorbed it come absorb it on the third it can reflect the light so if I get my reflector can I get one of the five in one reflected I think this is why the science of it all is so important you see what I mean now we're starting to talk in a language you can understand light can be transmitted can be absorbed or it could be reflected. Okay, so so in this example you're doing all three because you're transmitting through the translucent material and some is being absorbed a lot of it happens but the main one is transmission in this yeah. If we took that away it will be absorbed and it will be mostly will be absorbed and some reflect and some reflected that the amount that comes reflected back at you is why she looks like a liner. Yes. All right. If you get a reflector like this guy if you get a reflector like this when you point where's my speed like bobby where's my speed like okay, take a look at this reflector many times you see people teaching about like teaching about speed lights on flashers right but now many times do you talk about the material that's actually hitting the light is hitting they could look at this material you see have silver have diffused material now you understand that when the light hits this the white defusing part is going to absorb a lot of the light some of the light will be transmitted out of here on the silver side is going to reflect light back at you so if you do not have a styrofoam like what supervised would use this might be a good choice because some of the like it's reflected some of the leg it's absorbed haven't have fifty fifty if you want to turn it around and you were to use the diffuse material on lee then the lie will be would be transmitted and absorbed pretty much seventy percent instead of like fifty fifty so when that happens this you're going to get softer light but a lot weaker because you lost a lot of it. Okay when you talk about speed lights and you use soft boxes take a look at the material. If you guys can point a camera to that soft box next to elena you can uh can we start re start like this take a look at the soft books guys this saltbox cast a diffused material going through it right? That means that the light is going to be transmitted through it. No much will be absorbed if it gets absorbed. This diffuse materials are getting hot. Okay, if you throw a bunch of light into this I'm a materialist in enough not to absorb it like skin skin of source a lot of the light. Let me flash you as hard as I can. Close your eyes. Hold this right here please close your eyes did you feel heat? Okay that's that is straight up. You're absorbing a lot if you feel heat, it means your skin is very absorbent is absorbing a lot of the light best picture ever thank you very much. That's what I do you don't say that's that's what we call rembrandt lighting that the modern approach to rembrandt lighting guys let's talk about we're discussing this. This is very important if you point your speed light if you point your speed light towards the white if you go like this and you point this tours that diffuse material let me see here okay? If you go like this because you're taking this course, you should now know what you're doing instead of just guessing because you're here in this course and you're understanding five minutes of science, okay, that light is going to hit this diffuse material what's goingto happen because of that diffuse material give it your best shot break going it's going to scatter the light and so makes it a little softer the light is still the light will be scattered because of this diffuse material will scatter the race from directional toe all over the place but the race will be pretty about they will think about a seven thirty percent hit. In other words thirty percent of the race will be kindof naturist column lost because with the diffuse material some of that was absorbed by the refuse material but seventy percent of those race still went through it that's transmission you have three choices transmission reflection on absorption okay if you were to point to this flash head let's say you take a picture ofthe dog on with this life pointing straight a dog even though using a large soft books or whatever and he looks very bright very speculative highlight bright is because now you know seventy percent off the light race still went went to directional on him this defusing material is diffusing part of it but seventy eighty percent of them still went through and it's still two directional that's why he looks so harsh still now if you want to grab this light inside and turn the flash head towards the pure reflective material the people who designed this soft books from apollo said we want the light to now be first reflected then absorbed two levels if you do that you will have a lot softer light because life we have to go through this reflective material go crazy inside have a party all by itself then after having the party you come out they're right the race or no all over the place it comes out of the soft books on dh hits dog but in millions off directions now because it's had to reverse it toby here reflected have a party bounced back and hit dog okay should we try this instead of just talking about atlanta can I borrow you for a second okay um for those of you wondering I'm on channel one group a tl at zero flash exposure compensation I'm still geeking it up let's go ahead and put a line right in front of this flash you stand right here and look straight at their flesh okay guys, I hope we can have ah pre determined image of what this is gonna look like okay because of the material because what we talked about okay remember the whole science of the photos off picking up the light and then bring it back? Well, speaking of white so you know that you have no problem it's still going to be a fifty tok had that defusing material be red those photons they're going to hit that if using material they're going turn red and they're gonna give it right back at you, okay so here we are with beautiful on the coolest person ever I'm going to go to I s so two hundred because my light source is very close to my subject on dh I'm going to go to a five point six and I'm gonna go to one hundred twenty five I know what I think a picture on it if you can show that picture is that what you would expect so help bright see how bright she doesn't even look she looks like the mannequin that I had him I like the skin is just too much too bright rain now let's not move elena let's keep her the same way we're now going to bounce the light towards the reflector have a party shooting back at a million more directions right now we have like one hundred thousand directions we're going to go toe five million directions going to soften her a little bit okay I'm having a party with my head inside having a party inside pointed at atlanta again take a picture if we can compare those two please that would be insane awesome how much softer the second one is crazy right now you start to see why the science starts to come together is not just geek talk it's actually necessary okay now why don't we add at translucent material on top of this let's see what happens put it right in front of your face okay now let's see what's happening flash go stores the tourist, the soft books that's, ofcourse is a silver finish is going to give you ninety percent reflection because a mirror gives you one hundred percent reflection. This silver inside is going to give you about eighty to ninety percent reflection. Summer will be lost, but ninety percent will go through once it goes through there is going to hit his diffuser, its going to throw that light, raising millions of directions going hit that the translucent material that translucent material is going to force the light race to slow down as they enter the translucent material on some of the light race. Once they exit, they will pick up speed at the full speed of light they used to come from. They came from wow, that's happening. Other razor light are still catching up to the first ones that entered first, and they're hitting and some of them are exiting on. Some of them are in the middle and your brain is like, what the heck is going on? You're becoming the recipient off abstracted look of alana because the light rays are not coming directly, they're coming getting all messed up and then shooting, so when they shoot back, they don't they don't, they don't come at you, the way they came from the lights, they have been transformed. Which is why I lenin will look weird now we will look for the artsy go ahead and get your chin down a bit please put your light on that for a second put more light a little bit here let me put even more light real close okay let me do one more and then we'll stop it there give me a second okay take a look at atlanta police in the last photo is that the last one okay can we go light room guys we put one of the ones with her being hit directly by the flash without the transmission putting next door next to the other one yeah put the two together that one and the last one yeah you see what light does to you pretty incredible right? You're not looking at the object you're looking at the light hitting you back very important to realize when you're dealing with speed lights or any kind of light period okay um let's see let's remove this let me actually you know what? I'm going to move on to the next object so I think you'll be right there with you you see how when the like him directly at her through the fusion material it was still too bright then if we didn't go the way it was a lot softer the intensity was pretty much the same but the rays of light were more spread okay it's an important distinction also roberto I was just thinking about this your description with the sun being so far away it was a small light source with the pointed directly at us it's only a three inch light source reflected back in there it's like a sixteen foot light source exactly right and we'll discuss that further in a little bit but by turning the light against the diffusion material we basically faked right we fake to the little light we turn it into a big like light doesn't care if the light comes out of a big material that is that's the light ice if the light comes out of a small think then that's the loot lights eyes yeah and if you put clouds in between the sun then this humongous light side humongous great you got a pen it's beautiful no this is one of my favorite styles of lighting when I'm photographing people I like to use a lot of this era school chiaroscuro just means the level's off how fast the legos from bright too dark okay I like hide your school levels so when I'm photographing alanna can you come here for a quick second sorry if I'm photographing alana I'm gonna go turn around towards that light please I don't enjoy necessarily this kind of lighting I don't enjoy this is like note your school whatsoever is just straight on bride on either side nothing special about it's whatever that does not make me think okay, I prefer just like, a hint off light on one side, and then he goes into darkness on the other side kind of thing. Can you turn around this way right there and get a foot away from the light source? You can bring your chain down if you want. Take a look at this picture now and compared the two police. Okay, how many pictures do that take one? Well, one for the final, the recent wise because I know the science of life. So it wasn't hard, right? You just you just adjust, you do it. This is flat, straight up lighting. Nothing exciting about it. This is that you're a squirrel how beautiful it is and you keep your depth. Now it is still using one speed light, so this is not a complicated set up at all. I am shaping a lot of the way I wanted to look like I can make her cheekbones look the way I want them. I can do whatever the heck I want because I'm up. I am not going to say I'm a freaking honey badger. All right, everyone. I told the lads to step about a foot away from the light source can you guys tell me I'm sure you've got some of you know why it did that? Why I was going to take a tour of school photo that was the technique I wanted I wanted bright too dark quickly so why did I put her close to the light source then more drama no again back to the importance of science it is more drama but how did I get to that point in one single picture without having to take twenty to guess use the inverse square I used the inverse square law of light again people in the chat rooms and people here and everyone all over the world it's important to understand a little bit of the science of light to be ableto play with light okay this is the inverse square law of light I'm goingto I'm going to simplify it for people it's very simple forget it for me if you don't want to deal with it but basically it's very simple the intensity of light ok it means that it's inversely related it sounds geeky okay the intensity of light it's inversely related to the square of the distance between your life and your subject right which means that if I have my my my subject two feet from that two feet from that light source you put a too instead of the because that was the distance two feet in the distance you put the two here you have one over two square to square this four you get one fourth of the light that's incredible! Like she was just to feed. Now you're now you're at a fourth of the light that was hitting her before. Now she only gets hit by a force of it just because of one foot distance if I put her four feet from that light source four times four is sixteen. Now you get now. She gets hit by only one sixteenth off that light. This is going to be very important for you guys when we're trying to learn about high speed. Think all of the science comes back to understanding the flash. Okay, let's, experiment with this show where the real quick take a look at this next time, take a look at my my really lame drawing there. Okay. Here's helena right here. Alana is if you stands right there. One foot from the lights was basically receiving the whole lite is like bam! Right there. When the line is two feet from that light source she's now getting on ly a fourth of the light because of the formula, right when she's three feet. Not just getting a ninth of the light when she's four features getting a sixteenth of the light. Now, if you look at the percentages when you're basically on the light, you get a hundred percent of the light but look how quickly the light drops you go from one hundred percent it drops down to only twenty drops all the way down to twenty five percent you just lost seventy five percent of your light power from one foot difference. The reason why this is important is because when I wanted to photograph alana and I wanted her to go into total darkness right away I realize that because of the new square lo it tells me that the closer she gets to the light source the crazier the light fall of will be julie you understand what I'm saying but look at the percentages when she gets past six or seven feet when she gets past six or seven feet from that light source we go from three percent toe only two percent we only those one percent so if you don't want your a squirrel and you want to use your speed lights to give her drama do whatever you want you want to control the look you can put alan alan and you stand over here please way have a tape measure no, we don't. How far is this like what is this? Twelve feet twelve feet something like that I'm six feet one six yeah, right so so about seven and a half feet you know what's gonna happen a seven and a half feet fifteen I'm sorry right, thank you. This alanna is now the heck okay there you go twelve feet because we're taking this course in we're starting speed, lights and stuff what is she gonna look like twelve feet from the light source can somebody please tell me she's going to be pretty evenly exactly because that fall off is not very minimal at that distance amen sister amen of course we have to compensate let me compensate for their own quake in a second okay go on and show that last photo please thea the one next to the next one please look at the life fall off basically nonexistent now lana come backto come back close to this come back close going and turn your face this way chin down a bit okay to show that picture and can we show the last two pictures together please okay let me explain why this inverse square lo is so important if you have an ugly background put a subject close to the light the background goes to darkness because of the life fall off if you have a good looking background you can put the model or the subject closer to your you can put the model farther away from your lights close to your subject crystal to the background on your back and will also be illuminated so if I put her close to that light source again okay I don't want that I don't like the background is ugly so all I have to do take a picture of a lend of this way and look the background goes into pretty dark a pretty dark background look it goes in a pretty dark background so see you soon you see what I'm saying when I'm at a wedding we are excited because it's a reflective surface remember this is actually this has three options you can absorb a contrast mitt or it can reflect and renounce reflecting okay this is very important cause when I'm out a job and I don't like the background I simply tell the bride or whatever they're closer to the window and get closer to the light source I should into the other background you don't even see it not only set out of focus but he goes into darkness because of the inverse square law of light is a geeky is hell yes it is do I care no you have to learn it so just learn it let's make the flash is little less scary okay if you understand light you understand your speed lights I spent a whole first segment trying to teach people a little bit about light so now you can understand your speed lights you cannot talk about speed lights without understanding light okay, one comes after the other um at the very beginning offspeed lights the bare bones off these machines you basically have the tt l technology system the ptl technologist is pretty modern has been around for many years now and it's been improved but when he first started it was just called tt l which means through the lens how many people are confused about t t l e t t l n a t t l two on eighteenth year twenty four point eight six nine andi wch tl three six four point nine seeded by a very simple thank you thank you have you uh where's my little eraser very simple in ptl here's your sensor right here is centered in tl technology light gets shot out of your flash they keep shooting it on the light keeps filling up your sensor on tow the camera sees a correct exposure and then this the sensor tells the flash stop I have enough light you can stop now so the life just keeps on going into the computer and the camera says we have enough light because what happened this how do you draw a camera let's see? Okay there's a flash right? Okay the camera is pointing in the direction of the camera shoots flash this because of the first segment remember we talked about that flash gets hits the subject here is the science of light again when he hits the subject that light has three options is going to be absorbed by this person's skin or is going to be reflected if it's a mirror or if it's going to be transmitted if it's a diffuse material the camera doesn't know what's in front of it this is again why you need to know the science of light when the camera hits when the light hits your subject because it's a person which the current doesn't know by the way it's going to absorb some of that live in your skin you're going to absorb it you're gonna get harder because of it then the lights then part of the light of the nark it absorbed is going to get reflected back into the camera sensor that camera sees how much bloody came out how much light came out the cliffs of the camera shoots out one hundred percent of the light shoots out of the flash on issues like this that the flash shoots right one hundred percent this ray got lost this right here bye bye it got lost in the year this ray on this rate got lost in the air this race hit your subject but a lot of that kind of solved and then it gets its shoots that information back into your camera sense so he shoots out one hundred percent on lee forty percent comes back on it keeps waiting until there's enough light from that absorption and reflection and all that is waiting for there to be enough light to expose your subject properly at eighteen percent great and then he tells the camera stop I don't think the flash stops okay that's it any questions on that that's tio a t t l e t t l works like this here's your camera here's your flash here's your speed right here it shows flashes all over the place a t t l got a lot smarter what they did is instead of just the camera doesn't have to wait till there's an off light coming back from the reflected light from your subject what it'd feel does is a sense out one hundred percent of the light comes out of the flashlight hits your subject some of the lights gets lost lost lost and then some other light hits your subject found found ok founded the camera calculates how much like that I put out how much like came back in and he knows exactly because of that this discrepancy how much lighting is to put out to give you proper exposure to the difference? The first one detail your chutes light and it waits for light to return until the sensor season off light then he stops eating tear that flash shoots light a measures how much like him out then he measured how much light came back in it makes the mathematics okay, I send that one hundred only eighty percent came back so that's twenty percent so basically I'm going to shoot it at this enough power because without pre flashy has taken pre flash that pre flash shoots hits dog comes back into the camera eighty per cent of the light got reflected twenty percent got absorbed you need to shoot it at this much powers to get dog exposed properly and then you take your picture any questions on that? Okay a t l two which is the new one the only difference is the alternative tl is it does the same thing in seti tl politician to account to things how reflective your subject iss on west the distance in your it takes account in the distance in your lens it knows exactly how far you are so that's a difference okay that's titi l for you it's always going to compensate on is always going to throw enough light to expose for you properly this is very important because when people ask me questions about why my ta lt's too dark and won t yell is too bright is because they don't understand the mechanics of tl in the first place okay, let me explain something quick remember this guy's gtl it's always going to give you proper quote unquote exposure on your face okay how many of you have you heard? The term shutter speed controls the ambient temperature controls the flash raise your hand if you heard that term you have not quite exactly right it's not really true not in ptl that only works in manual tvl doesn't care what your shutter speed and appa juris is going to give you the proper exposure anyway the flash the absorption the way you look at your subject will not change you will have the same brightness level why don't I just prove it to you? I'm going to go toe e t t l which is the same thing as a t t l two they don't have the two in the flashes it's the same thing I'm going to photograph alana you can stand anywhere because my flags don't care my flashes of honey badger okay, so I'm going to photograph island I don't care about my shutter speed I don't care about my eyes so I'm just gonna take a picture and it's going to be exposed properly regardless no doubt this which it exposed properly now I'm going to go further away the loss of the inverse square law are now happening right where they always having another further away my flash would just compensate so there you go a lot of their usual on dh she's exposed properly it doesn't matter what I do just suppose properly same remember before it was totally different now I'm going to change my shutter speed fromninety know I'm gonna change my aperture that's supposed to change the flash output remember the aperture is supposed to change your flash output I'm gonna change it from four point five two toe eight point oh I'm gonna make it drastically different point the camera ilana take a picture she's exposed properly it doesn't matter what I do it's just exposed properly look at four point five the new picture coming up is now if eight exposed properly any questions in this that's why if you want to get our tea whatever you need to be able to control if you just need something exposed properly tl is your solution but if you wanna be able to change you want the inverse square law to play you in that you're a school you want that black you went that bright you went that side you want you need to go to manual, okay? Let's talk about manual flash controls so your camera basically has three ways it can be controlled it can be controlled through t t l it can be controlled manually and it could be four ways and it could be controlled optically for wireless flash on they could be controlled with a radio if you have a pocket wizard radio popper whatever the heck you put in there on dust this flash the six hundred by cannon has a building radio building. If you want to be able to control your flash manually the whole equation changes now you control the light through science and knowledge ofthe light let's switch it to manual you okay? Elena can I borrow you for a second? See where's the camera there it is. Okay, okay guys, I am on manual settings for my flash I'm going to be in control of the light, not my computer. When you're in control of the flash four things you need to keep in mind it's like a mirror it four things can affect your flash output the first one is your s o setting how light sensitive he's going to be your sense or during that exposure you need to know that if you're so one hundred is gonna be very much not light sensitive at all. If you're going to get ice or two thousand is going to be very sensitive a little bit of light will expose it perfectly. So how thirsty they went your sensor to be how thirsty for light very thirsty I s o one hundred no thirsty at all I s o thirty two hundred doesn't anyone doesn't even doesn't even wanna look at water twenty five thousand a throws up at the sight of water I s all sixty thousand whatever you see what I'm saying okay, so I'm going teo the other one is what is the distance between your light source on your subject, not the distance between your camera and your subject this is in your light on your subject okay, you need to know that the second one is what is the power of your flash do you have it a full power which is one toe one or do you have it at the lowest part which is one over one twenty five you know your flashes different power outputs actually in theory it has different power outputs in science it only has one power output you're okay I'm gonna go quicker if you use your light on lee has an on or enough it's the endurance of how long that on stays on that it makes you look more powerful but it's not it's the same output every single time from the weakest level toe the brightest level if you put it on a week level your flashes going to fire your fighters going toe is going your your shutters going open open and then right here your flashes going to basically go boom boom and then he's going to shut off and it's going to shadow will continue until the shutter closes for the picture to be over that flash was only on for those micro milli seconds just so it barely exposed for her when you put more power on your on your manual flash your shutter opens and then your camera says you need a lot of power so that little on off on the lipo is gonna go boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom and then the shutter finally closest so it's going to be on on on on on all this is being recorded into your screen into your sensor which gives you a brighter exposure clear super clear right good. So, um the next one is you're associating and the next one is your f stop or your aperture now that you're in manual now the aperture accounts can anybody tell me why the aperture accounts in manual flash doug? Because the aperture is goingto control how much light actually it's the sensor through the lens without regard to its not affected by duration the same way you know why? Because it's just it's like a valve letting out a certain amount of light in no, quite almost uh I almost let me explain this real quick because this will explain a lot of things, especially for high speed sync god can have on can you add a zero to that? Totally. I'll total seven where's my light again here see where's my other alleged I'll use this one take a look at these guys. I'm going to push the test button okay? When I pushed that test button that flash is going to come out that flash is on for like literally impossible amount off a small amount of time that your brain cannot even comprehend something along the lines of one thirty two thousands off a second or something like that like that you that light the little was so fast that even at your fastest shutter speed which is a thousand in most slr cameras this is like thirty two thousand or whatever your cameras fast shutter speed is only a thousand so it doesn't matter how faster shutter speed is your flash pizza so your flash nixon there anyone your your flash your your shutter opens and it goes off full speed ahead eight thousands of a second right andi closest at eight thousand off a second your flash I was going a thirty two thousands off a second your flashes laughing are you it's laughing at your camera? Your flashes like you think a thousand's going to stop this andi want your flash war sneaking beautifully it's comfortable at eight thousand it's taking a freaking nap they took a freakin shower by that time that short has been closest it's ready to go toe then a night out of town you see what I'm saying? Unless you have a camera has a shutter speed of ten million percent gazillion then your flesh will sneak in there that's why shutter speed doesn't effect the light that comes comes out of your flash but the aperture with thie aperture if you have a small tiny little hole not enough light get seen there's a flash still sneaks inch but this little hole only allows a little bit of that light to come in so it's like you have a way to control that it's like you want to play with me you want to sneak into my eight thousand you want to still get in there on dh basically that little hole says I'm going to stop you on a little bit of you can get in but if you have an aperture of like two point eight the hole is like this big so that flash all that light just gets right in there right? But the shutter speed doesn't affect this shutter speed doesn't affect us at all where does the sink speed come in? Good question seeing speed because you have a leaf shutter I mean a focal plane shutter donnelly shot and I would've been a terrible mistake because of a focal plane shutter that curtain. That curtain is going toe here's your sensor exposed proper jerseys sensor if you open up a counter there's your sensor there's two curtains above it one, two, one, two ok, two currents above it. When you think your picture this first curtain it starts to make its way down exposing the shutter and then when this is all the way down here when this is when this made it all the way down here, the second shutter starts to close close too close to a picture, okay, that moment when the first curtain lets the whole sense or be available to the light when the first current is down here, but the second current hasn't come down yet to closer to close that's when that little burst of light happens, that burst of light so it goes like this. I was going about to erase the board with my speed light. Okay, so basically goes like this. First curtain starts to make its way down, right down, down, down. As soon as this hits the bottom, the certain corners like my turn and then it starts to go down, too. But before it says my turn, as soon as the first curtain hits the bottom and the and the and the center is completely exposed to the light, the camera tells a flash fire in the hole on the flash goes ok, and he goes and then he goes on. It exposes the whole center to the light from the flash, and then the second, second, second current is like on any clothes. Is it the maximum sink speed happens when this curtain comes down on the second curtain has to start coming down, but if it's more than two hundred of a second on cannon and two hundred fiftieth of a second in icon, if he's faster than that speed, that second curtain has to start making its way down. Before the first curtain closer, hold away. Because it's so fast at shutter speed one over four thousand, that second curtain doesn't wait for the first karen to make its way all the way down. It doesn't wait for it when the first car is already on its way down second corners, like, dude, I have no time. We're at one thousand four hundred of a second. I'm gonna I'm getting moving on the second when it starts to move, and they're both moving together on lee, leaving the sensor exposed partially as they both come down at the same time. That's, what I got for thousands of a second, I want two hundredth of a second, is when the exposure is, when the sensors exposed all the way through any faster. The second curtain has to make its way down before the first curtain is all the way down.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I liked this course. Except I think on segment 3 of the lighting, as stated by one of the studio audience he got the color balance of warm wrong and blue when he was talking about balancing the light (at 30 minutes in). Having said this I got the theory of balancing, and the rest of the video was excellent. It really does help to see flash as photons and understand what science behind it, to understand how light works and how to use it to your advantage. This a a great course in order to revisit now and again in order to become competent on lighting when put on the spot of having a difficult situation.

user a391f8
 

This class is like shopping at Marshalls: there are some valuable things to buy but you have to go through a lot of crap to get to them. The production value of this class is awful. The folks at Creative Live must not have a class on video editing to follow because not enough material was left on the editing room floor.. Roberto is fabulous but it must have been one of his earlier forays into teaching because he was scatological in many areas. Creative Live could have minimized this by doing some editing. He's a fabulous photographer and an even better teacher and this class would be much better if it followed the format of his 3 books: orderly and succinct. Learned a lot from this class. I just wish I didn't have to work so hard for it.

CJ McBrown
 

I have to say upfront that I have not purchased this course but the brief information he gave is spot on! I'm a sr. photographer for a large beauty company and I have to give him kudos for how detailed and accurate his explanations are. If the entire video is anything like the preview I highly recommend it.

Student Work

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