Lighting Toutorial
Dec 13, 2019 20:29:16 #
What is a good class to take for using flash and fixed lighting for portraits and exterior shots. I see some shooters exposing for the background and flashing for the subject with great results.
Dec 13, 2019 21:02:13 #
Well, for starters, there are a lot of good groups on FaceBook.
Learn to Light - An OCF Lighting Community
Portraits and OCF (Off Camera Flash)
...and more.
Joe McNally is great, though some of the videos may be a bit advanced.
https://www.youtube.com/user/joemcnallyphoto/videos
I attended a workshop of his several years ago.
He was great.
Learn to Light - An OCF Lighting Community
Portraits and OCF (Off Camera Flash)
...and more.
Joe McNally is great, though some of the videos may be a bit advanced.
https://www.youtube.com/user/joemcnallyphoto/videos
I attended a workshop of his several years ago.
He was great.
Dec 13, 2019 21:03:10 #
Dec 13, 2019 21:05:44 #
John Howard wrote:
What is a good class to take for using flash and fixed lighting for portraits and exterior shots. I see some shooters exposing for the background and flashing for the subject with great results.
https://strobist.blogspot.com/?m=1
Dec 13, 2019 21:55:38 #
There are various methods of combining flash with natural light, out of doors.
On a bight or cloudy/ bright day, if the natural light is providing directional studio-like lighting, usually, in the early morning or later afternoon times of day, the flash can be used to fill the shadows and provide a controllable lighting ratio. You can use direct flash, diffused flash or modified flash depending on the effect you wish to obtain.
The flash can be set anywhere from 1 to 4 stops below the existing light. The skill is in placing the subject into the existing light pattern, managing the background scene and determining the ratio for the mood you want to establish in the shot. If you need a wide aperture to limit the depth of field you will need to lower your ISO setting and use a flash that can be powered down, diffused or modified sufficiently to accommodate the ratio you are looking for. Sometimes it is easier to provide fill and contrast control with a
reflector. If the available light, especially bright sunlight, is striking the subject from directly above as it will at high-noon, you can control the ratio but you will not achieve aesthetically-pleasing portrait lighting.
An alternative method for an overcast or dull day or in open shade, where there is virtually no pleasing directional lighting, you can use an off-camera flash, directly or modified, to provide modeling, portrait lighting and set the exposure so that the existing light becomes the fill source.
In this scenario, you would set the flash so the exposure is correct for the subject distance and set the power to accommodate an aperture where the natural light is anywhere for 1 to 4 stops higher than the ambient light.
You can also set up multiple flash systems where there is a main and fill lights and the shutter speed is adjusted to admit the correct amount of light to illuminate the background.
As you mentioned in your post, you can expose for the background or use the sun as a bac/hair light and fill in with an on/camera flash, however, the lighting on the subject's face may tend to be rather flat.
Daylight and electronic flash are usually compatible as to color temperature and white balance, however, in the early morning or later afternoon you may wish to use a warming gel on the flas gear.
These are just some of the methods, each photographer usually has the own favorite method. I use the ones that I outlined here most frequently, however, I prefer using a reflector in most outdoor portrait situations. I can use the reflector of fill or pump in re-direct back-light for a very effective result. I usually go to flash on dull days or light situation where there is not enough intensity of light to re-direct with a reflector. I also use flash, out-of-doors for fas handheld shots when covering events and weddings.
If you are using speedlight, without modeling lamps, you have to know how to simulate portrait lighting by instinct and practice. Even if you have a battery-operated monolight with modeling lamps, it may be difficult or impossible to see their effect in bright ambient lighting. If the modeling lights remain on during exposure, they can shift your color balance.
I don't know, offhand, which online tutorial to recommend- I'm sure someone here has a good recommendation. Meanwhile, you can try some of the aforementioned methods out and see how they work for you. I usually set my exposures manually and set my ratio using a flas meter that also read ambient light. After a while with practice, you'll get to know a few standardized setups and you can concentrate more on the lighting aesthetics and expressions, etc. If you are familiar with some of the portrait lighting forms such as butterfly, loop, Rembrandt, split, profile, etc, its is surprised how many you can find in natural light situations, only difference is you can't move the sun and the clouds so you need to move the subject into the lighting and find a good background in nature.
I hope this helps- good luck!
On a bight or cloudy/ bright day, if the natural light is providing directional studio-like lighting, usually, in the early morning or later afternoon times of day, the flash can be used to fill the shadows and provide a controllable lighting ratio. You can use direct flash, diffused flash or modified flash depending on the effect you wish to obtain.
The flash can be set anywhere from 1 to 4 stops below the existing light. The skill is in placing the subject into the existing light pattern, managing the background scene and determining the ratio for the mood you want to establish in the shot. If you need a wide aperture to limit the depth of field you will need to lower your ISO setting and use a flash that can be powered down, diffused or modified sufficiently to accommodate the ratio you are looking for. Sometimes it is easier to provide fill and contrast control with a
reflector. If the available light, especially bright sunlight, is striking the subject from directly above as it will at high-noon, you can control the ratio but you will not achieve aesthetically-pleasing portrait lighting.
An alternative method for an overcast or dull day or in open shade, where there is virtually no pleasing directional lighting, you can use an off-camera flash, directly or modified, to provide modeling, portrait lighting and set the exposure so that the existing light becomes the fill source.
In this scenario, you would set the flash so the exposure is correct for the subject distance and set the power to accommodate an aperture where the natural light is anywhere for 1 to 4 stops higher than the ambient light.
You can also set up multiple flash systems where there is a main and fill lights and the shutter speed is adjusted to admit the correct amount of light to illuminate the background.
As you mentioned in your post, you can expose for the background or use the sun as a bac/hair light and fill in with an on/camera flash, however, the lighting on the subject's face may tend to be rather flat.
Daylight and electronic flash are usually compatible as to color temperature and white balance, however, in the early morning or later afternoon you may wish to use a warming gel on the flas gear.
These are just some of the methods, each photographer usually has the own favorite method. I use the ones that I outlined here most frequently, however, I prefer using a reflector in most outdoor portrait situations. I can use the reflector of fill or pump in re-direct back-light for a very effective result. I usually go to flash on dull days or light situation where there is not enough intensity of light to re-direct with a reflector. I also use flash, out-of-doors for fas handheld shots when covering events and weddings.
If you are using speedlight, without modeling lamps, you have to know how to simulate portrait lighting by instinct and practice. Even if you have a battery-operated monolight with modeling lamps, it may be difficult or impossible to see their effect in bright ambient lighting. If the modeling lights remain on during exposure, they can shift your color balance.
I don't know, offhand, which online tutorial to recommend- I'm sure someone here has a good recommendation. Meanwhile, you can try some of the aforementioned methods out and see how they work for you. I usually set my exposures manually and set my ratio using a flas meter that also read ambient light. After a while with practice, you'll get to know a few standardized setups and you can concentrate more on the lighting aesthetics and expressions, etc. If you are familiar with some of the portrait lighting forms such as butterfly, loop, Rembrandt, split, profile, etc, its is surprised how many you can find in natural light situations, only difference is you can't move the sun and the clouds so you need to move the subject into the lighting and find a good background in nature.
I hope this helps- good luck!
Dec 14, 2019 06:50:34 #
billnikon
Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont
John Howard wrote:
What is a good class to take for using flash and fixed lighting for portraits and exterior shots. I see some shooters exposing for the background and flashing for the subject with great results.
There are a MASS amount of utube video's that cover that. Just google your question above and watch the magic begin.
Dec 14, 2019 08:47:07 #
If you are going to engage in flash photography learn about the flash you want and learn basic flash photography. Those are the first steps I recommend.
When shooting outdoors a commonly used technique is called fill-in flash to reduce contrast by softening the shadows. The person should be in shadows and the background should be bright. Nikon speedlights have a modality called TTL-BL that works automatically to achieve that effect. If I use that modality my tendency is cut the light from the flash by 1 stop of light. Background and subject in shadows for flash photography is also possible.
It is an excellent practice outdoors to expose for the background and use the flash to illuminate the subject. This is easy to do if the photographer knows what he or she is doing. There are excellent tutorials in You Tube teaching how to use flash and many more in the Internet.
South African photographer Neil van Niekerk has a website with lots of useful information about flash (www.planetneil.com.) Modern speedlights are loaded with new technologies and they are not that difficult to learn.
When shooting outdoors a commonly used technique is called fill-in flash to reduce contrast by softening the shadows. The person should be in shadows and the background should be bright. Nikon speedlights have a modality called TTL-BL that works automatically to achieve that effect. If I use that modality my tendency is cut the light from the flash by 1 stop of light. Background and subject in shadows for flash photography is also possible.
It is an excellent practice outdoors to expose for the background and use the flash to illuminate the subject. This is easy to do if the photographer knows what he or she is doing. There are excellent tutorials in You Tube teaching how to use flash and many more in the Internet.
South African photographer Neil van Niekerk has a website with lots of useful information about flash (www.planetneil.com.) Modern speedlights are loaded with new technologies and they are not that difficult to learn.
Dec 14, 2019 08:54:08 #
Dec 14, 2019 08:54:30 #
Dec 14, 2019 08:54:51 #
Dec 14, 2019 08:55:41 #
Dec 14, 2019 10:11:27 #
John Howard wrote:
What is a good class to take for using flash and fixed lighting for portraits and exterior shots. I see some shooters exposing for the background and flashing for the subject with great results.
Mark Wallace on Adorama TV...his tutorials are easy to follow and duplicate and Tony Northrup videos as well on YouTube.......these are great starting points and cost nothing.
Dec 14, 2019 11:32:00 #
John Howard wrote:
What is a good class to take for using flash and fixed lighting for portraits and exterior shots. I see some shooters exposing for the background and flashing for the subject with great results.
https://neilvn.com/tangents/
Neil's books in print and videos are excellent.
My motto "A great flash shot is like it never even happened" and viewers ask "Did you use a flash?"
Subtle, soft and directional light is what Neil teaches & shares very thoroughly.
Dec 14, 2019 12:43:11 #
I teach a class on Lighting and fill flash. I have used videos from Ed Verosky and David Bergman.
I'm sure you can find them on You Tube.
I'm sure you can find them on You Tube.
Dec 14, 2019 19:23:02 #
Hamltnblue wrote:
Try google and YouTube.
You might find what you want for free.
You might find what you want for free.
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