Today I'm gonna show you how to take your flash photography to the next level
Flash photography gives you the ability to add much more light into your images
it is mostly used at close range so today it'll be all about getting
headshots looking good so going from this to this and sorry but
I don't have any fancy models in this shoot today
just me and my mug shot we'll have Mike the photographer and Mike the model I
have already made part one so if you haven't seen that already click on the
eye in the corner or the link in the description a lot of people seem to be
quite intimidated by flash photography but you don't have to be if you approach
it systematically learn the basics and then start adding extras you'll very
quickly gain control over the flash instead of the flash ruining your shots
so on your camera in their settings it will have three to four different ways
of using the flash fill flash is basically where you fill in the shadows
and works well when you have a backlit subject slow sync is where you can shoot
with the flash at slow shutter speeds rear curtain sync is where the flash
fires just before the shutter closes so right next to that rear curtain hence
the name front curtain sync does the opposite it fires the flash at the start
of the shutter opening this is similar to your standard slow sync and should be
used when the camera is still I mostly use fill flash and rear curtain sync and
for today we'll be staying in fill flash and keeping the flash in manual mode as
well as the camera now you will need at least one flash head to follow along
with this tutorial if you don't have one I've linked the flashes I'm going to use
down below in the description and if you don't have a flash at all keep watching
and by the end I may have convinced you to start thinking about flash
photography now if you do have some extra money lying around it's worth
buying a modifier a wireless system and a light stand as well as a flash holder
which I'll get onto later again all of this is linked down below and it doesn't
have to cost too much either there are the expensive options but they're also
the cheap versions as well all the expensive ones will do is make the job a
little bit easier and quicker but you can get the
same results with a cheaper kit once you know how the flash works in conjunction
with your settings which I did teach you in part 1 the next thing to do is to
change the size of the light source the light on the top of the flash is pretty
small so it will give you a hard light when you point it directly at your
subject and you can see this here you can sometimes use this technique to fill
in the shadows by knocking the power right down but most of the time it's
better to avoid direct flashlights if you look at how the sunlight shines onto
the earth and just in case there's anyone out there thinking about it don't
ever look directly into the Sun but if you look at the light its emitting even
though the Sun is pretty big it's really far away
so in relative terms it's a really small light source so this produces hard light
with hard contrast ease shadows on the other hand on a cloudy day the sun is
shining onto the clouds and then the clouds radiate that light from all parts
of the sky so it's like a massive softbox and this is why when a portrait
photographer is outdoors they'll normally get their subject into the
shade on a sunny day or they'll look forward to those cloudy days because
that light is so soft and the same goes with flash photography if you just aim
the flash at the subject and fire away the light source will be tiny and
therefore will produce harsh light with deep shadows so get your Flash and set
it up like I showed you in part 1 everything is going to be in manual mode
from the flash to the camera and dial in your settings you're gonna start with a
shutter speed of 1/100 of a second ISO at 100 the aperture at 5.6 and the flash
at 1/4 first of all aim your flash directly at
your subject and then you'll fire off a shot keeping your subject within about 6
feet from you next keep those settings the same and then aim it at a wall
nearby and see what you get chances are it'll be a little bit underexposed
unless you're in a tiny little room this is because the light has to travel to
the wall and back and also the wall will soak up a little bit of the light as
well as the same light source being spread out over
much larger surface as the shot is much darker I started by increasing the power
of the flash to full power that wasn't enough so I opened up my aperture to f/4
so increasing the exposure by three stops in total now take another shot and
see what you get instead of it being direct and harsh it should be a lot
softer and directed from that one side however if you're far away from this
wall chances are it will be lighting the whole room so it like the background and
the subject and what we want to try and do is isolate the subject so we can just
light them I'll then move my subject closer to the wall and I'll move closer
to the wall as well now what's happening in this scenario is that the light
source is becoming bigger relative to the subject as they're closer to it so
now I'm closer to the wall if I kept the same settings the subject would more
than likely be overexposed like in this shot so now I'm gonna change the flash
power back to a quarter power but it's still a little bit bright so I'll close
the aperture from f/4 to F 5.6 in dropping the power you'll get a better
exposure on the subject and it will also darken the background making the subject
stand out more when last adjustment I made in this setup is to point the flash
up at 45 degrees so it's at 90 degrees to the direction I'm shooting at and 45
degrees upwards if you don't have a wall nearby but you do have a ceiling you can
bat it off that as well but realize this might give you a very soft light over
everything so your subject and your background and sometimes this can darken
the eye sockets so what you want to try and do is aim the light up and behind
you and this is one of the reasons why flashes can be turned through 180
degrees so you can aim it back and up and it hits the ceiling just behind you
so then that light source will light the front of the subject more here you can
see the difference if you make sure the flash hits the ceiling behind you you'll
like the front of the subject more than the top of the subject another thing to
take into consideration is these little flappy bits on the top of most flash
heads if you put this diffuser over the flash
this will disperse the flash even more and this little white card will give
your subject a little bit more of a direct flash look so some of the flash
will bounce off the ceiling and some will bounce off this white card lighting
the front of your subject say if I'm shooting an event and I need to use
flashes because there's not much light about but I have a limited amount of
time this is how I'll shoot I'll walk into the room and then work out what I
need to bounce that light off and then once I figure this out
I'll get my settings right and then start shooting because I set everything
in manual I'm not gonna get any major shifts in the images next it's time to
get the flash off the camera and for this you will need a remote I have a
cheap one and a more expensive one they both do a really good job but the
expensive one does have the receiver built into the flash so no extra
batteries or maps to worry about so here I have a small softbox from godox and
the 8200 but any flash can produce the same results and this small softbox is
ideal for a small flash head like the young newer one I've listed in the
description so you can see here it's the same lighting scenario but just with the
young newer flash instead of the 8200 if I remember rightly this system cost
around about $100 for the flash the transmitter and the receiver
now with the 8200 it is a little bit more expensive but it has more power and
it gets the job done a lot quicker whichever one you have you want to get
your Flash to around about a 45 degree angle from the direction you're shooting
at now this isn't a hard and fast rule but it's a good starting position so
this is where it comes down to experimentation I'll generally keep the
subject where I want and then I'll move the flash around them until I get a look
that I like and as well as moving it around the subject you can also move it
up and down on the tripod so there's so many different ways in so many different
places you can put one light to change the look of the shot to darken the
background I've already reduced the amount of
ambient light by shooting at 1/100 of a second
but I can drop this a little bit more and I know I can get away with a
roundabout one one hundred and eightieth of a second with my camera I'll then
close any curtains that are letting in a lot of light then I'll get the softbox
as close as I can to the person without it encroaching into the shot if your
flashlight is hitting the background all you need to do is bring yourself and the
subject away from this background as much as possible again this is using the
inverse square law so the light fall-off will add to the darkening of the
background now if you like this and what to get even softer light you can by
buying an even bigger softbox and with this godox flash head holder it does
come with a bones mount which is one of the more popular softbox mounting
options the photo on the left was taken with the 60 centimeter softbox and the
one on the right with 120 centimeter softbox it is a subtle difference but
the fall-off is more gradual with the larger softbox now whether you choose
direct light a small softbox or a larger softbox is completely up to you the only
downside to having this bigger softbox is that it will spread the light further
into the room especially if you're shooting with say the godox 8200 or a
more powerful flash head one way to control this is by using a grid this
basically stops the light from spilling out from the softbox
in anything but the direction you're pointing it at the only downside with
grids are that they soak up a lot of light so you will have to bump up the
flash power so if you take a look at this first shot I'm around about 4 feet
from the wall and there's no grid on the softbox in this second one I'm 4 foot
from the wall again but this time the soft box has the grid on it I've had to
double the amount of power coming out of the flash head but you can see it really
reduces the amount of light spilling onto anything but the subject so this is
the extent of using one flash but there is a little bit more that you can do
with it and to get another few different looks you will need a reflector you can
either get a huge one or you can buy one of these smaller ones the smaller ones
are much more practical and they work perfectly for what we're doing
today also these are relatively cheap and will basically add another light
source to your photos without actually having to have another light you can
have it on the opposite side to your main light you can have it behind the
subject to create a comment of hair light or you can have it below the
subject the sky really is the limit basically because you can create so many
different looks so it just depends on how creative you can get with this setup
and it all comes down to experience the more you test this out and try different
setups the more kind of looks that you will be able to get with this very
simple kit now one thing I should mention is if you've got your flash off
camera and on a light stand you'll need to weigh that down because flash heads
can be quite heavy the big soft boxes can actually catch in the wind and blow
over and the last thing you want to do is that flash falling on someone falling
on your subject or just smashing on the floor and that's it for part two I think
I'm probably gonna have a part three as well because there's so much more to
learn about flash photography and you never know there might be a part four
and a five as well and if you enjoyed this tutorial click on this next video
for one of many Ortiz's videos he's a fantastic portrait photographer and well
worth following all click on this bottom video for one of my playlists on
photography and I'll see you next time