common misconception I don't like flash because it doesn't look natural well in
this video I'm gonna address this misconception and teach you that flash
can look either natural or dramatic and I'm gonna give you four steps to getting
your light right and to your intention with each photograph you take my name is
Pye and I'm one of the founders of Lynne and Joseph photography and SLR lounge
comm we're teaming up with a dorama to bring you a new series of photography
tutorials called master your craft right here on adoramatv so let's dive in
what's up friends it is so good to be back here on adoramatv thank you guys
for having me thanks for tuning in and what we're talking about now is this
common misconception when it comes to flash photography so a lot of us we
don't like jumping into flash because we desire a more natural look to our images
and we think that flash can't be that in fact when we think of flash what most
often comes to mind are kind of two things one we obviously think of this
kind of overall direct flash type look right and honestly direct flash when
used correctly when you stylistically can still look great and it has its own
look and appeal on its own but we know that it's direct flash right either way
you know as direct flash is not natural the other thing that we typically think
about when it comes to flash photography is shots like this images that are more
dramatic so with these more dramatic images we're seeing our backgrounds very
dark and we very noticeably can see light being added to these subjects in
the photograph either way once again there's nothing wrong with this style
its degree and it has its own appeal all by itself but it's not what you would
describe as a natural photograph so in this video I want to talk about exactly
how you can get to either look whether you're going for natural or dramatic and
I'm gonna give you four steps in getting there so first let's go ahead and
reference a couple slides these are actually from lighting one and lighting
two okay so from our as well as workshops we have this slide and I want
you guys to internalize this you can screenshot it do whatever you'd like but
what you see here is when we're balancing flash for dramatic effect so
we want to get that kind of papi look the ambient
exposure is pulled down when we're going for that kind of a look well what's
happening here if you look on this little sliding scale is we go to the
left we pull our ambient light down and we bring our flash power up that's all
we're really saying here so if you want to create a dramatic image you're gonna
pull the in-camera exposure down and you're gonna increase the flash power
that you're adding to your shot and when we get that we see images like the
examples down below okay so where you have a subject that's very deep in the
shadows because we take that base exposure that dark a mule a shot and we
pump in then a lot of light to bring our subject count in every one of these
cases super dark scene we pump a lot of light into our subjects okay great so
the next thing is well what we want to get a more kind of natural look to our
images in fact what if we want to create natural-looking light whether it be
schooled now our Sun flares whether it be you know kind of just natural light
that falls on the skin whatever it is well we go to the opposite side on this
slide so when you look at this slide now we're leaving the ambient exposure in
camera to be brighter and because we're leaving the frame to be quite bright
we're pulling the flash power down so we're letting the flash power be darker
right so when you look at the before and after in each of these you'll notice
that the a my exposure is very bright already and each image shows just a
little bit of Flash being added and what I want to do is kind of dive into this
so you guys can see it just a little bit closer right so we look at these images
where we're going for a natural look your base exposure is already very
bright this is one eight hundred of a second at f/2 and ISO 50 and notice that
when we add flash it's literally like a half stop maybe one stop of light that's
coming in directionally over the shot it could almost be a reflector but the
benefit of using flash is that you're not going to cause people to squint
there's there's a lot of benefits you know outside of using like a reflector
constant light to kind of fill light but the main one is that you can get as much
power as you want you have mark all over and it's not going to cost you
to squint when you put a lot of light on them like a reflector with but that's
the important pieces that you see where those baseline exposures work right same
thing here so in this scene this is actually coming from lighting for and in
lighting for we're teaching how to mimic every form of natural light from window
like a golden hour to flares to direct light to midday Sun all of it we want
you guys to be able to understand flashes that potential to be able to
create sunlight essentially anywhere so here we're actually looking at a flashed
photograph the base exposure is one to n of a second F one point eight nine so
800 it's actually pretty dark the Sun is already set and now we're popping that
flash behind the scene and just kind of barely peeking through the window to
kind of flare in so most of what you're seeing again is that natural ambient
light we're using that flash this is a little bit of a flare to kind of
convincingly create this Golden Hour looking effect okay so when we go to the
dramatic side I want you to see kind of a couple examples of this that are
fullscreen beyond what you saw in that little slide so again you look at these
scenes and you're like yeah we've definitely pulled down the ambulance
poacher we're leaving things dark and we're putting just a little bit of light
into the places that we want to light up right so this entire left background his
body everything is left dark we're putting a flash just a little bit in
areas we want same thing in this scene just a little bit of light exactly where
we want it okay so this brings me to our four steps and we're gonna talk through
the camp framework in this video because it's something you're gonna probably see
a lot in all of our videos whether you're here on adoramatv whether you're
watching us on srl lounge or in our premium content on srl and workshops
calm so the camp framework is a four step systematic approach to dialing in
really everything in any scene that you photograph regardless of what subjects
you're shooting and the first step is the C so camp CA MP c stands for
composition this means that before you kind of think about anything in fact
before you even pick up your camera I want you to walk the scene scout look at
different angles figure out what compositions you like
what angles you like what are the possibilities in that location this
means that even if you have your subject there don't feel rushed to just jump
into shooting take a moment it doesn't take long just convince yourself to slow
down a little bit take a moment walk the scene figure out the composition first
that is step number one and I'll always dial in my composition in camera get an
idea of the exact frame that I want before I even touch the exposure or
adding light step 2 now you're gonna go to ambient exposure okay
I mean exposure means this is where we're gonna set our intention now that
you understand the exposure balancing to get to a natural versus a dramatic image
before you ever touch the flash set your intention in the camera if you want a
more natural looking image you're gonna leave the ambient like brighter and then
you're gonna add in less flash power right and if you're aiming for something
more dramatic you're gonna pull that a mean exposure down and then you're gonna
add more flash power but worry first about that a mean exposure sets your
intention for the shot then what I love doing is taking a little Tesh OTT with
your subject or a test subject in the frame and from there we're gonna go to
modify or add light that's step 3 so in this step we can choose to either modify
the existing light via reflectors or other kind of natural light modifiers or
we can choose to add light in cases of obviously we want to add flash we're
gonna be adding light but start with one start with one light and then if you
need more add another one so we're gonna begin by adding one light to our scene
and then dialing the power setting based on again that intention right so now we
make things a lot more easy because we don't have to constantly guess oh man
what power do I need what power well the power is gonna be based upon your
ambient exposure if you set the scene to be very dark this is the great thing
about this I want you to put this in your pipe and smoke it okay because if
you set the scene to be really dark if your ISO is at 100 or 50 or whatever it
is and you're dialing the a mean exposure down
you automatically know you're gonna be working with higher power settings on
your flashes this is where you've been working at 1/4 1/2 or even full power if
you are running at high ISOs well my general rule of thumb is that's kind of
a weird origin behind that I'll say but either way that general kind of rule
there is start with the inverse of what your ISO is what that means is simple if
you're at 1600 ISO put your Flash to 1/16 power and start there if it's too
much dial it down if it's too little dial it up easy peasy
if you're at ISO 100 start at 1 over 1 dial it down or dial it up when in the
Sun 1 over 1 so again in bright scenes if you're dialing things down you're
just gonna go max flash time if you're going with a very subtle amount of light
because you're dialing your ambient exposure to be more on the natural side
and things are more bright then bring the flash power down start at 1/8 1/16
1/32 start these lower power settings and adjust from there this way you guys
don't have to memorize anything you have to memorize flash power for different
apertures I hate math why would we want to get on our shoot and be doing math
where artists be creative and all you got to do is just kind of start in that
rough area it'll take you 1 maybe 2 shots to get it down in but after that
one light I know I'm holding two fingers up but one light after one light is set
up then you're gonna set up your second light if you actually need one and then
after two lights are set up if you need a third light you're gonna set up a
third light it's actually necessary just start with one last step step number
four is once your lights setup you've already decided your composition you're
a man exposure your light power and everything is good now we get to the
step of photograph this is where your mind should be focused on imposing on
directing on getting the details right and getting the shot exactly what you
want and the beauty about this is now once you're on step four you're not
thinking about anything from a technical standpoint because all of that has been
dialed in so now you can let your mind focus specifically on just right brain
functions being creative being in the moment
getting the best possible shot when you get to a new scene you start the camp
framework all over again and you're gonna do it again so that's it I love
talking through all this stuff with you guys and I hope you all enjoyed it as
much as I did if you did I'd love for you guys to subscribe it to the
adoramatv channel you guys can leave a comment below let me know what you think
about the video I'm gonna do my best to respond in addition if you want more of
the best a to Z education available please check out SLR lounge
workshops.com you can also follow us at sr lounge and you can follow me
personally at PI G Ursa and I'm gonna see you guys in the next video face