Hello! Welcome to my studio.
I'm Sandra Coan. I'm a Seattle-based newborn and family and portrait photographer.
And I'm so excited you're here today
because I am going to share 5 tips
for how to create beautiful, soft, natural-looking light
with strobes and flash when you're working inside!
So let's do it!
[slow-tempo music]
Okay, tip number one:
use a large modifier,
and that's because the bigger our light source,
the softer the light!
And when you want to create that soft, window light look
using a large modifier is really going to help you achieve that.
Okay tip number two
is, once you have that large modifier on your lights,
bring that light and that modifier in nice and close to your subject,
and that is because the closer your light,
the softer your light is going to be.
Again, we're trying to create that beautiful, soft, window light look, right?
So you can bring that light in nice and close,
and it's gonna wrap around your subject,
and it's gonna be so beautiful.
Okay tip number three:
once that light is nice and close,
like two to three feet away from your subject,
I want you to turn the power on your light down.
Okay, maybe this sounds like a no-brainer,
but this is why:
so, the closer your light is to your subject,
the softer that light is going to be.
And the closer your light is to your subject,
the brighter your light is going to be.
And one of the things I hear from people all the time
is that they stay away from using strobes and flash in their work
because they don't like that harsh, flashy-looking light
that they think they're going to get when using a strobe or flash.
Well, one of the best ways to avoid getting harsh, flashy-looking light
is to make sure that the power on that light is turned down.
So that light's nice and close.
It's going to be soft. The power's turned down.
And again it's just going to fall softly on your subject,
and create that beautiful window light look.
Okay, now that brings us to our 4th tip,
which is this:
People say, "Okay, Sandra Coan,
"I get it. You want me to turn the power of my light down,
but to what?"
And, well to whatever your light meter tells you to do!
So tip number 4 is you're going to use a handheld light meter, okay?
So, what a handheld light meter will do
is it's going to help you determine the exact power your light needs to be at
for you to shoot the way you want to.
Now, I personally love shooting wide open.
I'm always at an f/2 or f/2.8
because when I'm shooting wide open like that
I can create that beautiful shallow depth of field
that looks like my images when I'm using window light,
and again I want to recreate that beautiful window light look
when working with strobes and flash.
Um, so what I do is,
I bring my light nice and close,
I turn the power on my light down,
and I use my light meter to help me determine
what level of power my light needs to be at.
It's a great little tool.
Go out and get yourself one.
Okay, tip number 5!
So tip number 5 has to do with light direction.
So now that we know that we're going to use a large modifier,
we're going to bring that modifier in nice and close,
we're going to turn the power on our light down,
and we're going to use a light meter to help
determine what aperture we're going to be shooting at.
I just want you to take care and make sure
that your light is falling on your subject in a way that is flattering.
Now listen, our eyes and our brains,
are used to seeing light fall from above, right?
Because that's what the sun does. [fumbles over words]
We all just walk around seeing people lit this way naturally.
So, when people are lit from above,
it's just naturally appealing and flattering.
Well what happens sometimes when people are using lighting inside,
using artificial lighting, they get into a situation
where they're accidentally uplighting their subjects,
meaning that light's coming up this way.
And it's just not pretty. This is something that I see.
all the time in newborn photography
because what will happen is people will bring a baby in,
and they'll have that baby lying down,
and they'll have their light positioned in such a way
that they're accidentally uplighting the baby,
giving them that like flashlight under the chin,
horror movie look right?
It doesn't look good on anybody.
So this is how you make sure you're not doing that:
when you have your light set up,
if you're working with a baby, if you're working with a little kid,
or maybe you're even doing boudoir photography
and you have an adult lying down,
just make sure that your subject's head
is always pointing towards the light.
When your subject's head's pointing towards the light,
then you know that that light is going to be falling
down the face in a way that's flattering.
If you turn that around and you have your subject's feet
pointing towards the light--like you have a little baby
and their feet's facing the light--
You're going to be accidentally uplighting them,
and it's just not going to be pretty.
So, pay attention to that.
Aright you guys, those are my five tips
for creating beautiful soft natural looking light with strobes and flash.
Let's recap really fast.
Tip 1, use a large modifier.
Tip 2, bring that modifier in nice and close.
Tip 3, turn the power on your light down.
Tip 4, use a handheld light meter
to help you determine what power your light needs to be at.
And tip 5: make sure that your light is
always falling on your subject from the top down.
Alright I hope that was helpful.
if you would like more information on how to create
natural looking light with strobes and flash,
then check out my book Crafting the Natural Light Look.
It teaches my one light approach
to creating this beautiful, soft, natural looking light with strobes and flash.
And here's one of my favorite things about the book
is that I have information inside on how to do that
for both film and digital photographers.
So, I'm a film photographer.
It was really important for me to talk about that in the book,
and then of course obviously I have information for digital photographers too!
So check it out you can get it right here at B&H,
either in person or online.
And if you want to see some of my work or you just want to connect
then check me out on Instagram.
@SandraCoan
or visit my website that I have
just for photographers to teach them
how to create beautiful light with strobes and flash.
And you can find me at sandracoaneducation.com for that.
Alright, thanks for being with me today,
and I hope that this was helpful!