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Wisconsin Professional Photographers School @Treehaven
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Off Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Photographers
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The material will be presented over the course of the 4 days, and will be a mixture of seminar presentation and practical sessions.
There will also be evaluation and discussion of images at the end of each day.
1. Intro - to explain why directional light gives form, shape & dimension to the subject
(as opposed to direct flat light)
2. Basic concepts of WHY we use off-camera flash.
An explanation of how we can achieve this with bounce flash.
Comparison with off-camera flash, and the flexibility of it, as opposed to just bouncing flash.
Pros and Cons of both.
3. Discussion of different makes / models of flashguns and speedlights.
- speedlights / Q-flash / larger systems such as Alien Bees, Profoto, etc.
Advantages of each.
4. Light modifiers.
Explain the concept of: The larger the light source, the softer the light.
- softboxes
- reflectors
- umbrellas (shoot-though, and reflective)
- direct off-camera flash
Explanation of the differences in effect between those, as well as practicality of each in a real-world scenario.
5. Discussion of the various bits & pieces to put it all together
- clamps
- brackets
- cables
- radio controllers to trigger flash.
6. Explanation of metering and exposure techniques for flash AND ambient light.
To know how to use flash - whether it is to subtly add flash, or to use flash as the main source of light - an essential starting point is correct metering for ambient light.
With this, we start with an explanation of the tonality of a scene, by briefly looking at the Zone System, and how to apply it to digital.
Then an explanation of how
- using a handheld lightmeter, and
- using the camera's built-in meter with some thought, and
- interpreting the histogram,
will get us to the same place in terms of exposure metering.
7. Explanation of TTL flash vs manual flash.
The differences in approach between the two methods of flash exposure.
Pros and Cons of either. Why you would choose one over the other.
I will accentuate manual flash though, since this is generally the preferred method of using flash off-camera.
8. Choice of settings / flash as major source of light / fill-flash
How ambient light metering techniques are combined with metering for flash, in getting to a balance between flash and ambient.
A discussion on the different approaches on balancing flash with ambient light:
- subtle fill-flash with daylight. And here I will discuss and show examples of adding flash to daylight, as well as adding flash to a portrait where someone has his back to the sun. With all the examples that I show in photos, I will explain the thought process and a sure methodology to help decide on exposure.
- adding flash to a scene to balance areas in shade to areas which are sunlit. One of the examples will be to light someone with flash who is indoors, and balance the exposure for a scene outside the window. And again there will be a careful explanation of the thought process in HOW we arrived at our settings.
- fill-flash indoors. This is similar to how we use fill-flash outdoors - but in going through a similar method as we did outdoors to arrive at good use of flash, it will reinforce the concepts.
- flash as the main source of light. This will lead us into the important concept of ...
9. Dragging the shutter.
Explanation of how to allow ambient light in, to give more natural look to photos - even when flash is the main source of light.
And also a discussion of how this differs for manual flash and TTL flash.
10. Direction of light / quality of light
How our choice of direction of light from flash will affect the look of the image.
Sometimes our choice is forced upon us by the place or setting we are shooting in, but often we can make a better decision by understanding some basic concepts in lighting.
Here I will discuss (with photo examples) short lighting and broad lighting.
An explanation of working distance, and how we can control light fall-off to the back-ground.
11. Portrait lighting styles and patterns in the studio.
As basis for what we will do with off-camera lighting on location, we need to understand the basic lighting patterns and lighting setups used in the studio.
12. Off-camera flash controlled by radio transmitters. (manual flash)
This frees us up completely, and allows greater creative control.
Here I will show a variety of scenarios, illustrated by photographing models.
13. Wireless TTL flash. (but can also include manual flash)
Nikon and Canon both have wireless TTL flash systems which allows us to hugely expand our possibilities.
Also, a discussion of Radio Poppers and new TTL controlled PocketWizards.
14. Working with video light.
As a logical extension of using off-camera light sources, I will include the use of video light to enhance the available light.
ie .. thinking further than just off-camera flash. |
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Contact Registrar: Phil Ziesemer, 1200 E 7th Street, Merrill, WI 54452
Phone 715 536 4540
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