May 2019 – Published for the first (and second) time

Flash Photography – A helpful guide to why – Part 2

For Jasmine, because she demanded Part 2. But it’s not complete at all, there will be a Part 3. However, look for the overview here in Part 1

So, now, ONTO THE FLASH!

We’re going to use the example of a Speedlite, or Speedlight, or Speed Light, depending on what brand of camera you have and who manufactured the light itself, it’s all the same.

We are going after a few different Modes that you may or may not have.

1. TTL
2. Manual
3. SS/HSS

TTL stands for Through The Lens. Generally your camera and light are going to work together and give you proper exposure. This is a great way for beginners who are doing a lot of shooting in different environments and are just wanting to wing it and get light. If you aren’t shooting your camera in Manual mode while you light is in TTL, you might have some issues. Any automatic or Aperture/Shutter Priority modes can cause some odd over/under exposure in photos because the both are going to fight with each other to correct one another.

Manual is exactly like it sounds, you’re doing all the calculating yourself. This is where you have freedom and more importantly, this is where you have all the control. This is where you will spend a lot of your time.

SS/HSS is Speed Sync or High Speed Sync. This is more of a setting for getting dialed into doing some fun portraits outdoors, but it’s like it sounds, it allows you to shoot above the general range of most lights that sync up to 1/250 shutter speed. We’ll get more in depth with this later on.

They key is experimentation with all the settings to fit your needs or your preferences, we live in a digital age, taking test shots is ok, they don’t cost you anything.

Ok we got all that out of the way, so have fun!

Wait, we didn’t actually talk about using the flash!

So, now you have been playing with these settings, let’s do what we came here for: How to use that flash!

We will go over a few different ways to use your flash, now the type of flash you have will be different, but this will generally cover about every speedlite type flash there is.

• Bounce That Light Off Something
• Diffuse that harsh Light
• Ambient Light? More Like Second Light Source!
• Gels? YOU WANT TO USE GELS ON A SPEEDLIGHT? Ok!
• TTL and You, A match Made in Heaven (almost)
• HIGH SPEED
• The More the Merrier!

Bounce that Light Off Something!

Ok, the reason why you have this light is to not use the stupid straight on flash that you have on the camera already. It’s kind of pointless to point the speedlight toward your subject, that’s how you get the, “Family portrait at disney in 1997 with a disposable flash camera” look.

What you need to do is look at the surrounding area and figure out what you can use to “bounce” the light off of. Does your flash head rotate all the way around, point it away from the subject and let TTL do it’s work. This will give a warm and shadowkilling shot that will look professional.

That’s a taste of the rest of the information to come, for now this is all I had time to get to. In part 3 we’ll talk about diffusing light, working with second light sources, gels??!?!, and other fun tricks to work with. Until then, leave a message or hatemail for not finishing the rest of the bullet points.

Sorry, writing takes time, and I just wish I had more time a day. (For those wondering why I don’t have time, I’ll write about that too eventually… when time permits)

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Seamless Seems Less

By now, you probably have noticed that I’m more of a nature, candid, real world photographer, getting texture and natural objects in frame for shots. However, sometimes you want a seamless solid color background, without texture (blech) for a portrait, product, or pet shot.

So, I started on a journey to find a great way to do this, cheaply, and without getting screwed over by the thousands of manufacturers across the world who sell “Seamless Solid Color Backgrounds” in a multitude of colors, materials and sizes.

And now, I have a headache and need a stiff drink.

This has been a test of patience.

You can search up and down the internet to find seamless backdrops, but good luck in finding what you actually want for a decent price.

I thought Vinyl was going to be the path that would bring the cheapest backdrops, that will in turn get you what you need.

That’s the wrong path. Unless you know the manufacturer is going to be cutting and rolling up the backdrop before they ship it to you, you’re going to get a 5’x7′ Vinyl backdrop that will be folded up into an almost pocket sized square and have so many deep creases that you won’t be able to do anything about them. Complete waste of money, even if they are only 8 to 15 bucks a piece.

Some outlets have Muslin, if I were shooting people and not a dog for these, that could be a good choice, they are cheap, durable, and if they do get ruined paying 15 – 25 per 5’x7′ isn’t so bad.

Then Paper… it seems to be the only real way to go, but it’s soooooo expensive. I’m still contemplating this one, I will have to report on what happens when I order them.

I honestly don’t know what the purpose of this was. I think I just needed to get this frustration off my chest.

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Flash Photography – A helpful guide to why – Part 1

Ok, first, get a lengthy trench coat, wear nothing underneath and then when someone is least expecting it, jump out from a bush or from around the corner and expose yourself! (DON’T EVER DO THIS).

So, you want to learn how to use your Flash. First we need to get a handle on some basics about your camera and how light works with it.

Shutter Speed
Aperture Size
ISO (kind of)

Without going deep into details of individual walkthroughs for all the nuances of a camera (those are to come), we are going to focus on the factor of light with both of these:

Shutter Speed is how long your camera’s shutter stays open when you press the button. So in the short and sweet, the longer your shutter is open, the more light hits your sensor to take the photo!

The slower the speed, the more light, the faster the speed, the less light.

Pretty simple.

This will bring us to the next item:

Aperture Size!

“But I don’t have anything on my camera that says Aperture Size!”, you exclaim.

I understand, this is the magical F/*insertnumberhere* setting.  They are also known as F Stops.

Kind of like you eyeballs, think of Aperture or F/Stops as your pupil. When there is a lot of light, your eye constricts the pupil to a pin drop and lets as little light in as possible to get the full image of life around you. When it’s dark, your pupil expands to let in as much light as possible to get the image you need to see.

That’s just what F/Stops are. The lower the number the more light comes in, the higher the number the less light comes in.  There are a few other fun things that happen with wide open apertures that we will go over as well.

And ISO, I say this is kind of important, because it can be used to brighten your photos, but too much ISO, you end up getting Noise. Any of you that have watched my live streams, you always hear me complaining about noise on some of my older photos. Noise is annoying.

Ok, so that was a quick overview of 3 components on your camera to get ready to use flash photography.

Well? Now what?

ONTO THE FLASH!

No, wait, ONTO WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE A FLASH!

Before we dive right into the flash and what the numbers do on the flash, let’s go over why you want to use it. Some people go crazy and say flashes ruin photos because it takes out all the natural soft light or creates weird shadows or makes things look to sharp.  

I say this, “You’re doing it wrong”.

There are tons of reasons why you might want to use a flash, either your typical hotshoe speedlight (that can be used remotely off camera if needed with a few accessories) to your big bulky studio mono Strobe lights and everything in between.  

So, some reasons you might want to use the flash in the first place:

• Poorly Lit Interior Shots
• Detailed Indoor Shoots for Events
• Outdoor shoots where your subject is just poorly lit in a well lit environment
• Fill Flash to overpower the sun or a heavily backlit subject while Outdoors
• To stop environmental color spill (that’s my own term) from leaking onto the subject
• GELS

Stay checked in for the next part where we go over The Flash itself.

This is a new ground for me, I will be trying to get more together in terms of examples with photos, diagrams, etc. But for now, just some easy text to go over. There is a lot to do, and thank you for coming with me on this journey.

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