Photography - The Ultimate Guide to Using Off-Camera Flash

Cameras and flashes - what do you need?

The chances are you already have some of the equipment you need, but even if you don't, it's not necessary to spend a small fortune, it can be done on quite a small budget. Speedlights in particular can be purchased at low cost, but what type of off-camera speedlight do you need.

After watching this video you will know if your camera and flash is suitable, and if not, what gear to to buy.

How to mount your flash onto a stand using a flash umbrella bracket.

In this video, I demonstrate how the flashes, stands and umbrellas all fit together. It's quite straightforward, but you're going to need a flash umbrella bracket to make sure the flash fits on the light stands along with either a shoot thorough or reflective umbrella.

In this video I go through each of the various ways to trigger off-camera flash, and there's a few of them, some more expensive than others! This video goes into detail but please take a look at the 'Triggering Summary' PDF document for a brief summary.

In this video I explain that despite the march of time, and some new equipment appearing, it hasn't really made any difference to the course, the fundamental principles still apply.

However there have been some flash / trigger developments, so please take a look for an update

Cheers,
Bernie

Shoot through umbrellas, softboxes, reflective umbrellas, grids, snoots and gobos. The generic term for these is 'Light Modifier', because they erm... modify the light.

This video describes them in details and points out some pros and cons for the type of off-camera flash photography that I'll be demonstrating later videos.

You may not be making the most of your large modifier, maybe it's not as large as you think! This lecture demonstrates the reason for this, and shows a simple solution.

In the context of off-camera flash, some light meters are commonly referred to as flash meters. But do you need one for this type of photography. Some would argue that you should always use them, others that they're antiquated in this digital age.

In this video, I offer you my opinion.

In this whole series of lectures, i'll only be using the Manual mode on both the camera and flash. No Aperture priority, no Shutter speed priority and no TTL.

Manual mode is easy to understand and do, and is another 'string to your bow' when it comes to exposure.

The aperture settings is one of the 5 aspects of off-camera flash exposure settings. Although it controls both the ambient and flash light, in the world of indoor off-camera flash, it's generally used mainly to control the flash exposure.

The overall exposure is controlled by the Aperture, the Shutter Speed and the ISO, flash to subject distance and flash power. 

The shutter speed has no impact on the flash exposure because it's  a very fast burst of light compared to shutter speeds which are much slower. So what does the shutter speed do? Well, it has a specific role to play when using flash.

When we increase the ISO, we increase our camera’s sensitivity to light, and so it becomes more sensitive to both the ambient light and the flash light together.

So how and when should you use it for off camera flash photography?

You can almost think of flash power as being like a domestic dimmer switch, except that instead of the light output changing smoothly like it does with a dimmer, the light output jumps up or down, by whatever power setting you’ve chosen.

You would think that if you moved the flash twice as far from the subject, that you would halve the light.

But you'd be wrong, in fact you'd lose a whole lot more light than that. This video explains in simple terms, the effect it has when you change the distance from flash to subject, especially on the background.

This lecture is from my other course, Become a Better Photographer - Part II

What is flash sync speed exactly, why is there a maximum sync speed, and what's the way around it?

Maybe you're already aware that your camera's shutter speed is limited to (usually) around 1/250th of a second when using flash. But why is that, and what happens if you ignore it, (assuming your camera allows you to ignore it?) There is a way round it using High Speed Sync, but it's not a perfect solution.

This film includes some focal plane shutter animation to explain in detail what it's all about.

Great results with a simple one-light setup, and you can get vastly different results by simply moving the light around the subject.

This lecture demonstrates the first steps needed in order to improve the look of the background.

Now that you've learnt how to control the light spill on the background, you can start thinking about lighting it.

You can easily change the look and feel of the background using readily available gels.

The dramatic type of light seen so far isn't suitable for everyone, here's how to flatter your subject a little by using a fill light.

Here's a great lighting setup for flattering your subject, commonly called Clam shell lighting

We've been using a quite soft light so far in these videos, but sometimes you can get a more 'edgier' feel using a hard light

The patterns of light and shadow on your subjects face will change depending on the position and height of the light and also the angle of the face.

You can make terrific looking backgrounds by firing a flash through various objects that find lying around the house This lecture demonstrates some great examples.

Sometimes, the less you light something, the more interesting it becomes. Honeycomb grid attachments for speedlights are great because they produce a small shaft of light. They can give a really cool look, terrific for a little extra creativity.

White backgrounds won't normally appear white, they can be anything from off white to black depending on your lighting setup.

This video demonstrates the technique for making a whiter than white background.

We saw in a previous video how to create a glamour / beauty light using clam-shell lighting.

Here's another way of achieving a similar kind of light with just one 1 flash, but it does require a more expensive product.

Shooting outside with off-camera flash requires a little more thought than when shooting inside. With off camera flash exposure indoors, you usually (but not always) want to avoid including any of the tungsten or fluorescent ambient light, outdoors you usually want to balance the ambient light with that of the flash.

In this 2nd equipment update video I talk about some interesting flash products that are useful for location Off-Camera Flash photograph, so please take a look for an quick update

Cheers,
Bernie

With careful use of off-camera flash, you can get dramatic images by using the sky as the background. When using manual triggers, this is much easier to do when light level are lower, i.e dusk or early morning.

Having a perfect balance between the ambient and flash light will mean that the flash is acting as a fill light.

That's ok and works well, but to create a more dramatically lit portrait requires a difference balance.

Outdoor photo session at dusk

Outdoor sessions are much easier when you shoot at dusk or in a shaded area because the lower light levels allow more flexibility regarding wider apertures.

Not only are larger aperture easier on your flashgun, but they are great for blurring the background.

On a bright day, typical exposure settings for off camera flash might be 1/250th at f8 or f11, ISO 100, so at your maximum sync speed it's impossible under normal circumstances to shoot with wide apertures in order to blur the background or do selective focusing.

There a couple of solutions, neither is perfect, but they do work. you can use either High Speed Sync (HSS) or a Neutral Density filter. There are pros and cons of each and this video explains them, I also carry out a simple experiment to compare the two solutions.

Demonstration of the benefits of High Speed Sync

So far in these videos, i've been using manual triggers, and they work just great. However, they restrict you to the maximum sync speed of your camera, and that becomes a problem when shooting outside in bright conditions. In bright conditions at your max sync speed, you're forced to shoot at small apertures like f11, but sometimes it's great to be able to blur the background using wider apertures.

If you've watched some videos on my other courses you'll know I like to use graphic or grungy or backgrounds, here's the first of several shoots using these type of backgrounds

Another idea for creating great backgrounds, this time it's the use of graffiti, here I use High Speed Sync to blur the background

I just love these grungy backgrounds, especially when you can throw them out of focus, which I've done here using High Speed Sync.

Also, I tried a little experiment with blue gels, I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it worked!!

This video describes an easy to do method of taking professional product photos on a budget. Get terrific results that belie the nature of the method used.