One Light
When I first got my camera, I thought I was satisfied shooting only in natural light w/modifiers… and for a while I was. I had decided to promote myself as someone that only shot in natural light. I thought I was separating myself from all of the other numb-nuts out there trying to do photography.
So happily I went for some time, shooting everything in natural light. After a short time, I got pretty good at it too… just goes to prove that any dumb ass can learn photography. Soon however, I realized that pros were using flash to enhance (and modify) natural light. They were doing it in such a way as to make it seem as though they always had the perfect light. That, I found out is rarely the case. When I found that out, my world changed! My whole thinking changed.
My aunt gave me (I still can’t believe she did that) a couple of studio strobes. I got myself a speedlight for my camera (another one to come later) and I was on my way. I devoured all that I could find on off camera lighting. The best site you can find on the internet is Strobist.com. David Hobby really knows his stuff and is more than ready to share. Another very good source is Zack Arias. Zack’s approach is to use only one light (generally camera flashes). I have to tell you that the results he gets are just amazing.
There must be parts of my brain that are made of Teflon. Nothing seems to stick; no matter how many times crap gets thrown at it. Other parts must be a mix. It takes 2-3 good throws to get things to stick. This is how it is going with mastering flash.
When I took the image above, I had been struggling for a good 30 minutes trying to get things right. I went back later that night and reviewed Zack’s DVD. What took me 30 minutes the night before now took me 1-2 minutes. I hope it will stick this time. Zack tells us that there are five things to consider, but for now I am going to talk about the two most important ones (in my mind).
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed controls ambient light. Ambient light is a constant source. It is always on. Whether it is a table lamp, or the sun, it is constant. To control this, we limit the amount of time it strikes our cameras sensor. To take away (make darker) the light, you increase the shutter speed, reducing the time the light has to strike the sensor. To add (make lighter) more light, you slow down the shutter speed, allowing more light to strike the sensor. To totally eliminate all ambient light in an indoor situation, I usually set my shutter speed to 1/250 and my aperture to f8. Then, if I want to make it lighter… leaving the aperture where it is (be patient, its turn is coming), I lower the shutter speed to where I like the ambient levels.
Aperture
Aperture controls flash. It does not matter if you are using a studio strobe, or a camera flash. Flash, unlike ambient light only lasts for a fraction of a second. In that instant, all the light from that flash is going to hit your sensor… and then it is gone. To control this, we use the aperture to control the amount of light entering the camera. If I want to make the light from the flash brighter, I open the aperture. If I want to darken the light from the flash, I make the aperture smaller. I usually start with the aperture set at f8. This leaves me room to go up or down, as needed. I also usually set my flash power to 1/8 to ¼ power.
There are of course other things that will affect your photo (I did say there are five). I will go over these items in a future post. In the mean time, if you even work with the two variables mentioned above, you will see results.
The image above was taken in my living room, under normal lighting conditions. Camera was in manual mode. Shutter speed was 1/250 and aperture was f10. I had my flash set to ¼ power and shot through a translucent umbrella. Camera ISO was set to 250.
