3 Things Most Photographers Get Wrong About Flash | Mastering Your Craft

[@Arlo360-Official]

The thing I appreciate the most is the direct approach. Nobody is trying to be cute, funny and entertaining.

[@hermansurkis9229]

You are kidding right. He is trying to be cute by being condescending to the model.

[@samsungnote2076]

Gabrielle is such a patient and beautiful model. Adorama can be lucky to have her in this video.

[@dchodeva]

You can tell Pye is a master at his craft and a master at explaining his craft. Epic

[@slowlyrusting4044]

Every flash tutorial that I have watched explains why, and how, to use flash to freeze motion. This is the first time that I have heard someone explain that using a lower power setting on the flash unit actually does a better job of freezing the motion than using it at full power. Thanks, Pye.

[@MrFirephly]

First time i have heard this too. Glad someone else noticed

[@vodoo5553]

How many flash tutorials have you watched and what do they say ? The lower power will reach its maximum intensity quicker because its lower but does that lower power emit enough light to expose your subject as intended ? Fast duration powerful flash comes at a premium.

[@AmazingPhilippines1]

I plan to do more flash photography here in the Philippines so appreciate the lesson.

[@Jeff-m5x3j]

A good point about the inverse square law is how it relates to the background. If the model is close the the background and you pull the light away, the amount of light coming back from the model is pretty much the same as what comes back from the background. If you start out with the model further away from the background and pull the light away, the reduction in light coming to the camera from the background is less the reduction in light coming off the model. When you readjust the exposure to compensate based on the light off the model, there will be more light coming off the background in the second scenario than in the first. There are other videos demonstrating this concept out there.

[@crystallew5581]

Learning about flash duration is extremely useful, Thank you!!

[@MazingerZX]

Great tips! That pen on paper sound in your video gives me the shivers every time in every video where you do it.

[@henknphoto]

No Way! I have been struggling to freeze subjects with flash and kept upping the power, now it finally makes sense! Thanks Pye!!!!

[@cmichaelanthonyimages2197]

Great explination on flash. So many say strobe, a mis-nomer... but I digress. Different light applications will change the theroy results, and no one mentions this. Space also plays a big roll based on bounce reflection. They explain the theory but not how it can be effected by different light applications and modifiers. many do not understand the theroy of the angel of incident light and incident vs reflected light. If they used film, they would be lost.

[@oo0RECON0oo]

Great video, surprised I haven’t seen anyone else cover this. More videos like this please

[@justcallmesando]

One of your best videos. Great model as well.

[@TheChuckism1]

Outstanding explanation . Thank you

[@arjayache]

Nice job Pye!

[@muaB76]

Can you give a rough real number of the t1 values for the blurred/sharp shot? Or in other words: what t1 value should I aim for (real number, not "as fast as you can get")

[@gammap6114]

Me and the model: (Oh, is it finished? What's a flash?) Most useful explanation of the flash. Thanks Pie

[@ungavaproductions]

Very interesting thanks !

[@Adorama]

You are welcome! We're happy to help you master your craft

[@xeo98.98]

Pye the Maestro ! I kicked the like bottom as soon the commercial let me do it

[@blazeboy777]

I love how wonderfully Pye explains how flash works, while model is thinking ... WFT dude I just want to be beautiful :D

[@K-Visuals]

Love the video!! Thanks for making this!

[@paulsmith5511]

i have a new metz flash confused perhaps you can help...enjoy your videos.. in ETTL mode if i dial up flash compensation say +1 the flash tells me the distance the flash is good at but the distance it states actually goes down ...I would think it would go up??? more power more distance..? what am I missing? thank you Paul

[@JoaoPinela]

Just a small note.. It is not( 2^2)x like in the notebook but it is 1/(x^2)... If you move x amount of feet (or Meters) away, you get 1/(x^2) the amount of light. All the rest..... Great explanations and examples 👌👌👌👌👌

[@DsRockGuitar]

That`s very nice! I did not know the difference between soft and difuse light. Well done.

[@TNrick]

Excellent information presented in an easy to understand format. Thanks!!!

[@ph5740]

Great explanation

[@HR-wd6cw]

One other misconception is power... for example, not all 400ws lights are the same, and some will output slightly more power than others. I think most people understand the concept of watt-seconds, and that say 400ws is 1 stop more powerful than 200ws (on paper at least) but that in practice, this number isn't exactly 1-stop. Sometimes a 400ws strobe can be 1.5 or 1.3 stops brighter and can depend on some things as simple as the backplate (the face of the strobe--not the modifier necessarily) which can reflect or absorb light (a black backplate will absorb light, whereas a white or silver backplate where the bulb plugs into, may reflect more light this giving you a little extra light in the process because of the reflective properties of the material -- many back plates / lfash heads where the bulb plugs into, are silver or white --- some are black though, particularly adapter brackets or extension heads.

[@markmoorton1086]

Thanks Pye - really helpful as I learn about flash

[@cowboyyoga]

Hi Pye, Nice to see your again here! Great video! I really felt like another few steps were taken in the direction of getting comfortable with using strobes. Thank you Pye, Thank you Gabriel )))

[@muhammadbutt7994]

very nice tutorial

[@Azertyvo]

Talking about misconceptions, there's a big one about math (the inverse square law: "... and we don't like math"). It's not that people don't like math. Actually people don't like teachers who can't teach math properly. And we usually blame it on math. I know for fact that math can be a lot of fun. And most people can get it with the right teacher. One more thing: having said that we don't like math, you start using math to explain your point. I like the irony of it.

[@pattymattes7124]

This is great! Another great video from Adorama!!! Thank you!!!

[@cosmogang]

Great seeing Pye here! Great explanations as well.

[@romiemiller2485]

And, the perceived light falloff from subject to background seems less if the camera is farther from the subject

[@jpdj2715]

You might want to reconsider this statement for all cases where the light source is not on, or at equal distance of, the camera to that background?

[@derdurstbursch]

What does that mean?

[@davidaearthy]

Yes, and it’s seems he over simplified the Inverse square law to in unhelpful level.

[@TheOlandex]

Good review of some flash basics - thanks! I would possibly add in the discussion about inverse square law the important understanding that light fall off is greatest when the source is very close to the subject. This is super important to understand when you get into shaping with light. Further, since we know a light source is larger relative to the subject when it is closer to the subject, it is important to recognize this inverse square law property because it means getting closer to get softer light also means getting rapid fall off. Maybe I'm jumping ahead here... I look forward to more of these short tutorial vids. Cheers!

[@vodoo5553]

Yeah I think you are a bit advanced for this tutorial but you are correct from the little I understand.

[@terryyu3832]

Pye is one of my favorite teacher and photographer. He is fantastic!

[@raulakis35]

fantastic lesson thank you!!!

[@carlosdias1940]

Perfect!

[@itaylorm]

Very helpful

[@ThomasECahill]

Good clear information!

[@a.g.4843]

Im a physicist in radiation protection and that inverse square law is definitely one of the easiest things to understand. I wonder which schools you guys visited…oh man

[@mladendizdar2508]

Inverse-square law has a big deal with the contrast ratio (pretty crucial element in photography), not just with reducing the amount of light. And actually, it's quite easy to understand the inverse square law.

[@rony7758]

Wonderful

[@charlesdvalin1775]

Love these videos. Thanks

[@adventuresofjandk]

Another awesome idea. Thank you.

[@virgilplays]

Ok this was actually super helpful

[@NextScamdemic]

To change the hardness vs softness of light on the subject, you can either A) decrease /increase size of the light source (relative to subject) or B) lengthen/shorten distance of light source to subject- either accomplishes the same thing. Is that correct?

[@PeteC62]

Essentially yes, because what determines the hardness of the shadow is the angular size of the flash at the subject. So a 10cm head at 2m away will cast a very similar shadow to a 50cm head 10m(!) away. In terms of trigonometry, remember the tangent of the angle is the ratio of the opposite (half the flash-head size) to the adjacent (the flash distance). As long as this ratio stays the same, the apparent size of the flash, and therefore its shadow, remains the same.

[@TheJohnArmless]

awesome!

[@a.m.7307]

great video

[@moosanadeem1797]

Bring more like this ❤️

[@tw9535]

Great video, Pye.

[@testimony-]

Awesome!

[@MrAllenMo]

Great info Pye! Very useful information, especially the explanation of the inverse square law😁👍 Thank you!!!

[@arvizaslt]

great tips abbout photography:)

[@DRMegaone]

Really great info and really good instructor!!

[@julioaponte3197]

Wow! Excellent info. Keep coming these one of a kind tutorials. Thanks!!!

[@b991228]

How about the relationship of how placing a flash placed further away from the foreground subject will reduce exposure yet at the same time the exposure falloff from foreground to background levels off but regrettably the relative size of the light decreases resulting in increasing hardness of the shadow transition. So now what; how big, how powerful and far do you place the light?

[@williequinlan4946]

Great thanks

[@dmphotography.prints]

YES!!! Great explanation. Cleared up some misconceptions I’ve had about light and some language I’ve been using. 🙏🏽

[@adrianlw2010]

Using HSS to capture a series of movements in one image, typically used for ballet dancers?

[@BillyPurta]

You wouldn't use HSS to capture multiple flashes in a single image... HSS is used to achieve faster shutter speeds than 1/200" (usually), so it's only used to fast shutter applications. No need for HSS to trigger the strobe multiple times in a single long exposure (such as your ballet dancer example).

[@marclabro]

interesting tuto. trying to improve my skills with d750+sb900+pocket wizard, quite limited for these equipments.

[@panhavornchhun1993]

@ 00:27 Pi gives everyone the power to stand on water just to get the shot. 👍

[@3006shajib]

Fantastic.

[@vimalneha]

I needed this information before I buy a new flash. Thanks a lot!

[@Optimystik]

"Business time" will always make me think about Flight of the Conchords.

[@hugay1]

thanks

[@kayhamilton5943]

What is a good flash for a Canon 6d please? Great video good pace well presented

[@EuropeAfricaTrip]

Wow, thanks for the easy simplification of terms

[@VB12349]

Great video, appreciate the work that went into it. Keep it up 👍

[@Prakashkadam196]

it is great and usefull inf thank u sir

[@Maximleehs]

The light lost It was depend on the f you used right? Since what i know is GN (iso number) = f number x distance.

[@vodoo5553]

The amount of light you loose is based on the inverse square law. Its based on light not ISO or f number.

[@adedotunajibade]

Educative. Thanks!

[@photonsonpixels]

Very nice and informative tutorial. As someone else mentioned, please do talk a bit more about flash distance and light fall off. Thank you.

[@engmax3375]

Needed this cause i still need to learn much more about flash photography

[@beachbum4691]

Same here. ;)

[@leiliu83]

This is useful

[@ReinisInkens]

Nice, actually learned some new information, it's been a while :)

[@jpdj2715]

#1 - yes, indeed. And a perspective drawing of the flash beam would have explained the issue even better. Distance is a 1 dimensional thing but what we light with the flash beam is an area and the are, 2-dimensional, changes with the square of the distance change

[@brodqga]

Nice! f-stoppers takeover when?

[@wethingtonphoto]

Once again awesome info!! Thanks for all the tips. I use as many tips from you as I can remember during my senior photo sessions!

[@thethirdman225]

Unusually, I didn't find this at all helpful. He didn't mention that even a big light source like a softbox will behave more like a point light source with harder shadows the further away it is. That's just as important as the inverse square law. There's no point in having a big softbox and putting it a long way away. Secondly, flash duration was not well explained. Better to think of it like a shutter speed. The shooter the duration, the less time for movement. As long as your flash is adjustable from say 1:1 to 1:128 you will easily be able to freeze action but you will need wider aperture or higher ISO to achieve good exposure.

[@steveeichelberger806]

And flash duration is not ‘fast or slow’, it’s ‘long or short’. I rarely see anyone explain WHY a larger light source and/or closer light source is ‘softer’. They might talk about the shadow edge/transfer, but they never talk about it looking at the light source angle of spread from the point of view of a single point on the subject. If you want to clear up misconceptions, get it right!

[@Marckymarc71]

#1 The spread of the light has nothing to do with the law. It's only how fast the light falls off in relation to distance. Doesn't matter if it's an umbrella, snoot or fresnel.

[@vodoo5553]

Good point

[@rootytuners]

The inverse square law is completely based on the spread. Light rays, waves or photons are emitted outward from regular light sources in a spherical pattern, traveling out from each point of emission (outwards in all directions). It is this spread of light (occupying a greater area with distance), that results in the falloff. The light source within a flash emits light 360° in all planes at the point of emission (bulb or filament). Whether you use a snoot or grid does not change this - the modifier is merely restricting the beam after its emission state. It’s already in divergence from the source. A laser has a different fall-off rate compared to regular light sources due to the vastly diminished divergence angle of rays. A snoot does not result in a laser beam, it results in a constricted portion of light. (If you were to examine the inside of a snoot or grid you would see that light from a flash falls on the inside walls. These light rays are being restricted and blocked, not reorientated. The rays that make it out are still diverging, and thus subject to the inverse square law.)

[@alex0589]

Imagine being in math class and going "fuck that, i'm just gonna move to the city and become a model instead" Then Pye shows up with his math lesson on a shoot.

[@minibuns5397]

Inverse Square does not work with all types of beams and lighting scenarios.

[@JuanDavidJaramilloXD]

Great video, learned a lot (I'm more of a natural light kind of guy but lately I've been interested in the special time freezing characteristics of flash photo)

[@veselinvasilev9362]

Thank You!

[@beachbum4691]

Very illuminating Vid' on all three subject items (sorry about being punny) Thanks for posting

[@peterzums4228]

love this vid

[@tomweis1194]

Flash companies rarely publish t.1 times because t.5 times look so much better, and companies are happy to mislead customers this way. Even Elinchrom only gives t.5 information. Just keep in mind that t.1 durations are 2 to 3 times (probably closer to 3x) longer than t.5 durations. If you're going to discuss flash duration you kinda need address IGBT -vs- Variable Voltage Control. It's not always true that dialing down flash power shortens flash duration. "The reason we need a law for this..." The reason there's a law is because it's a law of nature. All electromagnetic waves and sound waves behave this way. "It sounds mathematical - we don't like math." Seriously? A photographer needs to understand the math of exposure, the math of ratios, and the math of running a business (for pros). Math is one of the cornerstones of photography. When I teach studio photography I walk my students through the Inverse Square Law to make sure they understand the math and how it relates to exposure. Only then do we discuss the shortcuts of moving the light certain distances to achieve specific changes in exposure.

[@chuckgomez5233]

Happy New Year Mr. Pie!!! I would love to see a show on continuous LED Lights that are similar to an HMI source.

[@MultiDavidellis]

Really entertaining

[@HURPSYYEMRAY1]

Tnx

[@Savage1776_]

3.14 = Pye ... so what is the square root of the inverse Square law?

[@filks6004]

Flash duration has nothing to do with the cost of the flash unit. Flash duration is the time it takes for the energy to travel across the flash tube. So the smaller the amount of power the faster it will travel across the tube hence giving a shorter flash duration. Flash durations are shortest on smaller tubed flash guns/heads like Speedlites where the tubes are something like 2cm long. Studio lights with longer tubes typically give longer flash duration and are therefore not great at capturing high speed action. In short a small cheap flash gun can have a shorter flash duration than a more expensive studio flash.

[@Lucy-dk5cz]

Information on flash duration is actually incorrect. If the strobe is volatile regulated the quickest flash duration is at full power. You are assuming the strobe is IGBT

[@nonvegnani5560]

Thank you..

[@cmichaelanthonyimages2197]

Im reading many of the responses and what troubles me is many keep talking background. Forget the background. If your learning to photograph backgrounds, fine, but your learning on how it effects lite on your subject. Light and shadow, diffused highlight to fiffused shadow. Learn this law in a totally light controlled environment. No overheads or windows. Dark, and now go to work...and do it ony at 100 iso...looking for a 1to 3 lighting ratio on you subject. Oh, and 6 to 10 feet off your medium toned background.

[@SKgeostrat]

Hello Pye, Nice video, but I don't think you explain well enough what the consequences of the different specs are, f.ex;, what do you achieve by getting a shorter flash duration in terms of image quality and character. In other words, how do you use the spec changes to improve your photography.

[@mikkelborasmussen1509]

Thank you Adorama and Pye for trying to explain concepts people have a hard time understanding. Unfortunately, most people get confused because other people who do not (completely) understand the concepts themselves are trying to explain them. Your explanation of the inverse square law could have been a lot better using a digram instead of numbers. And your example with diffused vs soft light is not really useful since the silver softbox without diffusion material is more or less simply acting as a bare bulb flash with some spill that softens the transitions of light -- it is not the same size of light as the soft box with diffusion material. Next time use a reflective silver umbrella with and without diffusion material and compare the resulting light patterns on the model.

[@jpdj2715]

#2 has been my point in photography land too. Then you get photographers who prove you wrong, not understanding the point. I have to say, it is very subtle. The challenge is to demonstrate the difference with pictures that clearly demonstrate the validity of the point as well as the relevance. My suggestion, shoot somebody with very visible skin pores to illustrate the difference and illuminate the disbelievers.

[@nattyjim73]

*checks Channel* Yup Adorama, not SLR Lounge

[@christianschafer3724]

I'd love to see the model speaking up and explaining him the science behind the "inverse square law" properly.