How To Balance Flash With Ambient Light

[@geru2000]

I've been using KZbin for many years to learn to use on & off camera flash with speedlights. In the many hundreds of searches I've performed on the subject you have never shown on the results till this week. I've watched and saved all of your videos on this subject. They're some of the best beginner flash tutorials I've watched over the past ten years. They're well presented with lots of very useful information. I don't see how any beginner couldn't watch these 4 or 5 short videos and immediately start taking portraits shots. I'm surprised I've not seen your instruction on sites like Udemy.

[@36exp]

Thanks Jack. Sadly don't have time to make many videos as out taking photos most of the time.

[@geru2000]

@@36exp I'm happy for you. Making money doing what you enjoy, most people don't have that experience. Best of luck and good health to you and yours.

[@fahmi3089]

How about the white balance setting? Auto? Especialy when we have tungsten background the wb was strange. @geru2000

[@PerEng2405]

Interesting approach. Thank you and btw what a beautiful model.

[@MarcoACasco]

Excellent tutorial !!!! Many thanks !!!! I just want to say that, this tutorial applies to my DSLR, now, with my Fuji X100, it's a completely different story.......I don't have to do any of that. Nothing at all, just turn the camera on, set it on full auto, turn the built in flash on and.....voila !!!!! perfect pictures every single time, shot after shot, it's like magic !!!!! Love that incredible camera !!!!!!

[@noeley100]

absolutely spot on. there are so many video tutorials about ballancing of abient light and flash, and none of them say it as succinctly as this! well done, and yes i have subscribed. onwards n upwards.

[@36exp]

Thanks Noel!

[@smalltalk.productions9977]

thank you for the effort and the sharing. very well done. BIG thumbs up.

[@josediazh3890]

Muchas gracias

[@edwardvk]

Thanks for this! An excellent beginner case study on using a strobe.

[@Melissa-do7lz]

You are the best 😊

[@bobniel8314]

Well, I liked it! Over 14k views and only 400 likes, that ain't good, you deserve some more. Keep it up.

[@breshev6303]

Thank you so much! This was an excellent video. Very helpful.

[@pluviophile2438]

Look forward to seeing more videos.. ❤️

[@clivedowning4200]

Good video. All clear for manual. I assume if use TTL then that will correct the exposure based on settings and I can use flash EV to tweak if needed?

[@andrewmason1000]

Thanks. Yes that approach would also work. I would suggest keeping the camera in manual mode though.

[@Narsuitus]

Thanks for the video. What would you do differently if you were shooting film and did not have a digital camera?

[@andrewmason1000]

I'd use a light meter in that case.

[@Narsuitus]

@@andrewmason1000 An ambient light meter would give you the proper exposure for the background. A flash light meter would give you the proper exposure for the subject in the foreground. How would you determine the proper lighting ratio between the two exposures? How would you correct for film reciprocity failure if the film is sensitive to ultra-short and/or ultra-long exposures times?

[@andrewmason1000]

@@Narsuitus good points re the flash and ambient exposure readings. I’m not sure film reciprocity failure would be an issue as the shutter speed would not be extremely short or long. Depending on the aperture and ISO combination it’s usually between 1/80s and 1/250s in this dimly lit tunnel to get enough ambient light in the shot and prevent motion blur. Having said that, I have never shot off camera flash using film so may not be best placed to answer.

[@Narsuitus]

@@andrewmason1000 Some of the color films I have used have had problems with reciprocity failure with short exposures due to the flash units. For example, at full-power, the flash duration my be 1/1000th second. When the flash power is set to ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/132, 1/64, and 1/128th power, the flash intensity is reduced by decreasing the flash duration from 1/1000th second to as short as 1/128,000th second. The film had no problem with 1/1000 flash duration but suffered reciprocity failure with the shorter flash durations.

[@andrewmason1000]

@@Narsuitus Good point and thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't thought about reciprocity failure caused by flash duration, only by shutter speed.

[@B.Christine_W222]

Great tutorial

[@LuisAlvarez-fj5ny]

Gr8 explanation! Wondering which white balance setting you used in your Nikon, in mine, when I add the flash, the picture becomes warmer.

[@andrewmason1000]

Flash White balance, but I always shoot in raw so I can adjust later.

[@stanspb763]

There are two light sources with different temperature so go with the WB og the flash which is the subject. The background at the distance as a combination of light sources to they will always be off but that adds to the overall mood of the scene. The flash was 5500k so the skin comes out right, Getting WB right as shot simplifies post processing and can impact retained dynamic range,

[@gregpantelides1355]

Amazing! Thank you!

[@Jerry-kg9pr]

Thank you !!!

[@Bassbarbie]

Was it an 1/8 second or 1/80th? Subtitles not helpful and sadly my hearing not great. I’m guessing if it was an 1/8th, then it’s likely background would be blurred so you’d need to up the ISO. I think I’ve answered my own question 😊 Great video.

[@36exp]

Hi, it was 1/80s

[@Bassbarbie]

@@36exp thank you so much!

[@terjebrattelid7574]

Thank you this was very helpful!

[@JR_Troutman]

Awesome video! Photos look great. Did you use any sort of modifier?

[@36exp]

Thanks! Yes a 105cm collapsible octabox.

[@murlidhr]

could you tell us about the white balance cuz flash does not seem whitish/silverish in colour n the skin tone seems to be good

[@andrewmason1000]

I usually set y WB to flash. Just looked at the photo in Lr and Temp = 6700, Tint = + 3. You can add a warming gel / filter to your flash if you think your photos are too white / silverish.

[@mjcz5853]

Which metering mode do you use? The reason I’m asking is, when I’m in matrix mode, single focus point, it seems the metering changes depending where my focus point is. So camera on a tripod and keeping the frame locked in place, if I just move my focus point to a light area the meter shows over exposed, move it to a darker area and the meter shows under exposed. And just as weird, when I turn on my flash, it jumps 2/3 a stop over exposed. Not sure why the focus point impacts exposure in matrix mode and the exposure jumps when I turn on my flash, on or off camera. Camera is Nikon D780 or D500, Nikon SB700 flash or Godox AD200 pro. Any thoughts?

[@36exp]

Hi Michael, I don't worry about which metering mode I'm in because the camera is set to fully manual. I would take a few test shots to get the ambient exposure correct (i.e. the stuff that the flash won't light because it's too far away), and then keep those settings in the camera. Then introduce the flash at the correct power to light the subject. I think you might be using spot metering with the spot meter tied to the focus point, which some cameras can do. So, when you move the focus point the spot metering point also moves. And, it might be jumping to 2/3 stop overexposed when you turn the flash on because the camera slows it shutter speed down to 1/250s as that's it's flash sync speed, assuming you don't have high speed sync turned on! Lots of variables! Happy to do 1-1 training session over zoom if you like.

[@mjcz5853]

@@36exp thanks for the feedback. I did find out that some camera, flash set ups will do that when you turn the flash on the exposure goes up in the meter but it’s not actually changing the exposure of your shot. I shoot manual as well, and I’m in matrix and single point, not spot. That’s what has me baffled because in single point focus when I move my focus point throughout the frame the light meter changes exposure. If you set up a shot as I described, with shadows and highlights, then move the focus point from shadow to highlight, you may see a change in you meter. But thanks again I really appreciate you getting back with me.

[@jasonbodden8816]

@@mjcz5853 It doesn't matter if it jumps about in your camera's meter, once you're in manual mode, whatever you set your shutter speed to - as long as you're within your flash sync speed - it will stay there and your ambient and flash exposure won't change.

[@stanspb763]

@@jasonbodden8816 The flash metering and camera metering use the same light sensor but the camera used the data to calculate exposure based on the selected metering mode, say, Matrix but the flash uses the same sensor to meter single spot and displays that value for where the spot is in the scene in TTL mode

[@kalleankaa7536]

Thankw very helpfull

[@aaliotti]

So if I understand correctly, the first shot was taken at f2.8, ISO 400 and Flash at 1/128. For the second shot you went down 2 stops in aperture to 5.6 and 2 stops in ISO to 100, so you reduced the exposure by 4 stops in all. However you only increased the flash power by 2 stops. Wouldn't the subject be underexposed by 2 stops then?

[@36exp]

Good points. If you look at the shot form the second set up she is less brightly lit compared to the first. It's a bit more of a moody shot.

[@waclothing6223]

Cool & Thanks! What gears did you use?

[@36exp]

Godox AD200 and XPRO trigger with a 65cm parabolic softbox

[@waclothing6223]

@@36exp Thanks for taking your time to reply me back.

[@danielmartinnapiya8802]

very helpful..cheers mate

[@errole]

So it's more of just taking a few test shots to get perfect. So just keep testing until it's good?

[@andrewmason1000]

You could use a light meter, or your camera's meter, but the key thing is to get the exposure of the ambient light correct first, then the flash. Not both at the same time.

[@kokkodu]

Thanks. Stay connected...

[@JerryC25]

What light and trigger did you use

[@36exp]

Godox AD200 flash and XPRO trigger

[@JerryC25]

@@36exp awesome thank you! I literally just ordered one lol

[@36exp]

@@JerryC25 good choice!

[@thomashussey7656]

Do you set flash zoom at all or just keep it to match the lens?

[@36exp]

As the flash is being fired into an umbrella set it to a wide zoom setting such as 24mm or even 14mm with the pull out wide angle diffuser

[@andrewmason1000]

For of camera flash I would set to it's widest setting, which could be 24mm or 14 mm if you use the pull out plastic flash diffuser

[@gameuploaderish]

4:53 why didn’t you just increase the shutter speed instead of closing down the aperture ?

[@andrewmason1000]

because changing shutter speed doesn't affect flash exposure (as long as you stay below your sync speed), it only changes the ambient light. Changing ISO or aperture of flash power changes the flash exposure (as well as the ambient exposure).

[@andrewl6319]

Natasha is beautiful.

[@vishalchugh786]

Awesome 😎