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Speedlight Q&A

Lesson 33 from: Location Lighting 101

Lindsay Adler

Speedlight Q&A

Lesson 33 from: Location Lighting 101

Lindsay Adler

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Lesson Info

33. Speedlight Q&A

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Class Introduction

04:42
2

Principles of Light

33:00
3

Speedlights vs Strobes

11:15
4

Compressing the Scene

21:57
5

Location Lenses and Lenshoods

07:41
6

Metering Modes and Back Button Focus

23:46
7

Natural Light Reflectors

20:14

Lesson Info

Speedlight Q&A

don't necessarily have to use three speed lights in the apollo aboard the other ones but um kind of diminish or what one speed like actually use or be able to power the whole time without having it like right upon yeah so for the really big one the really really big one mega I pretty much always used more than one speed light because what happens is that speed like has to go really far right it has to travel to the back of the soft box out through the front out through the diffusion and so it loses a lot of power so if in the middle of the day the reason I use this is to light groups so if I'm writing groups and now I have it really far away from the group's it travels in there it diffuses that it hasn't really far to travel into usually it doesn't have enough power so if I'm using this his speed like I use it with the there's one call it's I think it's called the triple threat uh bracket so but with the or I use that with one speed like all the time no problem yet and it still looks b...

eautiful quality lane that was a question that a lot of people had lt lily sixteen and a few others we're all asking about multiple speed lights in one modifier and let me ask a question from you von king for folks who may not know this when you have a moment when you do have multiple speed lights in the soft box do you need three pocket wizards to trigger them or can you plug them all into one uh awesome question okay so there's a couple of different ways you can work around this I am going to talk about how to get your flash off camera for this particular light right here I don't need any speed lights because it has a receiver built in and so was I long as I have my little trigger if I have three lights in there they're all fired by that same trigger so I don't need to buy anything extra if however the system that you own needs to have pocket wizards to trigger it you can use one pocket wizard and then use sink cords to connect them or you can have it fired so that your trigger one and the other two are optical slaved so when one fires the other two fire giving this guy there's like many layers of this because if for some reason you want to be able to vary the power output of all of them then you would need to have a pocket wizard for each one if you're trying to bury the power of each one unless you have a system that talks to each one so it's like you kind of got to know your system the one that I have I don't need any pocket wizards eikenberry all the powers of the flashes and control everything from the single trigger that I have which is why I like that system that was a very it's true loe it just depends on what you have like it's a really complex thinks so and just in case people didn't see day one this is a one a one level class so we're going to talk about the techniques and the general principles that apply to basically any system that you're using and then if you want to learn the deck the details of how to actually die elin or use the buttons on your system we have other workshops here that might cover that or you can you know as I said on day one read the instruction manual that actually does help with a lot of that but there are a lot of places you can learn those details like how to actually press the buttons on your flash we're talking more about the techniques that apply to anything so question out of my mind photo this something you haven't talked about yet do you ever use umbrellas whether they be reflective or shoot through when shooting with the lights um okay so I did mention it but I don't care it's cool I just don't like the quality of light as much I just find and that's I don't like the quality of like a silver umbrella its a little harsh but I have this gigantic silver umbrella with diffusion in the front and then I do like it because since it's big and diffuse now it's super super soft and just like a soft box so the answer is yes but no at the same time and that's the faux takes para pro seventy two inch and that if you watched yesterday is actually the umbrella that I used for the family session that I did and I could use that exact umbrella like any umbrella canoes be used for either a speed like where a strobe just sometimes a really big umbrella or a really big soft box step pops up like an umbrella would need multiple speed lights if it's really really big because otherwise you're really just lighting like this one's fine but in the big one you're really displayed in a tiny area so you want to try toe put the umbrella out as far as possible so the light has a chance to spread out a little bit but if you just have one speed light it's just one little area and it's not going to wrap around as much in the final image we just wanted teo asked about comparison between strobes and speed lights so if you were so if I see you have three there would that be like the same as having one strobe or that's a great question off it so in an instance like this depending on the flash you have and how much power it has I can get it up to equivalent of a strobe but it depends on the wattage of this trove so in other words let's say that I have like five hundred watt strobe by having three of these together I still can't get as strong as that five hundred y but I could get a heck of a lot closer and I could get much more of a similar field to the light first if I just had one very quickly I'm not I'm gonna have to bring it super super super super close in order to get the same output so maybe for like a smaller alien be with like less wattage these would be stronger than that but then like a thousand watt strobe they won't even be close all right let's see we've got one from lt lily sixteen that was echoed it by a couple other people if you're using the largest apollo and no assistant how heavy a weight bags should use especially if it's windy out and you know what light stand was recommending that scenario s o what I take on location it is a massive stand it's one of the bigger ones and I take uh there's these weights that clip onto the bottom of it and I think they're about ten pounds if it's windy like windy windy it honestly doesn't even matter what you have on it like it's going to blow over if it's an insanely windy day but I do the ten pounds on the base of a heavier duty matthew stand the problem with that at that point is it's not very portable anymore but I'm using the really big soft box like out of the trunk of a car when I'm doing a group portrait it's not like I'm hiking with it some place where I would need to carry all that so that's something to think about is well it's it's not terrible to have to have a weight in the trunk of the car as long as it doesn't have to be hyped someplace or maybe people are just stronger than me but it's also possible and then maybe one last one something that's actually kind of in between this on camera flash and off camera flash b with a bob and six other people were all wondering will you be talking about flash brackets for on camera flash people specifically talking about using them for events for people who don't know a flashback it is basically a little metal thing that just you want to describe it yeah totally so flash record what it does is it gets your flash kind of off camera so it usually mounts to the bottom of the camera a little arm comes out and then the flash goes on top of that arm I had several flash brackets as an event photographer and I could basically it does is now that it's higher up when I now have my now when I have this modifier on that flash not only is it off camera but it's higher so there's a little bit more sculpted light and they do have brackets so then when you go ahead and turn your camera you kinda slipped the bracket and the flash khun stay in the same place so for some people it might be great because then no matter how I have my turned my my camera turned I can have the light stay in the exact same place the same quality um I find them challenging to use and they kind of exhaust me that's just that's just holding me personally and maybe I'm out of touch but I think I've seen them fade drastically in the last like well maybe seven to ten years like I saw them all the time about ten years ago and I see a lot less so I'm not exactly sure why but I find them difficult to use that's one of those kind of maybe try it if you think you just you want to be able to have this brace all the time and just have your flash a little bit higher on be ableto manoeuver vertical and keep the flash in the same place and maybe that's good for you my guess about why they've faded and this is something that I've thought about is thie availability of easy wireless flash flash off camera easily with wireless because seven to ten years ago you pretty much had to use a wired system and actually when the about five people were asking whether you prefer wired or wireless set ups or your wireless like always wireless without any exception and that's a really good point about the brackets you'd actually have a cable that would go on the top of your hot shoe and then it would hook on the top of the bracket and then you would use that slash if you had flashes off camera you would use that main slash to trigger the other flashes and that's how you would get a flash off camera nowadays we don't have that issue at all but that's a majority of when I was shooting weddings so it just was much more complicated then eh so the next thing when we come back we're going to talk about is what is a wireless system which one's air good and why I like how do you get your flash of camera and what do you actually looking for

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Keynote 1
Keynote 2
Keynote 3
Gear Guide

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This class was amazing. Lindsay Adler is a great presenter...I learned so much.....I love that she spoke about natural light..strobes and speedlites. Wonderful information. I purchased this and I am glad I did. Great job Lindsay. Jean

photogirl
 

Lindsey Adler is one of the best and most engaging photography instructors in the USA. I highly recommend this lighting course. It felt more like a 101 and a 102 course than just a basic course. She teaches in a way that makes learning alot of fun and the amount of time & effort that she puts into her video and class presentations are second to none. Her classes are well worth their weight in gold and you will walk away with a wealth of knowledge!

islandGirl
 

Lindsay is amazing , I love the way she explains everything!! This course is filled with GREAT information and helps you better understand natural lighting,strobe and flash. Thank You Lindsay, please keep your classes coming!

Student Work

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