5 Easy Ways To Get Consistent Flash Lighting In Your Portraits
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- Опубліковано 1 лют 2023
- If your off-camera flash lighting isn't consistent from one photo to the next, it's likely one of the following 5 issues that I address in this video. Use these tips to ensure you maximize the benefits of using a flash for your portrait photography!
These flash lighting concepts are often used but rarely explored, but my hope is that you walk away with some actionable tips to improve your portrait photography work. If you found this video helpful in your pursuit of consistent lighting, do me a favor and leave a like and maybe consider subscribing to my channel. I release new videos here often and have many exciting ones in the pipeline for you to enjoy soon.
Gear Used (Amazon affiliate links):
Westcott Manny Ortiz Beauty Dish amzn.to/3wYs2BA
Westcott FJ400 Strobe amzn.to/3t7Tcnr
Westcott Universal Flash Trigger amzn.to/3JPEo3G
Westcott Bowens Speedring amzn.to/3sk6Ftu
Rolling Stand bhpho.to/3FQLH8Y
Light Meter bhpho.to/3yiUhvj
Sony A7IV amzn.to/3nBVIQN
Sony 85mm 1.8 Lens amzn.to/3yCYWbV
#ocf #flashphotography #portraitphotography
Thanks to Westcott for sponsoring this video.
Model: Katelyn Tuck
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I always enjoy your videos. You teach us stuff, then I learn stuff, good and valuable stuff. You’re a good teacher with a lotta of knowledge in the world of photography stuff😉👍
Many thanks for pointing this out, never thought about it.
Happy to do it, thanks for watching!
I never ever think about it thanks sir
I tried to do a photoshoot las week for practice as I'm just a biginner, and while reviewing the pictures at home just noticed the different color temperature and later realized it was due to auto white balance! Glad I learned. Excellent video by the way
I just brought the sony a7iv and your videos and your channel help me learn the ocf. I believe in you. Great video and content
I love your channel because you give tips honestly with step by step details. I've learned lots from you. Thanks & keep it up.
GOLDEN INFO! Thank you Sir!
That was really helpful information. I was really surprised at how the white balance would effect the exposure. Great video!
Very instructive Miguel, especially the point about the white balance was an eye opener.
excellent video, Miguel. All good points that make perfect sense. I'm the house photographer at a music club so I shoot a lot of live music. Because I always shoot RAW I left the white balance on Auto. Worked fine for the most part but I would get a yellowish cast sometimes. I read somewhere else about adjusting the Kelvin to a fixed number for better consistency. Lo and behold that was it! Much better results. Never too old to learn a new trick. All your other points were spot on. Thanks!
Thank you!
Nice video. The WB factor was very interesting. Thanks !
thanks for sharing
changes in white balance only causes one color channel to clip, which you can see in the histogram.
This set off "exposure" warning in C1. Exposure hasn't change the color goes out of color gamut.
Which is based on your selected proof profile which by default is the selected export recipe.
If you change the WB of the raw file the exposure warning will change.
I didn't think I needed to watch this video, but I'm so glad that I did.
Thanks for this info. I had no idea about the white-balance affecting the exposure. I'm assuming this happens on all camera brands (not just Sony), so I'll check it out.
Awesome tips Miguel! Didn't know about that white balance affecting exposure, 5500K it is :). Subscribed!
Great video thanks for all the educational tips you give us beginner photographers it helps us so much.
My pleasure!! So happy to hear it. Much more to come 📸
Awesome video. I’ve been a photographer for almost 50 years. Never I’ve would have guess that the White Balance would affect the exposure. Thanks Miguel. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! Funny thing is that I heard for years it doesn't, yet every time I ran I to it I couldn't explain any other way that it was happening. Tested it out one day and boom! It's right there in front of me. Glad it helped!
Great video, thanks! Didn't know about the WB setting. Great tip.
Thanks for watching!
Great tips Miguel, a few I'd already knew, but some I didn't so it was a big help. Thank you and Katelyn looked great!
Glad it was helpful! Give Katelyn a follow if you're on IG. She's awesome :)
Thanks for the tips Miguel.
Thanks for watching!
Wow! Thanks, I thought WB only altered color temp or tone. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this excellent explanation. That exactly will help new talents.
I have a friend lerning photography and he allwas rides on Auto. The background gets to bright becaus of auto exposure. He uses my Elinchrom quadra in combination with the popup flasch and dont understands the law of lighting. The results show this very drastically.
Great reminder of the small things we tend to forget. I have one question about strobes, but I'll save it for the next live talk. And I don't know how to describe it, but the exposure and color of the video are different. It is very soothing and I personally like it 👍🏽
Thanks for that! I have a new videographer who set up the lighting for this one and filmed in slog3. We'll try to keep the vibe moving forward :)
Good tips thanks!
Thanks for watching!
Just the fact that you talked about setting white balance manually everytime was worth watching this video. Honestly that explains a lot. Thanks.
So happy to hear it! I couldn't see it myself for several years though I suspected it was causing issues at times. If you can get one nugget out of my videos I'm a happy camper lol :)
Great video
Thank you for this video. My biggest issue was when the subject moved everything changed. I couldn’t understand how that would impact an image, but now I know 😊. Also better quality lights greatly impact that. I used the Godox SK 400 which are great low cost strobes but after 30 minutes or so you can dramatically see the difference. You have to be patient with the recycling.
Happy to hear the information was helpful! Some of this stuff I didn't know either and it's almost assumed that people know it if they shoot with a flash. Had to shed some light on it after getting similar questions over the years. I'll have more videos like this posting up soon, hope they continue to help!
Nice Miguel. Just solved an issue I was experiencing with a headshot session I did 2 weeks ago. thanks!
Love to hear it!! 🙌
Excellent info!
Thanks for watching!
Great tips!
Thanks!!
Thanks Miguel! The white balance thing is the one thing I forget about often...until I get to editing...then I hate life trying to get things to become uniform again. *Sigh*
You and me both! haha Sometimes you don't see it until you get into post production and depending on how bad it is it can be a pain. Ever since I started dialing in my WB I don't run into this problem. :)
Love the video!! 😏
😂😂✌️
Another point that should be made is using a flash meter and measuring the ambient light coming from the flashes. Grey card measurement is also still important. These two save a lot of guessing with exposure.
Great tips.
Thanks!!
@@MiguelQuilesJr your welcome 😁
When you shoot in studio, is it better to shoot Flash mode or to put the Kelvin temperature manually? Last question, if you need to enter the Kelvin temperature manually, when can you use the Flash mode? Thank you so much Miguel for such a great video.
Mmm, i think a better way to do the WB test is including an 18% gray card and after taking the photographs, read the exposure off of it. I will have to do my own testing now.
Great video. AWB was always a second thought for me. Now it isnt
I JUST LEARNT SOMETHING
I normally shoot ETTL on my flash especially when I am in the club. I dont know why but i think it's because the dj lights keeps changing. I will give flash manual mode this time. thank you
That's exactly what it is! Your meter is going to get thrown off every time the dj lights hit your own lights. I would go all manual in that environment if at all possible. Thanks for watching!
@@MiguelQuilesJr I Will be trying that tonight and see and give feedback
Great stuff right here! How much does this matter if you're shooting in raw?
Thank you! I'd say if you're shooting RAW you should still consider dialing in a WB that looks as close to what you'd want to see in the final result. This way you know that the important parts of the image aren't clipping in any way.
@@MiguelQuilesJr that makes sense. Thanks.
Should I set my WB to 5500 over my Sony A1’s WB flash setting in the menu? I will definitely stop shooting in Auto wb when I’m using a flash though. Thanks for the tips.
If you're using a flash you can use flash or daylight presets. Just try to avoid auto and you should be good. 👍
@@MiguelQuilesJr thanks!
Thats why I like constant light (less problems)
Good tips though
Let say if shoot ocf with the kelvin set at 7000k then i fix it in post, does the ambient will get darker?
It's definitely possible. Any changes in WB, regardless of using OCF or not, will result in slight changes to the exposure reading. Try it out for yourself, just take a few photos and put them into Lightroom. You'll see the differences for each shot.
Hey Miguel, I changed my WB to 5500k on both the camera and light, but when imported into capture one the WB is changed. Do you know why that is? Thanks for a great video.
Interesting. Check to make sure you're not importing a WB setting from a prior image. If you go up in the menu to adjustments and reset all settings just to make sure.
@@MiguelQuilesJr Ok. I'll try it. The same thing is happening in LR. The camera and lights are at 5500k but comes into LR at 5323k. Very weird.
Very strange. What camera are you using? This is happening to raw files, right?
@@MiguelQuilesJr Canon R5. Yes, I shooting in RAW.
@@MiguelQuilesJr It also happened with my Z6II as well.
What if you're shooting with film?
That would be the topic of a different video unfortunately. Many of the tips would still apply (keeping your mark, matching wb/film to the light you're using) but it would definitely make for an interesting video. I have a lot of film-related content coming around the corner so stay tuned! :)
Use a grey card and shoot in Raw...
The people in the comments suffering from Auto WB need help. If/when you shoot RAW, then WB is just a number in the shot's meta data. There will not be any change in the actual image data - no matter the WB number figured out by the camera. So the WB number only tells - say - Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) how to open the shot for you. Or C1 in Miguel's case.
When your camera was set to Auto WB, this however drives some camera-AI to analyse your images before you press the button and between the button press and the photo - that causes a delay (called latency). It may be minimal but it's there. Switch off Auto WB and that's gone.
Personally, I always shoot with my camera with WB set to "Cloudy". That's so very close to what my camera brand speedlights produce that I generally do not alter anything.
How do you easily adjust to the right WB/tint rendition? In ACR (LrC uses ACR for raw processing, but hides that from the user) you just take the WB eye dropper and click a black, white or grey patch. Done.
Then copy that change in that photo and paste it to the other shots from that shoot/session. In LrC, right click the image, in the pop-up menu mouse-over expand Settings > then click Copy Settings... and in the dialogue box select the things you want to copy - say WB and Tint. Or "All" (adjustments). You get to the same dialogue box from the film strip by right clicking your adjusted image, expanding Develop Settings > and here too click Copy Settings...
If I need extreme precision, I'll shoot a ColorChecker Passport (CCP) in one or more images in the shoot - in the focused on plane, or the plane of correct exposure in flash. These shots are not used commercially but just to make adjustment in post much faster. This CCP gives a black, white and different grey patches and that helps with setting exposure too, potentially contrast. If you don't have perfect light with a continuous light spectrum, then you can use the app with the CCP to make an ICC profile for that light and use that to get everything right. The colour patches in the CCP make very precise adjustment possible of the entire colour space.
To match working with the CCP, I calibrate my display, and my calibration device includes the measurement of the environment (that I keep very constant). Also, I calibrate my printer, inks and papers - with that tool. In the end, what I see is what I get without hassle - with the incidental calibration hassle.
Note that different lenses and light sources my need their own calibration or reference shots. Also not that indoors we often have different lamps with different WB/tint and the CCP app to make an ICC profile can integrate for two different kinds (e.g. daylight and tungsten).
When you (also) shoot SOOC JPEG then it's a completely different ballgame. Make sure to get it right in camera. And if your main objective is Raw, switch off shooting JPEG too, and the WB burden is gone. Completely.
A problem with Auto WB, in the same way Auto Exposure can work towards the wrong "average", is that it would try to make the reddish light at sunset look neutral. Shoot at "Cloudy" (RAW) and when you open the shots, they look like "sunset". You may feel it is too much, but that is easily corrected. Also note that the shade is way too blue at sunset time. Again, Auto WB will try to make that neutral. You may prefer that over a blue colour cast, but it is the real thing. And if too much it is an easy correction.
As the main subject in the video is consistent flash lighting, in the sunset context, when you need to fill flash, you need to wonder if the flash needs filters (a) to match the reddish directly sunlit zone (as in exposure zone) and (b) to match the blueish shady side - you can't do that with one flash at the same time. If you flat out use a plain flash, that will or may kill the mood.
At sunrise there are less extremes - because the atmosphere is cleaner at sunrise.
God, that music is distracting!
You're the only one that has said anything about the music being distracting. What device are you watching this on?
@@MiguelQuilesJr ThinkPad laptop.