When I started my career in 1987, I bought a brand new three head Speedotron Brown Line kit and loved it. I still use it. Then I learned about White Lightning 1200’s. Loved them too for the week I owned them. Then my friend said, “Come on, we’re going to Ken Hansen’s in New York.” I went and watched as he bought these new fangled Elinchrom moonlights. Not yet afraid of debt. I also bought a set of four because of their quicker flash duration. The next day I called the folks at Paul C. Buff and honestly told them what I had done and would they send me a refund for the White Lightning’s if I sent them back unharmed. I can still here the woman as she answered me in the soft music of her Tennessean take on our language-“of course we can” What! I’d used them everyday for a week and still got every penny back! From then on, I championed their cause. I convinced the paper I was shooting for to buy a few kits of 2 1200’s and a 600 each. Plus, I convinced several colleges to permanently hang them in their arenas. I have six Elinchroms now, plus 2 sets of Speedotron Brown Lines, not to mention 4 2400 watt-second Blackline packs with matching quad heads for big places around the country. I finished depressing my wife by getting a Hensel Porty that I still love. My latest purchase was the smartest by far, though. It’s the Paul C. Buff Mini Lithium power supply. Though it only has two household outlets, the instructions remind you that with extension cords and adapters, you can easily run 4 500 watt-second moonlights from just one little’ole lithium supply and I’ve done it many times without even a trace of overheating. Profoto’s are great but give me a company like Paul Buff anytime.
I like the mindset to think of photography not as capturing objects, but as tunning in light. Our lenses are just fancy antennas and camera are light radio receivers.
Hey Ken! I appreciate your work, and this video is great! I have a suggestion to add on to your explanation on why flash overcomes the tonality loss of high element count lenses: It's because of the fact that flash sends out a high powered T1 burst of light. That burst of light consists of all the wavelengths of light that a regular white bulb would, but the amplitude of those wavelengths is many many many times larger than a regular white bulb. When the high amplitude light passes through the glass in the lens, all the light/tonality that a high element count lens subtracts from the light through electrical attenuation is nothing compared to the amplitude of the light passing through it. Whereas in a weaker, continuous source of light, the original amplitude of light is not large enough to overcome the attenuation of many glass elements without losing significant amplitude/tonality. This results in great sensor saturation for the flash exposure and poor sensor saturation for the continuous white light bulb. Although the exposure time has to be varied for either exposure so as to get the same exposure, it does not change the fact that the sensor is much more saturated in the flash exposure due to the high amplitude (highly energized) light that reaches the sensor. In your video, all you mentioned was that flash saturates the sensor with "boooom!" and that it drops a lot of light onto your sensor quickly = sensor saturation. In other videos, the explanation isn't very well fleshed out either. So I thought about it and linked it with the other stuff I've learnt from your videos about light and physics and came up with this. How's that?
I shoot real estate interiors and use speed lights (six) and am seriously going to look at a Digibee. Every so often I need more power. Totally agree with you on lighting - photos look infinitely better with proper lighting. HDR and or enfuse is popular but side by side there is really no comparison. To anyone reading this: Take Ken's advise and learn to use lighting - preferably off camera but whatever.
The time of my life when other tourists on the ship flash their pocket cameras to capture a village 1 mile away after sunset. I go in my cabin, photograph the postcards from the gift store, then pretend to take pics and show them the result on my camera screen.
I don’t know if these qualify as “speedlights” but I buy used Vivitar 283’s and always, always combine each one with its own Variopower (VP-1) unit that plugs into the front of the unit. This lets me dial down the flash so it just gives off the tiniest amount of light. Please don’t buy all of them on EBay, though, because I still buy them sometimes.
Speaking of micro contrast; Can you do a video on the top 5 or 10 or 20 (whatever) lenses based on micro contrast, alone? Like the lenses (across all manufacturers and eras) that have the best micro contrast? That would be super helpful and interesting.
Phillip Farano I’ve been watching since he had 16k subscribers and I subscribed when he had 23k subscribers. I’ve been around fir awhile and watched most of his videos. I don’t recall him ever making a video where he ranked the best lenses based on micro contrast, alone. Obviously, multiple other long time subscribers don’t recall one, either. If you have a link to such a video, post it.
Damn it, you caught me... I was hoping nobody would ever figure out that I am unable to both watch a video and listen to said video at the same time... I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling UA-camrs! If you had a link to such a video, it would have to exist. The fact that nobody seems to have any recollection of said video, though, and you have not been able to provide a link, even when prompted to do so, says all that needs to be said. Not sure what the rest of that rambling was about. You seemed to go off the deep end, there.
T1 time? Yep, I found that out when I had Ye Olde Leica IIIa to X synch at 1/20 sec. The electronic flash (mostly) stopped action even with such a slow shutter speed.
Great video Ken! You would be shocked at the sports that get photographed with flash. In Vancouver (Whistler) they put us close enough to the ski jumpers that we were able to use 300WS plus strobes to bring up the saturation of the sky and the racers....The results were spectacular! Not one photographer shot natural light at that event.....To include some of the guys having to run into Vancouver to (spent top dollar) buy or rent big battery pack/studio strobes because they were not expecting this! :) The results were so good that the person in charge of Olympic media was considering allowing strobe set up areas at certain events. Alas that did not happen for Rio, but the results spoke clearly. If you look up ski jumping photos you can tell the ones that are strobed....Night and day!
I want to know about older camera flashes. My dad had some patents on some flashes and flash acc. , fluorescent.. well it was the circuline, so he basically bent it but he was stoked about it.
One thing has always kinda niggled me, for years now is that the use of the term "speedlight" has become a universal term to describe ANY make of Electronic Flash as our friends in the former colonies sometimes refer to as Strobes, usually refering to Studio Mains or battery powered large output Flash. ONLY NIKON makes and names the flashes" Nikon Speedlights" So dear friends there are NO Godox, Nissan, Cannon, Sony (YUK!) etc etc" Speedlights" What they have are a line of Flashguns. Rant over. I thank you!
Hi Ken I don't disagree with your opinion on studio strobes but would you still think that would be the way for a person to go instead of speedlight if the person doesn't do photography as a profession or even part time but just take pictures for their own satisfaction? Happy Holidays.
Hey Theoria, there is a video called The breakthrough energy revolution: Robin Coil Dynamics. You should check it out. I seen some of your work in it and seems kind of interesting.
With beautiful lighting even a crappy lens can take amazing images. I like the double exposure term. By using a flash you are freed from having not to expose for the background.
I had something opposite the other day in a busy area. I exposed for the background - Landscape night shot - 5/2 second exposure, f2.4/8.8mm, iso 64... I had noticed everyone was rather "black" who was in my shot since very low light source from anything coming from my direction - but this couple had hit their flash on their iPhone - and I got a great image of her and everything else in the landscape - of course some bleed through from background light as they had slightly moved before/after the flash.
This comment is off the topic of the post. I am looking to buy a FD to EF adapter for a crop sensor camera. Are there any good ones that you would recommend?
Love your double exposure analogy. Took me ages to figure that out as a beginner. Lately though I remove all ambient light and flood the room with "speed lite", so I suppose that brings us back to single exposure if I understand you correctly?
Have you thought of making a video of yourself taking photos with these techniques? You can do it in your back yard on your own with a camera on a tripod for video. Just an idea...
z352kdaf8324 it was a simple suggestion for him to improve his channel. He doesn't need you to "defend" him as it wasn't an attack. He can handle himself. Go away, loser
Huh? You must have missed his other videos, or didn't even watch this one completely.. You have no clue. And it wasn't an attack either - but a suggestion.
I saw a simulated fire place and Christmas lights and for a second I anticipated I’d be asked to sit back, relax and enjoy another scintillating, vomit inducing presentation from Peter Gregg 🤣
When I started my career in 1987, I bought a brand new three head Speedotron Brown Line kit and loved it. I still use it. Then I learned about White Lightning 1200’s. Loved them too for the week I owned them. Then my friend said, “Come on, we’re going to Ken Hansen’s in New York.” I went and watched as he bought these new fangled Elinchrom moonlights. Not yet afraid of debt. I also bought a set of four because of their quicker flash duration. The next day I called the folks at Paul C. Buff and honestly told them what I had done and would they send me a refund for the White Lightning’s if I sent them back unharmed. I can still here the woman as she answered me in the soft music of her Tennessean take on our language-“of course we can” What! I’d used them everyday for a week and still got every penny back! From then on, I championed their cause. I convinced the paper I was shooting for to buy a few kits of 2 1200’s and a 600 each. Plus, I convinced several colleges to permanently hang them in their arenas. I have six Elinchroms now, plus 2 sets of Speedotron Brown Lines, not to mention 4 2400 watt-second Blackline packs with matching quad heads for big places around the country. I finished depressing my wife by getting a Hensel Porty that I still love. My latest purchase was the smartest by far, though. It’s the Paul C. Buff Mini Lithium power supply. Though it only has two household outlets, the instructions remind you that with extension cords and adapters, you can easily run 4 500 watt-second moonlights from just one little’ole lithium supply and I’ve done it many times without even a trace of overheating. Profoto’s are great but give me a company like Paul Buff anytime.
I like the mindset to think of photography not as capturing objects, but as tunning in light. Our lenses are just fancy antennas and camera are light radio receivers.
Hey Ken! I appreciate your work, and this video is great!
I have a suggestion to add on to your explanation on why flash overcomes the tonality loss of high element count lenses: It's because of the fact that flash sends out a high powered T1 burst of light. That burst of light consists of all the wavelengths of light that a regular white bulb would, but the amplitude of those wavelengths is many many many times larger than a regular white bulb. When the high amplitude light passes through the glass in the lens, all the light/tonality that a high element count lens subtracts from the light through electrical attenuation is nothing compared to the amplitude of the light passing through it. Whereas in a weaker, continuous source of light, the original amplitude of light is not large enough to overcome the attenuation of many glass elements without losing significant amplitude/tonality. This results in great sensor saturation for the flash exposure and poor sensor saturation for the continuous white light bulb. Although the exposure time has to be varied for either exposure so as to get the same exposure, it does not change the fact that the sensor is much more saturated in the flash exposure due to the high amplitude (highly energized) light that reaches the sensor.
In your video, all you mentioned was that flash saturates the sensor with "boooom!" and that it drops a lot of light onto your sensor quickly = sensor saturation. In other videos, the explanation isn't very well fleshed out either. So I thought about it and linked it with the other stuff I've learnt from your videos about light and physics and came up with this.
How's that?
I shoot real estate interiors and use speed lights (six) and am seriously going to look at a Digibee. Every so often I need more power. Totally agree with you on lighting - photos look infinitely better with proper lighting. HDR and or enfuse is popular but side by side there is really no comparison. To anyone reading this: Take Ken's advise and learn to use lighting - preferably off camera but whatever.
I used to shoot HDR for my real estate business...used to. Now I'm all about Flambient. The color rendition with flash is exponentially better.
The time of my life when other tourists on the ship flash their pocket cameras to capture a village 1 mile away after sunset. I go in my cabin, photograph the postcards from the gift store, then pretend to take pics and show them the result on my camera screen.
Ditto for people who use flash when they try take a picture of a movie screen.
I don’t know if these qualify as “speedlights” but I buy used Vivitar 283’s and always, always combine each one with its own Variopower (VP-1) unit that plugs into the front of the unit. This lets me dial down the flash so it just gives off the tiniest amount of light. Please don’t buy all of them on EBay, though, because I still buy them sometimes.
Speaking of micro contrast; Can you do a video on the top 5 or 10 or 20 (whatever) lenses based on micro contrast, alone? Like the lenses (across all manufacturers and eras) that have the best micro contrast? That would be super helpful and interesting.
3rd ;-)
LOL
Phillip Farano I’ve been watching since he had 16k subscribers and I subscribed when he had 23k subscribers. I’ve been around fir awhile and watched most of his videos. I don’t recall him ever making a video where he ranked the best lenses based on micro contrast, alone. Obviously, multiple other long time subscribers don’t recall one, either. If you have a link to such a video, post it.
Damn it, you caught me... I was hoping nobody would ever figure out that I am unable to both watch a video and listen to said video at the same time... I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling UA-camrs!
If you had a link to such a video, it would have to exist. The fact that nobody seems to have any recollection of said video, though, and you have not been able to provide a link, even when prompted to do so, says all that needs to be said.
Not sure what the rest of that rambling was about. You seemed to go off the deep end, there.
Phil, you're full of shit, my dear
T1 time? Yep, I found that out when I had Ye Olde Leica IIIa to X synch at 1/20 sec. The electronic flash (mostly) stopped action even with such a slow shutter speed.
Great video Ken!
You would be shocked at the sports that get photographed with flash.
In Vancouver (Whistler) they put us close enough to the ski jumpers that we were able to use 300WS plus strobes to bring up the saturation of the sky and the racers....The results were spectacular! Not one photographer shot natural light at that event.....To include some of the guys having to run into Vancouver to (spent top dollar) buy or rent big battery pack/studio strobes because they were not expecting this! :)
The results were so good that the person in charge of Olympic media was considering allowing strobe set up areas at certain events. Alas that did not happen for Rio, but the results spoke clearly.
If you look up ski jumping photos you can tell the ones that are strobed....Night and day!
Thank you.I love when you give videos about flash photography I learn a lot
Great info and well put together. Thanks, cheers!
I want to know about older camera flashes. My dad had some patents on some flashes and flash acc. , fluorescent.. well it was the circuline, so he basically bent it but he was stoked about it.
One thing has always kinda niggled me, for years now is that the use of the term "speedlight" has become a universal term to describe ANY make of Electronic Flash as our friends in the former colonies sometimes refer to as Strobes, usually refering to Studio Mains or battery powered large output Flash. ONLY NIKON makes and names the flashes" Nikon Speedlights" So dear friends there are NO Godox, Nissan, Cannon, Sony (YUK!) etc etc" Speedlights" What they have are a line of Flashguns. Rant over. I thank you!
well, nobody says flashguns. heheheheheh. :)
Correct Ken!
Spot on!
Dude!! Your monitor is on Fire 😲
Rarely used a flash myself... thanks for the advise 👌
it's like doing HDR with two images, one for the background and one for the subject, but on the same shutter release
gotta luv soggy triskets, great video, thanks.
Wow. Gonna start carrying around my SB910.
hey, wassup susan.. Happy Santa day ⛄🎄🎁
You too!
Hi Ken
I don't disagree with your opinion on studio strobes but would you still think that would be the way for a person to go instead of speedlight if the person doesn't do photography as a profession or even part time but just take pictures for their own satisfaction?
Happy Holidays.
Hey Theoria, there is a video called The breakthrough energy revolution: Robin Coil Dynamics. You should check it out. I seen some of your work in it and seems kind of interesting.
With beautiful lighting even a crappy lens can take amazing images. I like the double exposure term. By using a flash you are freed from having not to expose for the background.
yuuuuup
I had something opposite the other day in a busy area. I exposed for the background - Landscape night shot - 5/2 second exposure, f2.4/8.8mm, iso 64... I had noticed everyone was rather "black" who was in my shot since very low light source from anything coming from my direction - but this couple had hit their flash on their iPhone - and I got a great image of her and everything else in the landscape - of course some bleed through from background light as they had slightly moved before/after the flash.
Hi Ken how are you? Have you heard anything about the new tamron 100 400? do you plan on talking about it ?
This comment is off the topic of the post. I am looking to buy a FD to EF adapter for a crop sensor camera. Are there any good ones that you would recommend?
Ken, dafuq? You are putting them up faster than I can watch them!
I knew it. MK Ultra mind control. You said it 3 times so now we view it as truth... LOL
All flash photography is really a double exposure...All flash photography is really a double exposure.
I like to store triscuits with my lenses for moisture control. Way better than silica beads.
I think I can see some Christmas lights in the background.
Love your double exposure analogy. Took me ages to figure that out as a beginner. Lately though I remove all ambient light and flood the room with "speed lite", so I suppose that brings us back to single exposure if I understand you correctly?
Talk about Bitcoin please!
Have you thought of making a video of yourself taking photos with these techniques? You can do it in your back yard on your own with a camera on a tripod for video. Just an idea...
im too busy
Theoria Apophasis no problem 👍
Do it and make your own youtube channel, since you don't understand the master's theories.
z352kdaf8324 it was a simple suggestion for him to improve his channel. He doesn't need you to "defend" him as it wasn't an attack. He can handle himself. Go away, loser
Huh? You must have missed his other videos, or didn't even watch this one completely.. You have no clue. And it wasn't an attack either - but a suggestion.
95 percent of professional photography is flash photography...SS
It's all about the light girlfriend lol
gerlfriend
Grrrrlfrend
I dont get anything about sensor saturation hahaha please help
what the heck is a trisket !
no
Can you get a real fire one day...
I saw a simulated fire place and Christmas lights and for a second I anticipated I’d be asked to sit back, relax and enjoy another scintillating, vomit inducing presentation from Peter Gregg 🤣
what would you use a super bright flashlight for? I recently got a 4000 lumen flashlight and I was wondering what would be fun.