Portrait Lighting

                                                      Light can make or break a portrait.

You can shoot great portraits with just one light.  

That light can be a Speedlight, a strobe or a video light.

This is a speedlight?

This is a Strobe 

   SPEEDLIGHT

At the exact same ISO and aperture settings, the speedlight is at least 3-4 times more powerful than a built in flash, allowing you to light subjects at increased distances and to use lower ISO settings for better image quality and narrower apertures (eg f/11) for increased depth of field. And not only is a speedlight much more powerful in terms of its output, but it’s faster too.

A speedlight gives more control

You can zoom the light from wide angle to telephoto, to match the focal length of your lens and to ensure there’s the correct spread and intensity of light in your image.

You can bounce the light

One of the biggest benefits of using a speedlight is the swivel head, which allows you to adjust the angle up or down by 90º or pivot by 360º. 

This lets you bounce the light from the flash, and this is an easy way to transform your indoor photography. By bouncing the light from another surface – such as a wall or ceiling – you can spread the light further around the room, reducing the amount of shadows and creating a softer more flattering flash. 

Bouncing the light also lets you adjust the angle of the light for more depth and control over shadows. For instance, by pointing the speedlight at a wall the light bounces from this surface making it a larger and softer light source, and the angle creates an interesting side-lit, 3D effect. 

This technique works best with white walls or ceilings as they reflect the light better without any unnatural colour cast that coloured surfaces produce.

You can diffuse/modify the light

You can use it for off-camera flash

Speedlights are very affordable.

Third party speedlight for less than €100

Yongnuo YN-560iV GN58  €70   

Click  >  HERE  9 best Yongnuo flashes 2019

                         Strobe lights

Much more powerful

They recharge quickly

Can be triggered by cable or remote

Emit a short powerful burst

Strobes can produce intense light power

Strobes feature a constant-on light that allows the photographer to see the final result without the need for a test shot.

Continuous lighting (video) stays on during the entire shoot.

They are less bright

Need wide Apertures and slow shutter speeds

Produce softer results

Ray has one of these .........

Smaller cheaper version  $40

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           "Shooting Portraits with one speed light" 

                      Sean Tucker  on YouTube

Gear

Second hand 50mm 1.4 lens e.g. Canon or Nikon  €200

Yongnuo Speedlight YN560 iv €70

Portable light stand

Photosel 1.5x 2m collapsable background  Amazon  £50

Walimex Pro  Umbrella softbox 109cm    Amazon.UK £21

Calumet wireless trigger  €70

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Working with Ambient Light

Ambient light means the light that is already present in a scene, before any additional lighting is added.

It usually refers to natural light, either outdoors or coming through windows etc.

Ambient Light traditionally refers to any form of light that the photographer did not add to their image,

Light from the window

Other form of ambient light include Door light     Top light    Backlight   Sunrise and sunset light

This is a backlight shot

Golden light works well for portraits and landscapes

                    

                     Flash                    

Creating soft light with On camera flash

                    

One of the things I have done to teach myself about flash is to study a long UTube video by Bob Harrington. "One light 101 with Robert  Harrington"
This is the link  Click > HERE
Be warned it is 1hr 26m long!!
This is my synopsis. 

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These are my other photography blogs .....
Subject                         Address                                         Click
1.  Photography             johnkent1.blogspot.ie                                    HERE 

2.  Exposure                  johnkentexposure.blogspot.ie                        HERE         

3.  Macro                       jkmacro.blogspot.ie                                       HERE

4.  Flash                        jklight.blogspot.ie                                      You are here.
5.  Underwater photography    jkfishystuff.blogspot.com                   HERE

6  Photoshop                dccphotoshop.blogspot.ie                                HERE    
7. Holiday in Asia      jkasia.blogspot.com                             HERE
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                    I use a Nikon SB-800 and Yongnuo Speedlite YN560 

To explore flash you need a flash unit (speedlight) and a camera!
You need to be able to work in Manual mode (M) so that you have control over the power of your flash - from full power to 1/128 of power.

If you don't own a flash get the Yongnuo Speedlite YN560 - great value.
Check your flash manual - go into M and experiment with changing the power.
Take a shot at full power and compare with 1/128 power.

3 types of light - There is Ambient Light (AL), Artificial light (bulbs) and Flash.
Ambient is sunlight - 99% of all light.
For the sake of this piece AL is all light except flash.

Understanding flash begins with Ambient light. 
We can include some or all available ambient light in a shot; 
we can exclude it all and light the subject with flash only.
This we do using Shutter speed and Aperture.

(All new terminology is in GREEN.)

                                     These are the 3 controls for flash :-
ISO - Controls Light Globally
Shutter speed  -  Controls Ambient light
Aperture - controls Flash power

For correct flash exposure 4 things need to be in place
- Power of the flash
- Aperture
- ISO

- Distance from flash to subject
{PAID is the acronym for the above}.

The photos below are part of Bob Harrington's presentation and used here with his permission.

My concern here is lighting portraits only (mainly head shots) - painting light onto selected parts of the face, head, hair, shoulders. 
Soft light as against harsh light is desired. Light can be made to wrap around the subject.
It bounces off ceiling, walls, reflectors.
Light is softened by diffusing it. 

This is done by using walls, ceiling, or a softbox like this.
Here Bob took the flash off the camera  - pointed it at the wall on the left
So the wall acts like a giant softbox.

                  On the left the shot              -                          on the right the setup.


                             




















The flash is fired Remotely - by the pop up flash on the camera. 
Called Commander Mode on the Nikon.
Click  HERE for detailed explanation
or HERE to see an excellent explanation on Understanding Nikon's Flash Commander Mode.

The flash is higher than the model - 45 degree to left and often angled down about 45 also.

Single light and one umbrella. Light facing into the umbrella and reflected towards model.

Night shoot

Here the flash is behind the model
and pointed up into the umbrella

The reflected light lights even the front of the model.
Clever........

Flash in Manual mode and half power.

Iso up





Bob stresses that you need to relax your model - chat - joke - whatever.

Flash at half power Manual mode - f/5.6   1/200s    ISO 200
The shot was on the dark side so he upped the ISO to 400 and here is the shot.
Hung a piece of blue material on background.

                                            Exposure variables with Flash

ISO controls Light globally
That means that as you change up ISO you gain light all across the board and visa versa'
Shutter Speed controls Ambient light.
Aperture controls Flash Power.

Shutter speed -  allows you play with 2 light sources Ambient and flash.
With a Fast shutter - ambient light disappears (day or night) - 
e.g.1/250s  for the Picture on left (as long as you are within the sync speed of your camera).

The sync speed is the fastest speed at which the entire sensor is exposed to the light through the lens.





Here is the same shot at 1/60s.

The ambient light is in play because of the slower shutter speed.

As we said shutter speed determines how much/little ambient you allow in.
NB The light on the model has not changed - only the amount of ambient visible has changed.

Repeat > Shutter speed only controls your ambient light.

The exposure on your model/subject does not change with shutter speed change.

Aperture controls the Flash power and DOF -  no one setting for all.
No ideal Aperture - 

If subject is overexposed I can stop down the Aperture one stop (less light in) - which will stop down the Ambient also. To balance it out you slow down the Shutter one stop.

"Aperture is the best way to dial down your flash".

Example :- I have overexposed using f/11 at 1/100
So I change the Aperture from f/11 to f/13 = less light in by one stop
This changes the flash power - so the model is less bright
              "Aperture controls flash power"
This change has changed the ambient light contribution and to correct that
I change the shutter speed from 1/100 to 1/80 - 
which does not affect the model exposure because
             "Shutter speed only affects the ambient light"!

Manual and TTL      

Flash can be controlled through MANUAL flash or through TTL.

With Manual flash - YOU adjust the settings to balance them for correct exposure.

With TTL the camera and flash control the flash output (= the power) and you adjust the other settings.

In Manual you can set the power to full 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 etc up to 1/128

(the absolute value of 1/2 power will vary between flash models).

With Manual you control all 4

Power, Distance, Aperture and ISO. 

Being slow - It took me a while to get all of this - worth going over 'til you have it nailed.
Then take the camera out and practice it.

Family shots  /  flash on camera  /  TTL    ISO 400    f/5.6    1/80s

TTL is "through the lens" = Auto mode for your flash.

If you point the flash at the subject you are likely to get a terrible shot like this:

Bounce the flash instead.
Take the flash off the camera and bounce it  eg off the ceiling like this >

or use the wall as a giant soft box   >>>>>

Use a TTL cable - and the camera thinks the flash is still on the camera

What is TTL?
Nikon introduced it in 1980. 
TTL is where you depend on the camera's flash metering to get the exposure right.
With TTL the light from the flash races off to the subject in low bursts (pre-flash) to collect info
Then races back to the camera with the info 
When the camera's software/computer decides (based on that info) that there is enough light it switches it off!  Cool or what ....
So the camera automatically controls the the flash output to give correct exposure.
All of this at the speed of light.
With TTL the camera's computer gives us correct exposure regardless of Aperture or
 flash-to-distance - provided they are within the realms of the flash's power.
TTL is basic flash.

Detailed explanation of everything to do with TTL  Click  >  HERE

Or this excellent Tube video >  HERE

For most control we need to include Ambient Light >  Creative flash
so we use Manual exposure mode.
In M mode you fix the Ambient light using Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO
and let the flash take care of calculating correct exposure.
I will post some images here as I experiment.

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Off camera Lighting set up

Light stand - wide base -weighted down.
Mounting shoe - hotshoe (electrics) / coldshoe
Umbrella bracket - NOT plastic (not secure)
Trigger   CTL / Wireless

To trigger the flash On Camera
  TTL cable
  CTL Commander Mode (+ pop up flash)
  Wireless / radio/ infrared

I can use the pop up to trigger the off camera flash without the pop up adding to the light.
Camera in Master Command mode and the flash in Remote mode (= looking for a signal).
Flash on Manual mode 1/8 ....shot was overexposed by about 2 stops

Options

Could turn down the flash to  1/15  or 1/32 etc

or go to Aperture on the camera.

 "Aperture controls Flash Power" - so change f/stop  eg from f/8  to f/13

Right pic.

Shot at 1/5s  - the background is all over the shot. Up the shutter speed to kill off the background.

"Shutter speed controls the ambient light"
easy …….

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My flashes are Nikon SB 800 and Yongnuo YN560.

Now to deal with the flash menu like A,   AA,   TTL,    M,   RPT
Then there is flash power  1/1 (Full), 1/8,  1/16  up to 1/128.
In M mode 
It seems I can change from wide angle to narrow  from 24 wide to 105mm
As you change you can hear the zoom go to work.
I assume wide angle spreads the flash over a wider area and possibly weaker as a result.
I can also change the f numbers here from f/1.4 to f/64 !!
I can change the f number either on camera or on the flash unit.

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How to set up for Remote Flash shooting

Menu on SB-800  Top Left box is the wireless symbol    >>>  To rotate between this window 
which is the main menu window -and the options  -hold down the SEL button -3 secs.

Remote shooting 
is when you use the pop-up flash on camera to trigger the off camera flash.



These are the options I have selected on the flash for remote shooting.
I have CH = channel 3 selected
and Group A
These two settings need to match with the selections on the camera.
So let's go to the camera Menu .........

On the camera menu go to  Camera Custom Setting  
Then Bracketing Flash and a3 -  (Nikon)
 Flash control for built-in flash.
Left:  Built-in flash has been set to -- (= 0) so it will not be adding to the overall exposure.
Group A on TTL
Channel is  3           OK

Note: The same channel (3) selected on Flash unit and camera.


So Now i can trigger the flash (SB800) remotely with the Camera pop up flash
The pop up flash must be UP on camera!
UTube link            HERE
                                        Review of the Yongnuo YN560   HERE
The YONGNUO can also act as a slave to the pop up flash on camera giving me two remotes. Great value at Amazon £46 for latest model.

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Off camera flash  -  use Manual mode for most control.
In manual mode I get decide the power of the flash
from 1/1 which is full power to 1/128.
Where can I do all that?
In the Camera menu …. go to "Custom Setting menu" / "Bracketing flash" and then
 "Flash cntrl for built-in flash"
then down to "Commander Mode" and you will see something like this:

Built-in flash is the pop-up flash on your camera.

I you don't want that flash to add any light then you change whatever is showing in the small window under "Mode" to  look like this  " - - "

How do you change it? With the scroll wheel - either up/down or sideways.

Group A will be the first of two flashes we will use - neither attached to the camera.

We will use the pop-up flash to trigger them.

1   Let's begin with A Mode - select from the flash menu
Flash in Hotshoe - ISO is picked up automatically - you have to enter the f number
Shoot - the flash takes care of exposure automatically.

2   AA mode flash in hotshoe  =  fully automatic.
 The AA Mode is the default mode for the 'Automatic' non-TTL flash modes.
Here the flash picks up both the Aperture and the ISO you set and a preflash pulse is used.

The preflash is also used by the camera in AA mode to calculate the white balance.

Another useful byproduct of the fact that the AA flash uses a preflash is that you can use the Flash Value Lock (FV Lock) function. This helps with the fast blinkers when taking group shots.

3   Commander AA Mode, Flash in Remote:

Problem with selecting A  /  AA modes

Flash off camera I get A  /  on camera I get AA

Flash A mode or SU- 4 AA mode are useful when shooting pets. These modes eliminate the problem of pets who can close their eyes so quickly that they are closed by the time the main flash fires. The alternative is to use TTL mode and FV Lock. Some animals are greatly bothered by the flash, so  use A or SU-4 AA mode just to reduce the flashes the animal has to put up with.

It turns out that Flash A and SU- 4 AA modes measure the reflected energy quite evenly across the frame, so it is useful for group shots as well.

Flash A and SU-4 AA modes do a very good job of setting the flash to the correct power most of the time, but these modes still suffer from the same problems as TTL, ie the flash power is set too high when the subject is black (or dark colored) and too low when the subject is white (or light colored).

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                                                                Flash Sync Speed

This is a very simple concept.

"In sync" means in harmony - happening at the same time - in agreement.

In terms of flash it refers to the flash firing when the shutter is open.

Lets say it takes about 1/200s for the shutter curtain to open and close.

If the flash does not fire while the shutter curtain is open then they are not in sync.

Every camera has a maximum sync speed - 1/200s for Canons and 1/250s for Nikons.

Now the speedlight duration is very fast - about 1/1000s at full power and can vary up to 

1/20,000s and faster at much reduced power e.g. 1/128 of full power.

If you are using the on-camera flash it will not allow you to set a shutter speed higher than your sync speed. Try it and see.

It is possible on some cameras to set high speed sync.

Can be set up in Menu - under "My Menu"                       See video HERE

This allows you to shoot with active flash at 1/4000s and faster. Can be useful outdoors.

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                                             More studio from Bon Harrington

45" Reflective umbrella   1/125   ISO 200    WB  Daylight    

Umbrella at 45degrees front and high.  2-3 feet above and 4-5 ft to side.

                            

                                 

1/125    f/5.6     ISO 200    WB  Daylight  

California Sunbounce Micro Mini Reflector  with Grip Head ( On Right side)

Reflector 3-4ft from subject - move to taste. A little trial and error needed.

                        

                                                                           

Sidelight Reflective umbrella       The light was moved to Right of model

and she was turned into the light.

                          

  

The Crunched umbrella (instead of a beauty dish)

                    Using a reflector.

                    

Reflector sideway and lower than her face.

The light is aimed at the reflector - wraps the model in soft light.

Light under chin , nose, hair.

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Shoot through Umbrella        Model very near wall

Umbrella up high above the camera      Soft light    "Flatly lit but not flat" Drama and detail

When you flat light the pores get filled in - which is good.

Cross lighting shows up the pores.

Soft light and a drop shadow.

 

Over and Under lighting.

1/250     f/7.1     ISO200      WB Daylight   Shoot through umbrella from above.   

Reflector lights from below.

Light very close to model  hence  move to f/7.1

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    Outdoors                           Bounce light into reflector  .

                                                Bare head flash

                                                1/250   f/5.6       ISO 200    

                                                The reflector is now your wall!

         

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Bare head Direct flash

1/125   f/5.6   ISO 200   M flash  1/2 power.

  

     Good distance between flash and model.  Longer lens.

 Used on lots of magazine covers.   Creates a hard drop shadow.

You get no clipped highlights.

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Shoot a fraction lower than the model's face.

Alternative to the California reflector that Bob uses >  Lastolite Tri grip reflector

Needs a bracket and stand  =  £60.49 Amazon.UK

The reflector is £47   Total  £107.49

                           The California reflector is very expensive and possibly only available in US,

                            $180 +  $65 for the bracket

                            And you still need a Matthews Hollywood Grip head like this  £28. 

                            $273 + Postage !!!

                                       

   The Lastolite reflector £107.49 !!                                                                     

                   

Surely it can't be that difficult to make and mount a reflector on a stand so that it can be rotated and directed. I think the big circular one with the arm is too big

                Some shots from our "model shoot" in DCC

Below

from Ray McSherry.

I love this shot

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