Single-lamp lighting photography skills

Lead: Why do you need a flash to take pictures? Personally, I use the simplest but most important conclusion to explain why I need to use a flash to "create the light I want". Photography is not an absolute mathematical problem like 1+ 1=2, so there is no absolute criterion and usage for flash photography, so the flash is a very important tool and skill to manipulate and change the light as much as possible. Based on the degree that ordinary small flashing lights can do, this paper makes some sharing and suggestions.

The practical photography skills of single lamp lighting are just getting started. Generally, we only have one lamp, so catching light with a single lamp can be said to be the simplest or most basic. But after reading many articles on the Internet, I also know that "just one lamp" may be difficult. However, first of all, we should share the basic single lamp technology.

▲ There are also many outdoor cameras specially used for outdoor shooting on the market. Output and light quality are better than small flash, and portability is convenient. But the second benefit of the small flashing light is also a great benefit: "high-speed synchronization." Generally, the shutter synchronization speed of outdoor lighting in the shed is around 1/250, which is of course very sufficient in the shed (note: it is not considered that some high-order flashers can exceed the shutter synchronization speed of 1/250). Once outdoors, the shutter speed of 1/250 will become the shooting limit.

Single-lamp jumper

At first, the most commonly used single lamp should belong to jumping lamp, that is, reflecting the wall to create a large area of light. Jumping lights can be said to be the simplest and cheapest way to manufacture large-area light sources, but there is a very difficult problem to overcome: controlling the diffusion of light.

The biggest disadvantage of jumping lamp is that it can't control the diffusion of flashing light everywhere, especially in the case that the indoor space in Taiwan Province Province is not large, often a jumping lamp will make the light constantly eject in the indoor space, which will illuminate many places that should not be lit. Therefore, it is necessary to capture light directly from the main body through some additional instruments.

▲ Before learning flashing lights, I think we also need to know why we need to use flashing lights. I believe most people know why they need a flash. The simplest reason is: "the light in the scene is not good." The other is a common technique used by photographers, that is, deliberately changing the light of the scene to create photos with different general visual experiences, that is, "drama".

Equipment required for flashover

The camera internal flash controls the external flash trigger.

Flash off-plane extension line

Infrared trigger (such as Nikon SU-4)

External flash controls the external flash trigger (more than two flash lamps are required).

Radio flash

Canon 600EX flash series has built-in wireless system (I didn't have a chance to use it, so I'll mention it here).

In my experience, light trigger is the simplest and most convenient way to escape from the flash, especially the original flash can also be TTL and high-speed synchronization. But the biggest disadvantage is that the light trigger is easy to be triggered, because the position of the sensing point can't sense light.

The wireless broadcast flasher is another way to flash off the plane, which I think is very useful. Wireless broadcast flashers have noble brands, such as pocket elves. Its advantage is that it can support TTL and high-speed synchronization, but it is expensive. However, there are also very cheap brands on the market, just a few hundred dollars, such as Yongnuo. Besides not being able to synchronize TTL at high speed, it's really useful. For example, although I have pocket wizards myself, I still brought back a group of Yongnuo.

Canon's latest flashing light series has undoubtedly solved most of the flashover problems, which can be said to be quite good products. I hope Nikon will follow up as soon as possible.

▲ The quality of light is a very laborious exercise. Because the lamp tube of small flash lamp is very small, the light quality is poor and the output is low. Creating high-quality light requires a lot of additional instruments to assist. Creating different textures of light is really a very complicated course, and I am still learning it. At this stage, I will simplify the quality of light into the area of light source, that is, how to expand the luminous area of small flash lamp.

Light is logic.

The first basic thing of lighting is to find that Chu Guang must have its own source, especially in the outdoor environment. You must first find out where the light should come from, and then do the thinking and design of lighting according to this logic.

Just like this photo is actually for the correct exposure outside the window, in fact, there is almost no light in the room, almost all black. But because there is a desk lamp above the main body, I followed this idea and added a simple flashing light from the direction of the lamp. Of course, there are many improvements in this photo, but it reflects the light logic well.

The more logical your flashing light is, the easier it is for you to hide the trace of your light.

On a cloudy day, just add a little light.

Although it is easy to take pictures on cloudy days, there will always be situations where the light is too flat. Sometimes, except the subject can't jump out, the skin color of the face will be less pleasing. It is very simple and easy to catch the light on a cloudy day or in poor light, because the light of the flash can be felt with a little supplement, and the output of a small flash is absolutely enough.

This photo uses an SB900 with ezybox of Lastolite to capture the horizontal light outside the right side of the picture. Just a little, let the subject jump out a little.

This photo was taken entirely by joe McNally himself, and it was taken in the room at home, which is simple and easy to do.

With more media, the quality of flash will be improved instantly.

If you need a beautiful lamp, and there are not many lamps, then the easiest thing is to find translucent materials around your life to use.

When this photo was taken, it was actually raining heavily outside the rear window, and the whole window was too dark, so there was little light coming in from the window (note: similarly, if the natural light is excellent, sometimes there is no need for extra flashing lights). So I asked my friends to open an umbrella with SB900 in the heavy rain outside, and then hit it at the window. I like the texture of the light very much.

Coated soft light lamp

Jumping lights is the fastest way to generate a large area of light, and it is often a good way to catch light, especially when you just need a uniform light and meet a picture that doesn't need too much personality. This photo is a photo of my granddaughter mending her grandmother's makeup, and it is also a photo I like very much.

But there is actually a large French window on the right side of this photo, so there is actually quite a lot of ambient light on the right side of the photo.

Therefore, when jumping lights, we should catch the light on the left, and try our best to balance the two to think. Generally speaking, my experience is that it takes two flashing lights to jump all over a room. The output of two circuit breakers does not have to be exactly the same, and it can be a very simple level.

Warm light.

Flash has the color temperature of flash, and all kinds of artificial light sources in life also have different color temperatures, so there are so many different filters to match the flash, but it seems that many people will ignore the filter. In this photo, the position of the newcomer station is almost completely black under such exposure conditions, and it needs to be scratched.

From the logic of light, this photo will feel that the light should come from the desk lamp next to it, so just make your flashing light match the color of this desk lamp.

I used a full concentration orange filter (all CTO) for this photo.

Color film war

Color film is also used. This is a very dark small restaurant with ISO 1600, aperture F2.8, shutter 1/50, and the environment is still very dark. In such a dark environment, a small flash is really powerful. The only difficulty is how to fill the light without destroying the atmosphere. So you also need to get excellent film. I used 1/2 orange filter and 65% pink filter for this flash.

Of course, the light does not completely conform to the scene light, but my thinking direction is that I don't want the whole person to be too orange or too pink, and I hope that the characters can stand out a little from this environment. In such an environment, jumping lights will completely destroy the atmosphere at the scene, so I used a Lastolite soft mask to hit the main body directly.