Advanced Photography: Flash

Go beyond the basics of flash. Learn about the behavior of light, how to simulate sunlight, how to leverage modifiers like umbrellas and softboxes, and more.

Introduction

• Take your flash photography to the next level
• Natural light vs. flash
• What you need for this course
• Why strobes instead of continuous light?

1. How to Think About Light

• How to learn lighting
• Light spread with a handheld flash
• Light spread with a studio strobe
• Falloff, part 1
• Falloff, part 2
• See like a light
• Understand light bounce

2. The Aesthetics of Lighting

• Learn lighting from existing photos
• Two approaches to conceiving lighting
• Decode lighting

3. How to Use a Flash Meter

• Control the power of a studio strobe
• Light meter basics

4. Bare Lights, Reflectors, and Flats

• Bouncing bare flash
• Simulate sunlight
• Simulate sunlight with shadows
• Bare strobes to eliminate background

5. Softboxes and Umbrellas

• Diffusion defined
• Umbrellas
• Softboxes

6. Real-World Lighting

• Simple beauty lighting, part 1
• Simple beauty lighting, part 2
• Calculate and use lighting ratios
• Light for a scene: Paparazzi
• Light for a scene: Writer's block
• Light for a scene: A good day, part 1
• Light for a scene: A good day, part 2
• Flash duration
• Freeze motion

7. Buy a Flash or Strobe

• Questions to answer
• What's the difference?

8. Shop for a Flash

• Anatomy of a handheld flash
• Compatibility and triggers
• Flash power
• Flash features

9. Shop for Studio Strobes

• What is a studio strobe?
• Strobes power
• Specifics
• Triggers
• Features and price
• Modifiers and speed rings
• Low-power strobes

Conclusion

• Next steps