On this tutorial from the Intermediate Flash Pictures course, you may study in regards to the two-light setup. In earlier elements of the course, we used a single flash to gentle our topic, with the addition of a reflector often. Now you are going to discover ways to add a second flash to your pictures.
I keep in mind after I first discovered off-camera flash, it was solely a matter of days till I used to be bored and chomping on the bit to discover ways to add extra flashes into the body. By including the additional flashes, I opened up a complete new world of management and creativity to my images. I have not regarded again since then.
Gear
First issues first, with the intention to use a second gentle in your setup, you may want so as to add some gear to your digicam bag. The primary and most evident factor that you will want is a second flash. Most probably you may wish to get the identical sort of flash that you’re already utilizing to make issues easier and to make it possible for every little thing works collectively. You may additionally wish to get a second gentle stand and umbrella holder in your second flash.
If you happen to’re utilizing a set off system that requires a receiver in your slave flash, you may additionally must get one other receiver to set off your second flash. After all, if you happen to’ve obtained the Yongnuo setup from the Introduction to Flash Pictures course, you will not want a second receiver because the flashes have the receivers constructed into them.
Methods to Use a Second Flash for Fill Mild
After you have all of this gear collectively, it is time to get began. The most typical manner to make use of your second flash is as a fill gentle. Up up to now, we have been utilizing a reflector as a fill gentle, so, what is the distinction? In my expertise, a reflector is the cheaper possibility, and it is also normally faster to arrange, so I believe it is a guerilla sort of lighting device.
The benefit of utilizing a second flash for fill gentle is that you’ve got a lot extra management over the sunshine. You may finely tune the brightness of the flash by adjusting the facility up or down, and with some flash methods, you possibly can even management the facility of your lights with out having to depart your taking pictures place. This helps to keep away from the fixed strolling backwards and forwards between your digicam and your gentle to regulate the settings. You too can connect any lighting modifier if you wish to change the feel, dimension, or color of the sunshine that you simply’re producing.
The Two-Mild Setup in Follow
So now that I’ve satisfied you ways superior utilizing a second flash is, we will carry again our mannequin and present you how one can get began.
We will begin with a quite simple loop lighting. On my principal flash, or my key gentle, I am utilizing an 18-inch softbox.
Let’s take a photograph with simply this one gentle and see what this appears to be like like.
That appears nice. It is fairly commonplace loop lighting. It is a bit of bit arduous, and that makes me wish to carry again a bit of sunshine into the shadows. That is okay as a result of we will do one thing about that with our second flash, our fill gentle.
So we will use some fill gentle once more, however as an alternative of utilizing a reflector, we will use a second flash with an umbrella. I choose to make use of a extremely smooth fill gentle since you sometimes do not wish to create extra shadows along with your fill gentle—you wish to fill in shadows. If you happen to use a tough fill gentle, it’s going to give double shadows, which may look actually unnatural.
We’ll usher in our fill gentle reverse our key gentle.
Let’s take a photograph and see the way it appears to be like.
All proper. It is a bit of bit under-lit, which I do not love, so I’ll carry my fill gentle up a bit increased and level the umbrella down just a bit bit. The 2 lights are about the identical distance away from our topic.
Okay. Let’s have a look at how that adjustment appears to be like.
That appears actually cool. So what we have achieved right here is totally obliterate the shadows in her face. The one downside with that is that it is made her face a bit of bit flat—it is lacking among the dimension now. The rationale for that’s that each of our lights are set on the identical energy output. At present, they’re each set at 1/eighth energy.
With a view to create some depth, we’ll must carry again some shadows. The simplest manner we do that’s to decrease the facility of the fill gentle.
I’ll modify my fill gentle all the way in which down, as little as it goes, to 1/128th energy. Let’s take a photograph and see how that appears.
All proper, the shadows are positively again. Actually, I can barely inform that there is a fill gentle in any respect. So let’s return as much as 1/sixteenth energy. So now, our key gentle is at 1/eighth energy and our fill gentle is at 1/sixteenth energy. One other technique to say that is our fill gentle is half as highly effective as our key gentle, which provides us a lighting ratio of two:1. It is a fairly widespread lighting ratio.
Let’s take a photograph and see how this appears to be like.
Good. Now we’re beginning to carry these shadows again a bit of bit extra. So let’s take that even a bit of bit additional. Let’s carry our fill gentle right down to 1/thirty second energy, and take a photograph.
Good. A little bit bit extra shadow. Our key gentle did not change in any respect. It stayed at 1/eighth energy the entire time.
I prefer to get my key gentle set, after which carry within the fill gentle and play with the positioning and energy output till I get it simply to the place I would like it. I actually favored the look of the fill gentle at round 1/sixteenth energy. That gave us that lighting ratio of two:1, which I believe is a extremely stunning lighting ratio, particularly for portraits of girls.
Conclusion
In order that’s how one can use a flash as a fill gentle. As you possibly can see, utilizing a flash as a fill gentle is so significantly better than utilizing a bounce card since you get so far more management.
After all, we might use a unique modifier on our fill gentle if we needed to. You’ve gotten a lot of artistic freedom if you’re utilizing two flashes, quite than one flash and a bounce card.
If you happen to thought that this two-light setup was actually enjoyable to study, simply wait till you get to our subsequent tutorial. We will be including one extra flash for a complete of three lights, and what I take into account an important lighting setup of all.
