Just about every day I am asked how do I get started? What should I do? How do I learn?
Off camera lighting might feel intimidating. Especially if you’re new to it. However, don’t worry—it’s not as intimidating as it might seem. The key is to have the right equipment (FlashGear is here to help with that) and a solid understanding of your camera’s manual settings.
Gear You’ll Need…(If you would like specific guidance, feel free to shoot me a message and we can talk and figure out what’s going to be best to meet your particular needs):
Flash Unit
Trigger/Controller: This helps you fire the flash off-camera.
Light Stand/Modifiers : A simple stand can hold your flash, and modifiers like softboxes or umbrellas will help shape the light.
Before diving into flash, let’s make sure you’re comfortable shooting in manual mode and fully understand the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, shutter speed). Can everyone say they feel solid on that? If not, this is the time to ask questions!
Camera Settings and Exposure:
Start by using your camera to get the basic exposure for the background of your scene. You’ll want to balance the natural/ambient light first. This means adjusting your ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to expose the scene how you like without flash.
Adding Flash:
Once you’ve got your background looking good, stop making changes to your camera… Now is the time to add flash to your subject. Here’s how you can approach it:
1. Set your flash power to something moderate, like 1/8.
2. Fire a test shot, keeping an eye on how the light hits your subject.
3. Adjust your flash power up or down until it fills in your subject the way you want it to.
4. To make it easier and more consistent, you might consider getting a gray card and learning the gray card method that we teach here in the group. Light meters are also handy but they’re also considerably more expensive and they can be difficult for some people. Either way, the goal is to get you so that you can consistently get good exposure.
The trick to keeping your images from looking flashy is balancing that flash with the ambient light, so it feels natural and flattering to your subject.
Who’s already playing around with off-camera flash, and what challenges are you facing? Or if you’re brand new, what’s your biggest question or concern about getting started?