FLASH & STROBIST TUTORIAL

Shared by

Michael Khoe
Former Main Photographer of Imago Production
Asssit Photographer of New York Art

TOPIC
FLASH FUNDAMENTAL
FLASH POWER
INVERSE SQUARE LAW
FIRST AND SECOND CURTAIN
FLASH PHOTO ARE DOUBLE EXPOSURE

STROBIST
STROBIST DEFINITION
STANDARD EQUIPMENT
GET CREATIVE WITH GEL

FLASH FUNDAMENTAL- FLASH OUTPUT

FLASH POWER MEASURED IN 1 STOP OF LIGHT
1/1 - - - 1/8 - 1/16 - 1/32 - 1/64 1/128

EACH OF ABOVE NUMBER ALWAYS FIRE AT

THE MAXIMUM OUTPUT
THE DIFFERENCE IS ON THE FLASH DURATION

FLASH FUNDAMENTAL- FLASH OUTPUT

FLASH DURATION SAMPLE ON CANON FLASH 580 EX

1/1 power
1/2 power
1/4 power
1/8 power
1/16 power
1/32 power
1/64 power
1/128 power

= 1/1000 second
= 1/2000
= 1/4000
= 1/9000
= 1/15000
= 1/21000
= 1/30000
= 1/35000

INVERSE SQUARE LAW

Light intensity falls off rapidly with distance from its source. This is called
the Inverse Square Law, which says the intensity varies with the square of
the flash-to-subject distance, this way

Inverse Square law contd

Application
Stopping the aperture down one stop (like from f/4 to f/5.6) requires double flash
power. Two stops is 4x power, and three stops is 8x power.
Changing manual flash power level to half or double the previous power level is a
one stop difference. The marked manual power levels of Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16,
1/32, 1/64 are full stop steps. So increasing the flash power by one stop simply
means to double the previous power level (like from 1/8 power to 1/4 power is
double power). If you reduce your flash power to half of any previous level (like from
1/16 to 1/32 power), you can open one stop of aperture to compensate (from f/5.6
to f/4).
Increasing ISO to double value (like ISO 200 to ISO 400) requires only half of the flash
power (one stop). Doing that ISO double twice (ISO 200 to ISO 800) requires only 1/4
the power (2 stops). One implication when buying lights is that this means that a 160
watt second flash at ISO 200 is exactly the same lighting situation as 320 watt
seconds at ISO 100 - both at same power level setting will use the same f/stop for
same exposure at same distance.
Increasing flash-to-subject distance by 1 times more distance requires double flash
power (one stop). Two times the distance needs 4x power (inverse square law),
which is two stops.

FIRST AND SECOND CURTAIN FLASH

FIRST CURTAIN FLASH WORKS LIKE THIS :

Press shutter button.

Curtain A opens.
Flash fires.
Frame is open for some period of time (as determined
by your shutter speed).
Curtain B closes the frame,
ending the exposure.

FIRST AND SECOND CURTAIN FLASH

SECOND CURTAIN FLASH WORKS LIKE THIS :
Press shutter button.
Pre-flash fires so the camera can measure and adjust the
intensity.
Curtain A opens.
Frame is open for some period of time (as determined by
your shutter speed).
Flash fires.
Curtain B closes the frame and ends the exposure.

FIRST AND SECOND CURTAIN FLASH

FLASH PHOTO ARE DOUBLE EXPOSURE

Any flash picture is effectively a double exposure, once from
the flash, and once from any ambient continuous light that
might be present.
These two effects work differently, with different rules.

Shutter speed are Effecting Ambient exposure

TTL FLASH
HOW TTL FLASH MODE WORKS

Photographer presses the shutter release button halfway.

Ambient light metering of the scene is conducted.
Photographer presses the shutter release all the way.
The Flash fire a preflash and the camera records this light output
using its evaluative meter.
Camera records this light output.
The camera calculates what the final flash output for the scene
should be, based on both the preflash data and from the flash
exposure compensation settings.
The camera flips up the mirror and opens the shutter.
The Flash Fire
The camera flips down the mirror and closes the shutter.

STROBIST
Strobe is a device used to produce regular flashes
of light. The word originated from the
Greek strobos, meaning "act of whirling.
General Definition >>> Strobist is the way of
using off camera flash
The Father of STROBIST is David Hobby
he is the author of the Strobist.com lighting blog, a site which promotes
lighting techniques such as off-camera flash among photographic
enthusiasts, often with an emphasis on the practical knowledge rather
than the gear.

DAVID HOBBY

STROBIST STANDARD EQUIPMENT

What u Must Have to do Strobist ?
Camera & Lense
Flashes
Triggering Device
Sync Cable
Optical Slave
Radio triggering device

Light stand & Light Modifier

Equipment-FLASHES/SPEEDLITE
FLASHES / SPEED LIGHT
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING
EXTERNAL POWER PORT
TTL CAPABILITY
HIGH SPEED SYNC CAPABILITY
ZOOM HEAD CAPABILITY
SECOND CURTAIN CAPABILITY

PRICE RANGE 450 K- 5.6 MIL

Equipment-TRIGGERING DEVICE
SYNC CABLE

Advantage Cheap Price & TTL mode Capable

Disadvantage Limited distance
PRICE RANGE 190-390 K

OPTICAL SLAVE TRIGGER

A light sensitive sensor at each remote flash, which triggers
the flash in sync when it sees the flash of another manual
flash unit.
Advantage
Almost every External flash have built in one

Disadvantage

Only can be done if light is line of sight(no obstacles)

Can be Interfere by bright
another photographer's flash can trigger your lights
TTL Flash Disabled

OPTICAL SLAVE TRIGGER

Another form of Maximize this Method is
developed by Nikon & Canon
Nikon named it CLS (Creative Lighting System)
Canon Wireless Flash
This 2 Method are using the same system
which allows TTL Enable

Group & Channel

Group
Channel

OPTICAL SLAVE TRIGGER

HOW NIKON CLS and CANON WIRELESS FLASH MODE WORKS

Photographer presses the shutter release button halfway.

Ambient light metering of the scene is conducted.
Photographer presses the shutter release all the way.
The master flash unit sends a wireless signal to all slave units in group A, instructing them to issue a low-power preflash.
Any slave units in group A fire a preflash and the camera records this light output using its evaluative meter.
The master flash instructs group B slaves to issue a preflash.
Any slave units in group B fire a preflash and the camera records this light output.
The master flash instructs group C slaves to issue a preflash.
Any slave units in group C fire a preflash and the camera records this light output.
The camera calculates what the final flash output for the scene should be, based on both the preflash data from each
slave group (if any) and the user-defined group ratios/flash exposure compensation settings.
The camera flips up the mirror and opens the shutter.
The master flash instructs all slave units to fire simultaneously.
All slave units fire at whatever level the master unit has told them to. Naturally if the master flash unit is flash-capable
(ie: not an ST-E2) and is configured to fire then it too will do so.
The camera flips down the mirror and closes the shutter.

Radio triggering device

a small transmitter on the camera hot shoe relays the
trigger signal via radio to a battery powered radio receiver
on the remote flash. Perhaps a receiver on every remote
flash, but others can be triggered by optical slaves too. This
radio signal may go through walls, around corners, often
over great range (~100 meters), and is unaffected by
sunlight.
Brands Available in Market
PIXEL
PT-04
RADIO POPPER
POCKET WIZARD

Light Stand & Light Modifier

Light Stand
Hotshoe Adapter
Light Modifier
Softbox
Grid
Beauty Dish

Creative with Colour Temperature Gel