Depth of Flash Exposure aka The Inverse Square Law or Flash to Subject Distance

The inverse square law or flash to subject distance video. It has so many names we decided to add another one - DEPTH OF FLASH EXPOSURE. This just makes more sense to us, so take it as you'd like. To us Depth of Field and Flash to Subject Distance have a lot in common. So much that it just computed easier if we renamed it.
Check out the video as we try to describe THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW in total lightenupandshoot style. See exactly how complicated this thing really is, but how easy to understand it should be with our new terminology...ok so maybe it's still complicated but we tried!
Now just to clarify, the measurements we give in the video are not exact. It is simply for you to be able to wrap your head around the concept that the closer the light, the less DOFE you have. The farther away the light, the more DOFE you have!
We are definitely not out measuring anything with a tape measure, but if you want to...you'll see it's close.
We try to teach, like we like to learn...so any association with reality might be left far behind...but in the end, we know what we're talking about...and hopefully you do as well.
If you have any questions, just leave a comment and we'll get back to you!

speedlight : final episode (live shoot) - lighentenupandshoot

Sorry folks, Michael decided to post the final video of the speedlight series before we posted the Flash to subject distance and the ISO video. He keeps blaming the beer but I just blame his genes!
In any case, we'll go along with destiny and keep the final video posted and you guys/gals just make believe it's in the correct order.

Angels Models of Colombia called us to do a casting for one of their models and we agreed. They are a brand new agency so they wanted the images to be a little different. We thought about what we wanted and wrote down a couple of ideas. The model was Carolina, 18 years old and she had never modeled before. It was a little bit of a challenge for a couple of reasons. Her english was about as good as our spanish, she never modeled before and the shoot was outside and at 2 pm. That's life, when it hands you lemons, you start juggling them and ask for donations.

Examples and shooting diagrams after the break...

Speedlight Series : Flash POWER away!!! (part 4)

Flash power, it sounds so powerful doesn't it! What sounds so powerful can get a little complicated, but it is actually pretty basic.

I will explain using as few examples as possible so as not to confuse too much.

In a few words flash power is how much light is coming out of your flash. You control your flash power by "dialing down" your flash. In manual mode the settings for one stop are Full Power to 1/2 Power to 1/4 Power to 1/8 Power to 1/16 Power to 1/32 Power to 1/64 Power and so on. Each of these steps is equal to one stop of light or aperture in your camera.

So what does it all mean in basic terms. Simple. If your correct exposure is your flash at full power and your aperture set at f/8. You can "dial down" your flash one stop to 1/2 power and open your aperture one stop to f/5.6 from f/8 and you will get the same exposure. The only thing you will lose is depth of field, which depending on what you are shooting that may be good...or bad.

That was a mouthful...some examples after the break.

Speedlight Series: Aperture - Stop Up, Stop Down...Huh??

Apparently Michael does not know English or Spanish!! Everyone please email Michael at michael.orangetree (at) gmail.com and tell him how to spell APERTURE!!! I would love for him to get at least 9.3 million emails before he checks it tomorrow morning!!! Is it true that blondes have more fun??

Back to the video:

The second variable of exposure is Aperture. What is aperture, it's pretty simple actually I will explain.

Your aperture setting controls what your flash is illuminating. If you take a picture and your flash is overexposing your subject(leaving giant white marks everywhere) you need to stop down (close your aperture). For example if you are shooting at f/5.6 you need to stop down by changing to f/8.0 and so on. If your subject is too dark, then you need to open your aperture to let more light in. So second example, if you are shooting at f/5.6 you need to change your aperture setting to f/2.8.

Pretty basic right??? It is!!!!

Examples after the break, if you have any questions leave a comment and we will answer quickly!!!

Speedlight Series: Shutter Speed (Part Dos)

So what does shutter speed do in flash photography?

What pretty much took us 5 minutes to explain in a video we can explain using 2 sentences:

Sentence 1: Shutter speed controls the ambient light of your picture, or pretty much wherever the light from your flash is NOT illuminating.

Sentence 2: The faster the shutter speed the less ambient light in your picture, darker it's going to look or, the slower the shutter speed the more ambient light or lighter the image is going to look.

Speedlight Series: What do I use and por que (part 1)

Michael's note: sorry to bore you guys, but everybody has been asking for this...
This is part 1 of a lighting series that I will be posting over the next week.   I am going to cover speed lights from top to bottom (at least uncover what I know about these little lights).  I will go over my shooting style, what gear I use (and why) and break down all the messy technical stuff that a lot of people may find confusing.