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I think the assumption is that to get into shooting portraits with strobes, it’s going to be a very expensive and technical pursuit. But in my experience you can actually achieve some great images with very little gear. In this video I share how you can create dramatic portraits using only one speedlight and a cheap modifier.
Share this video on if you found it helpful.
Music:
‘Always’ by Utah
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#portrait #strobe #speedlight
Some of you have pointed out that I mentioned changing exposure with shutter speed, and the fact there is a rough rule that aperture controls your flash exposure, and shutter speed controls your ambient exposure. This is technically correct, but not absolute, and often varies when using the longer flash durations of HSS with different shutter speeds, as well as the fact that aperture obviously increases both your ambient and flash exposure to some extent, so you still need to be careful when following this rule (for those who don't understand the rule I will get into it in future videos, especially an upcoming video on mixing strobe and ambient light). What I should have said to be more accurate in this demo is that I was trying to balance the exposure and using the shutter speed to make sure that no ambient light influenced the exposure in the shot, and then using the flash power to get the correct exposure for the portrait. Those settings ended up being ISO 100, F2.8… then 1/200 meant that I had no ambient light in the shot, and I then turned the flash power up to 1/16 power for a correct exposure from the flash only. I hope that clears things up.
I can’t possibly thank you enough for this video! All of your videos are an inspiration!
Your approach to education is amazing. As another user previously said, your humble nature and honesty about your own learning speaks volumes in your videos. I believe it shows in your images as well. Beautiful. Simple. Honest.
Thank you Sean, I enjoyed your video very much. I’m just a beginner, your video is very helpful. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Perfect tutorial! Thk
Another great video, Sean! Insightful and well structured. Thank you for sharing. Would you be kind enough and publish the list of gear used? Thanks
Thanks Sean! Fantastic video!!! Excellent!
can I use godox flash(for canon) on my analog CANON a1?
Awesome video! Can you add a gear list of the items you used?
Thanks a lot for sharing this!
Very informative, thanks! Please, is it possible to include the gear-used links? It would be probably at least as useful as the ads/music links, probably even more ;-)! Also very useful would be to demonstrate how to achieve this without the HSS functionality: I guess a small aperture would do it as well, but then again it would be interesting to compare the flash-recharge time and the DoF issues arising from the very small aperture. But HSS eats batteries as well and doesn't flash as strong – would love to hear your thoughts/comparison, thank you!
Great tutorial Sean. Perfect set up for portraits on the go. 👍
Very interesting video, thank you. One thing to bear in mind though: you were holding black items whilst wearing black and partially stood in front of a black background.
Your content is thorough, clear and concise and best of all it is obvious you do this out of love for the art of photography and an enthusiasm to share the knowledge you’ve acquired in an honest and open way. No gimmicks, no gear sponsors thrown at us as so many other big name YT photography Chanel’s unfortunately do these days. just practical and genuinely useful photography tips. Cheers on you for that and thank you. Your a huge inspiration to me and I’m sure many others. Keep up the amazing work! We really need MORE like you! Wish you all the best in your endeavors 📸 🙏 😃
This was great!
Well done!
I love your videos Sean. Your candor and demeanor are such a stark contrast to others on youtube. Every video is so well done in a unique and genuine approach.
I liked him in Green Street Hooligans
The model is pretty.
Wow, so much valuable information! Thankyou so much for your generosity 🙂
I love your videos. They have a very natural and sincere mood. Thank you!
thank you for this video! The level of in depth discussion about why you do things is very helpful, thank you for very easily breaking down everything concerning this style of shooting. I look forward to checking out more of your videos!
Wow! Hello Sean — a very good video. I really liked it because I have the same equipment. What I really also like about your videos is that you don´t implement all of these jump cuts you see in other videos, i.e. you are a really good lecturer.
I use the technique of setting camera up to black out all ambient light on a room. Then as per the video the speedlite is the only light source influencing the exposure.
Simple and effective as per the this video.
Wonderful thank you, a quick question if you don't mind, would there be a reason to use this speedlight if you owned the light you used in the Mentor video?
Thanks for this. A very good video. And I love that the image at the end, which you have title 'Rembrandt Lighting' (which it is), actually looks like that famous Vermeer painting.
bad review