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Digital Photography One On One E001 - Key Shifting and Shutter Speed
In this episode of Digital Photography One on One, Mark Wallace [SnapFactory.com] explains Key Shifting and how your shutter speed affects exposure when using an external flash.
Questions Answered:
1) To get the best results when using a Canon 580 flash unit on a 20D, should I stick to ISO100? Would you ever change the ISO for some reason? -Nigel
2) Can you please explain Key Shifting to me in regards to outdoor portraiture? Once I establish a meter reading on my subject of say f/8, what do I have to do to lighten and darken the background?
Digital Photography One on One is a video question and answer tutorial format from SnapFactory.com and StudioLighting.net. You can submit questions for us to tackle on the show by emailing us at studiolighting @gmail.com.
We'd love to hear what you think of this new video tutorial format. Be sure to stop by the LightSource Flickr group and tell us what you think.
Digital Photography One on One Episode 001 (Video Tutorial)
Download the show: OneOnOneE001
Visit SnapFactory.com to learn more about Mark Wallace and his educational workshops on photography and studio lighting.
July 17th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
This is a great tutorial. Very nice job on the production too.
Thanks for sharing!
David
July 18th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Fantastic tutorial. I look forward to additional topics in the series.
Thanks!
July 18th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Best tutorial I have ever scene. Can't wait for the next one.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:31 am
new to lighting photography so i sometimes struggle understanding your guests techniques. So these video podcasts are great and should be used to supplement the audio podcasts more often. But great podcast guys and keep it up.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Wow. That was an amazingly well done video. Kudos!
How can I subscribe to it?
July 25th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
AWESOME - One of the best I have seen. I learned something today! Can't wait for another.
July 25th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Very well produced, demos the basics of lighting and explains them very well. Can't wait for the next one.
Ger..
August 1st, 2007 at 11:13 am
I too am new to lighting photography - thanks for a very informative video. Your explanations are very good. Thanks!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
I'm not sure if your DIGG link was setup correctly. it asked me if I wanted to start a topic, thinking one didn't exist already to simply add a digg to. so I started one. then it said it seemed like it was a duplicate entry. I continued and started it anyway.
great tutorial. perfect for beginners and hobbyists. well done.
August 1st, 2007 at 10:10 pm
This is one of the most important techniques for people to learn when they first take an interest in lighting. It took me six months to finally understand all of this! People who write/produce tutorials often forget how confusing this information can be to people who are trying to learn it. Once we know it, it seems to simple, but it's the steepest part of the learning curve. Mark you have provided a great service for new photographers and this video is an absolute must-see for anyone interested in taking their lighting to the next level. Brilliant work!
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I agree with everybody else, this is magic stuff. I can't wait to watch tomorrows episode…or is it next weeks?
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Awesome. Excited to see the next one.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Hey guys - great job on this! That was a very well-produced tutorial.
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:46 am
That was beautiful illustration. Cant go wrong after seeing this lesson. A question with balancing ambient light. In real life, when we cannot afford to experiment with different shutter speeds, how do we capture the right moment at right exposure? In other words how do I use the exposure meter in the view finder and play with Flash exposure comp/ambient exposure compensation? I always over or under expose even with TTL :-(
Any thumb rule?
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
GREAT!
What a great way to learn. Please keep the videos coming. I can't wait for the next one!
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Strobist recommended your site, so i thought i'll give it a shot (no pun intended)…very nice. Your first podcast is simply awesome and very well done. I'm a pro, so it was kind of basic for me…however, i'm looking forward to others. There's always something to learn. Learning light is a life long process. Keep it up. So, how long do we need to wait for the next one?
August 5th, 2007 at 1:52 am
awesome tutorial.
however i think it is a little unclear that when you slow your shutterspeed down that the softboxes flash is not outputting as much light as it was in the previous shot.
does your softbox pro light have ttl? or are you manual just stopping it down between shots?
looking forward to the next one.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:08 am
That was the most helpful lesson I have had with respect to lighting. Thank you very much!
August 6th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Troy said:
"however i think it is a little unclear that when you slow your shutterspeed down that the softboxes flash is not outputting as much light as it was in the previous shot."
The softbox is putting out the same amount of light on each exposure. The amount of light from the strobe doesn't change from shot to shot.
If you were using an on camera TTL flash head (like a speedlight) then the light may change from shot to shot, but not with an external strobe.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Terrific tutorial.
One question though, let's say you are shooting at an ƒ/8 and initially shoot at 1/250 of a second, your sync time.
You decide to allow more time to bring in more ambient light. You decide to use 1/4 of a second. If Meghan were to move at all during that 1/4 of a second, does she cause blur in the picture? Or because the flash has "frozen" her image, it doesn't matter what she does after the initial 1/250 second flash?
In other words, is it imperative that you subject remain motionless if you use a longer time to capture more ambient light?
Again, great tutorial!
Regards,
Kevin
August 9th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Great question Kevin,
Then answer is… it all depends. :)
The more ambient light that you have the more likely there will be blur. The subject will be frozen, but may have a soft "ghost" around them. You can see that in many photos. Some photographers actually do this on purpose to give a sense of movement.
Another item that I didn't address in the video is that the aperture may need to change with very long exposures. So f/8 at 1/250 may become f/10 at 3 seconds. Your light meter will let you know when that happens. :)
September 5th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Fantastic….Just great…very nicely explained, illustrated , very educational…cant wait for the next….
October 25th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Wow, please keep producing these great tutorials! I've been shooting for about a year now, but still didn't understand how the shutter actually functioned and why I was getting black areas when I went above sync speed.
Your tutorials are very professionally done and easy to watch and learn from. You are improving my photography!
Thanks so much and keep up the good work!
December 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Thank you so much for these tutorials.
The explanation in them is very easy to understand and they are very informative.
Looking forward to watching more of them.