This short video shows how one soft light can make a huge difference in final result
Jun 8, 2016
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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There is a lot of power you can master once you go from available light to even using one strobe. Photographer Manuel Ortiz demonstrates it in this short video where he compares two shots right out of camera (of course the photos can be later enhanced, but for the sake of this experiment, it is better to show them SOOC)
All photos are taken with the Sony A7RII and a Sony G master 85mm 1.4 lens which really gives great color and a wonderful bokeh, so the starting point is very similar. The first shoo in all the demos below is set to available light. Note how Diana (the model) is correctly exposed in all of those, but the background is very distracting and it really takes away from the photo.
Then Manuel add a strobe in: Flashpoint Xplor 600 TTL strobe, connected to a Godox X1T trigger which supports sync up to 1/8000 in a
Paul C buff 47inch Octabox. The high speed allows cutting the ambient exposure by two stops and the flash still makes sure that the model is correctly exposed. And this is all happening at F1.4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArYTUsW1U-E
Here is one example with one shot using available light (ISO 400, F1.4, 1/250) and the other one using a strobe and closing down 2.3 stops and using a TTLed strobe (ISO 400, F1.4, 1/1250 + )
Here is another example, going from available light (ISO 100, F1.4 @1/320) 2.6 stops down with a TTLed strobe (1/2000)
Lastly, here is how powerful this is when shooting against dusk skies (ISO 100, F1.4, 1/80 vs ISO 100, F1.4, 1/1250 + TTLed strobe)
Manuel Ortiz has a great youtube channel so check it out for more tutorials. You can also catch Manuel on his site, Instagram and Facebook page.
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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24 responses to “This short video shows how one soft light can make a huge difference in final result”
Like it! Thanks for sharing!
The skin doesn’t seem to have the same exposure. The ones without the flash, seem to be lighter on the skin, so it’s difficult to compare the shots.
It’s because the lighting is fired direct instead of feathered. It creates stronger contrast as opposed to softer lighting, the strong contrast makes the skin look darker (and perhaps it is slightly under exposed in comparison).
I understand that, but still the overall/average exposure of the skin seems a lot lighter on the images without the flash.
I’m a bit confused… Could someone please tell me how he can sync his flash and shoot at 1/1000. ? Is it something to do with the 2nd curtain sync flash???? Cheers
I didnt have time to see the video, but from what i know, some speedlights have HSS wich is high speed sync. That means that a flash with hss can sync up to 1/8000.
Some newer models of flashes support high-speed synchronization.For example I’m using YONGNUO YN600EX-RT and here is a part of its specs:
“High Guide Number, Supports High-speed Sync
GN60@ISO100，200mm;supports high-speed sync TTL, manual flash, Gr grouping flash, the highest synchronous speed can reach 1/8000s”
Cheers. He’s using a studio flash rather than speed lights with a Sony AR2
He’s using the Godox trigger and XPLOR flash stated above, both of which support HSS. Did you read the article?
“Then Manuel add a strobe in: Flashpoint Xplor 600 TTL strobe, connected to a Godox X1T trigger which supports sync up to 1/8000 in a
Paul C buff 47inch Octabox.”
That studio flash has HSS. That’s what he’s using to achieve high sync speeds. =)
great. Many thanks
Why would you need that high speed? You can sync at 1/125 with a normal DSLR with a strobe and get the same result. You don´t really need a highspeed flash for that kind of portrait becasue you´re not freezing movements at all. Don´t confuse people.
How would you darken the background, then? My take is that the faster shutter speed is for the purpose of letting in less ambient light without closing down the aperture. The flash is used to make the model brighter than the background, so that despite the short shutter speed (chosen for the above reason), she appears normally lit. Am I wrong?
Max Faust nope you can’t get the same resul without hss or an ND filter. At 1/125 you would have to use a much higher f stop and lose the nice blurry bokeh. So don’t confuse people ;)
Fayez Momani
Has he used a gel ? , the model looks very warm.
Did he use a gel ? The model looks warm in the flash shots.
Por desgracia la foto sigue siendo igual de mala con la luz que le pongan. Tal vez otro ejemplo donde se note algún beneficio.
Si gusta puedes ilustrarnos con un ejemplo tuyo.
Nice work and such a beautiful model.
nice work
Natalee Vitela
OMG
I want that Godox trigger & Flashpoint combo. Nice.