No doubt, any photographer who plans to work in a studio will need to learn proper artificial lighting techniques to realize their creative visions, but flash comes with its own pitfalls and challenges. If you are struggling or new to such techniques, this fantastic video will show you nine mistakes to avoid and how to fix them.
Coming to you from Karl Taylor, this excellent video discusses nine mistakes that are commonly made when working with flash and how to avoid them. Of them, I think one that a lot of us are guilty of is being afraid to get really close with a modifier (as in just a few inches away). It can definitely feel a bit weird to put a six-foot softbox right next to your subject's face, but that can give you results that simply are not possible from any other setup by giving you a giant, soft source of light that wraps around their facial contours in a very flattering way. Do not be afraid to really experiment with your light positioning, as you might be surprised by the results you can get from setups you haven't tried. Check out the video above for more from Taylor.
he is a one-man band... maybe thats why he thinks so. i have 2-3 assistants on set, and they create light set even before I take my camera out. they meter it meticulously. there is no work done without meter...
especially when you dealing with mixed light. without you will be checking for natural first, than adding lights and guessing their power? thats just ridiculous.
karl is a voice of really good sense in youtube and he knows what he is talking about. i guess he need some radicality to attract attention
Being a one-man band doesn't remove the utility of a meter, to Lee's point. I just set up to do a 50-person corporate head shot gig last Friday.
While I had the availability of nabbing a low-level employee of the company for as long as I needed to set up the three lights I used in their space, it was much more professional (read: less impact on the company's resources) to get the light outputs balanced to where I wanted them with a meter, and take a single test shot of that hapless employee...and get her back to work.
He is possessed with this. In a video from a few weeks ago it was all about not using a light meter. There were some reasonable arguments but this guy would never listen to anybody else, the master of photography that he is. I'll skipped quickly through this video and I wonder what is it that such videos find their way into FS?
The same wrong arguments as in here: https://fstoppers.com/gear/two-reasons-not-use-light-meter-498594
Do not bother watching this, it is more or less nonsense what he claims. Read the comment section. Lots of arguments there.