[MUSIC] Welcome back, let's talk about some tools. Well, here I am with my trusty flash, right here. And in the picture of me as well, which I must confess is almost always on my camera. You can tell that the photographer who took my picture here had a flash on his camera, also, since the sunlight is clearly coming from the rear left. The extra fill that the flash provided, helped fill in those lighter details in what would otherwise have been a much darker, sort of silhouetted image of me. You know that the flash, whether it is built into the camera or attached on a hot shoe, is a fairly small light source. And it's located quite close to the camera lens. The light can be bright but also somewhat flat and shadowless because it's placed so close to the lens. If I'd not been tilting my head a little bit to the side and looking that way as well, the red eye effect could have been a problem here, too. There a number of tools and adjustments that you can use to alter the quality of flash light in a variety of situations. All of them quite inexpensive, but quite effective. Some of them even built right into the flash unit. Let's take a look at a few of them. In this picture, we see a Canon flash similar to the one I use as it would normally be set up, like it was on my camera in my hand and in the previous slide. And a picture of my student, Nick, made with the flash in such a position. I had the camera set on portrait mode and so the flash was being on the top of the camera on the left hand side, and you can see the shadow cast on the right hand side of the screen behind him. You can see that this is a studio setting and there were no other lights from other sources to soften the tones. The effect is really quite harsh, flat and unpleasant. One of my priorities in purchasing a flash that will attach to my camera is its capability to tilt upwards and twist from side to side. With the flash tilted straight up, as it is here, the light was sent upwards to hit the ceiling, where it spread out and then returned to illuminate my subject with a softness and direction from above. You can see how dramatically the quality of light has changed on Nick in this picture. While I like the softer effect, I'm concerned that he now exhibits what we call raccoon eyes, with dark shadows in his eye area. In most flash units that can tilt upwards like this, you will find a little storage slot near the top of the flash. In that storage area, you will normally find a white plastic card that can be pulled out to a position like you see in this slide on the left. Now, the light is still aimed up at the ceiling and bounces down in a more diffused manner from the more natural direction, like it did in the previous slide. But some of the light also bounces off the white card straight to my subject Nick, filling the details in his eyes and under his chin, eliminating that raccoon animal effect and making a more smooth transition of tones. Here is another look at the flash on my camera, but this time there is something different. Take a look on the left hand side. It's quite subtle and you might not notice it at first, but here I have deployed the flash units built in diffuser. The lighter rectangular area, in the center of the flash in that image on the left, is a piece of textured plexiglass that is normally stored in the top section of the unit along with that white card. It can be easily pulled out to cover the flash tube and spread the light further to make a more even exposure, especially when a wide angle lens is used. I hope you can see the storage slot at the top of the flash housing in the picture on the right. You will probably find something similar on your own flash unit no matter what the manufacturer. The diffuser not only spreads the light, but also makes the light less harsh and contrasty. I will often pull it out and put it in place even when I'm not using a wide angle lens. I will sometimes use a smaller flash unit on my DSLR, and you know that the smaller the light source, the more contrasty and hard the light in the shadows will be. This small flash does not come with a pull out diffuser, and the light is actually quite hard. With a smaller flash like this, being even closer to the camera lens, well that's even more of a concern. A manufacturer whose products I like because they're not only good, but relatively inexpensive, is Vello. Their frosted plastic diffuser, that you see attached to my small flash unit on the right, softens and spreads the light beautifully. I hardly ever use this small flash without that Vello diffuser, and I own two of them, just in case I lose one. For my larger flash units, I use a larger diffuser. This one is called a light sphere. It is designed and manufactured by the world famous photographer, Gary Fong. As you can see, the flashlight must first pass through a plastic tube and then gets diffused through a large circular frosted plastic shield. It creates a beautiful big soft light. Twisting the flash to the left, coupled with the light sphere as a diffuser, I created a picture of Nick that has the look of a person in a room lit from a distinct direction, but soft. Much like it might be created by a large north facing window, certainly not like the light that we associate with a harsh flash. Another device made by Vello that I use quite often is the very appropriately named Speedy Rotating Camera Flash Bracket. You can see Nick holding it here. The flash is mounted at the top, connected to the hot shoe of the camera with a cord. Vello also offers its brand of dedicated flash cords for individual camera brands, so that a dedicated flash will keep all of its capabilities to function perfectly with the camera. A device like this allows you to put some distance between the camera and the flash and create less harsh lighting. On the left, Nick is using that Vello speedy bracket to hold the camera in landscape mode. And on the right, with just a quick twist of his wrist, the camera's now in portrait mode. This is a very inexpensive accessory that I think is essential for anyone shooting events or parties or weddings, or any other activity where the action is changing of portrait versus landscape image needs to be changed to and the flash is required. There are many other situations in which flash photography can be improved by the use of some auxiliary tools, but one of the most common is the use of flash when shooting through glass. This photograph shows the bird feeder in my backyard. And although it's empty here, it's usually visited by quite a few different types of birds each day. In this picture, I was not using a flash, but you can still hopefully see on whatever device you're looking at this lesson with, that there is a hazy lightness to the glass, that's a result of reflections from the lighted interior of the house. Those reflections make the image lower in contrast. And they often make things even worse by creating reflections of people, and objects, and structures that you can see on the glass itself. Things got really bad, however, when I tried to use my flash to stop the action of a bird at the feeder and add a little accent light on cloudy days. I started off with my camera set up on my trusty MeFOTO backpacker tripod. And the flash was at the ready, but I was set up for disaster. With that set up, all I got was a blown out mess of bright reflection. I used to try to solve this problem by bringing my lens as close as possible to the glass, but that created its own problems of focus and lack of lens shade. And it seemed that all the time, my angle of view would never permit placing the camera and the lens exactly where I wanted to against that flat glass. I tried wrapping the lens in a dark piece of velvet and even taping it to the glass to create a little tent. But that, too, is never convenient or easy to adjust for the vantage point and the framing that I wanted. Then I discovered a solution to my problems with glass, which I am happy to share with you as the final flash tool in this lesson. This is called a lenskirt. And I can put my hand up there and create a little puppet and you can see, now it's a skirt. Whether you're photographing birds or people through windows or babies through the glass of the hospital maternity ward. Maybe shop window displays to show your boss what a nice job you did decorating them or even fish in a beautiful aquarium, this device will save you many headaches. Let's see how. Once you've determined your vantage point for the picture you want to create, you move the camera to the side, then place the lenskirt. The lenskirt attaches in seconds to the glass by simply pressing its four suction cups on to the surface. After that, just bring your camera close to the skirt, tighten the cord around the opening to create the light cave that your lens will be housed in, and go ahead and shoot with your flash, or without it. And don't worry about reflections, there will be zero. When Mr. and Mrs.Cardinal arrive to enjoy their dinner, you'll be ready to freeze their action without worries about reflections of yourself or your flash. You can just concentrate on the action. I hope you enjoy using these tools and other tools, too, to alter the kind of light coming from your flashes to create the kind of effects that you'll be proud to share with others. [MUSIC]
