Let’s establish a few ground rules for what we are going to be doing. First, this isn’t an ETTL, CLS, or any other kind of electronic exposure control in the flash unit. We are talking about manual settings. Manual is where the power is.

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Sometimes people look at my images and think that the more unusual lighting effects are created in post, but it’s all done in-camera.

I did this with the Hummer shot to get the detail that was missing behind the axle stands that were retouched out in post. I also shot a separate exposure for the crash test dummy background in the Chevy Malibu shot.

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The fourth time-based manipulation I frequently use is zooming through the exposure. And last month we pulled that technique out of our as.. bag of tricks during the “stone soup” shoot in NYC.

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By now, most of you have read many times as I have walked through the process of balancing my flashes and ambient. I want to get past that.

1. To set you up with a way of quickly understanding and/or communicating how a given photo was balanced, and

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When going through the more advanced websites about lighting, you’re bound to run into a lot of terms you’re not familiar with. In this article, we’ve compiled some of the most mentioned equipment and techniques photographers today use to modify light coming from a hot-shoe flash or studio light.

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When ever we use a light source to illuminate an object, that object is being hit with multiple “rays” of light. Some of those rays are hitting the object in the place which is nearest to the light source, and some of the rays are hitting the subject where is furthest from the light source. OK, nothing new until now.

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Hand Held

This is, without a doubt, the cheapest option. You’ve already got a hand, so why not put it to use? The idea is to hold your camera in one hand and your flash in the other. While this gets the job done, it can sometimes be a more daunting task than one would think.

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One thing that seems to baffle a lot of new photographers is understanding the term “stop” as it pertains to a measurement of light. We see this word used over and over with regards to shutter speed, aperture, film speed, filters, lighting, and other ways that light is used. You may hear a phrase like “you should expose one side of face 1-2 stops under the lit side of the face and expose the background 1 stop under the main subject”.

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I have used all 1/2 inch CPVC pipe and fitting on the whole project. The sizes here will make a nice desktop Light Box, you can make it any size you want or need. Just remember you will need 2 pices the same size for the width and 2 of the same size for the depth. The 4 legs will all be the same. I did not use the cleaner on the pipe before I glued it, I just don’t plan on running any water thought it so I see no need for it. The glue holds just fine without it.

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I have always loved using off-camera camera flashes and want to extend my arsenal of different flash modifiers. In this first round I will concentrate on the type you can mount directly on the flash. I may return to umbrellas, softboxes, diffuser screens other larger modifiers later.

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