In this episode, Mark Wallace shows you how to shoot beautiful portraits in a sunny environment. Mark uses a 5-in-1 reflector to create shade and a Flashpoint on-camera flash to separate the model from the background. This technique will allow you to shoot great portraits even in bad light. It’s a trick that’s simple to learn and powerful to use.
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✘ PRODUCTS USED:
Flashpoint Zoom Li-on X R2 TTL On-Camera Round Flash Speedlight For Sony (Godox V1)
Sony Alpha a7 III 24MP UHD 4K Mirrorless Digital Camera with FE 28-70mm Lens
Westcott 50-inch 5-in-1 Reflector
Video Shot with the Sony ZV1 Vlogger Kit
#flashphotography #lightingtutorial #adorama
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0:00 Intro
0:33 Meet the model and assistant
0:49 The wrong way to shoot in bad light
1:31 Adding artificial shade for better portraits
2:20 On-Camera flash for better natural light portraits
3:12 Using high-speed sync in bright sunlight
4:00 Using Exposure Compensation to underexpose the ambient light
6:00 The steps for shooting in bright sunlight with on-camera flash
6:45 Sample photos from on-camera flash using high speed sync
7:24 Review and last thoughts
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Model: Camila Gomez
Music Licensed from Audiosocket
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Comments
44 responses to “Shooting Portraits in Bright Sunlight with On-Camera Flash | Mark Wallace”
Thats not good way of using flash.
As soon as I saw the preview of this video i knew it was filmed in Colombia! So nice to see Adorama in other countries
Excellent video … wonder if I will get a reply to this question. When you indicated that you used exposure compensation, it does change the flash or ambient exposure. Can you further explain as I thought that changing the aperture – affects the flash … and … shutter and iso affects the ambient. Again. … can you explain your comments regarding exposure compensation.
How do you match outdoors ambient light with indoors ambient light without having a flask look?
👍 thanks 👍👌👌
Great Video!
Did you consider just using the scrim on the 5-in-1 reflector to diffuse the sunlight instead of blocking it?
This was an excellent demonstration. Exactly what I was looking for.
You guys are great and make everything so easy to learn!
Thank you.
At least for me I like the before picture much better, she is not looking directly into the sun and she has exciting lighting. The after one is too flat for my taste.
Is it just me who thinks that outside portraits works better without artificial lighting?
What if you don't have an assistant or any shade? Would you shoot w the sun behind their head instead so it's not in their eyes?
What a great video. Brilliant seeing this in a video than everyone talking about shooting in sunlight. 5 star video. Thank you
maybe put your subject with the sun behind them mark eh? and i feel that it wouldve been more beneficial to have showed us a final reult when you dialled down to -2 we didnt get to see how you used the flash settings to light her up instead you merely stated "well you get the idea" not great for those wanting to learn is it . . .???
For those wondering about what mark was trying to show here . . . .
you can as he stated control the ambient light with your shutter speed
you then use the ouitput from the flash together with the aperture and the ISO to obtain the exposure you want
so my workflow would simply be as follows
set your shutter speed to the ambient light that you want dont worry that the shot will be blurry the flash will freeze the subject
set your flash out put to around 1/2 power
set your iso fairly low
and set your aperture to whatever you want wider open means lovely bokeh and out of focus backgrounds . . . . stopping down say towards F5/6 or F8 will reduce that background blur
take a test shot and work towards what you want to achieve from there
leave the shutter speed alone leave the flash power alone and just balance out the aperture and your ISO to get the exposure your looking for.
if you are in TTL on Flash and not enough light, change flash to manual and adjust that, it will significantly increase the flash power independent of camera partly controlling the output also.
Then, if you set ambient on camera in manual, the chosen flash setting will always stay the same, and when changing shutter to control the ambient it does not affect flash at all.
Some flashes themselves have +/- compensation in TTL, that can also increase your output. But I prefer manual and no matter if I change ambient background via Shutter, you get perfect results each, every time.
So it's ok to be shady?
great video as always with Mark !
What is juans instagram?
I think the direct sunlight shots look fine….that's how things look in the daytime…Sometimes it feels like photography has moved away from capturing an image to creating an image
COVID-19 Advantage: Mark, my favorite instructor, is doing a lot of videos.
Awesome!!! Love it
Who's got it better than you! Traveling throughout South America capturing beautiful images. Enjoy Medallo, La ciudad de la eterna primavera 🌻
Cool video.
Do we need permission or permits to shoot in other countries. How do passport and visa work when going to these places.
Not. Sure I'd go all the way to Columbia but Cuba would be a start
Rule number 1, get that flash off the damn camera.
The luxury of an assistant.
Great sir
Another great video from Mark.
That is a great example… of why you should not use flash.
I was waiting for the moment Mark surprises us with the fact that all those pop-up reflectors have a super nice diffusing layer inside when you unzip the outer cover. With the inside diffusing layer it's possible to achieve an extremely nice soft light look by holding it right above the model's head creating a super soft light on the skin of the model and allowing to shoot with fast shutter speed wide open, I mean really wide open like f1.2 and not "Mark Wallace f5.6 wide open". Honestly Mark, you really should have pointed that out to all the people who are interested in learning something really useful without making people think they can use a $10 reflector but need a $1000 on camera flash to fill the darkness you create with that very same reflector.
You should’ve did a picture without the dude holding the reflector as shade. So we can see what that looks like with the flash. Often photographers don’t have an assistant to do that
Model expressions are nice
Hello, I think the shadow below is exposed.Personally, I think the bigger the mirror, the better
Mark one question, how do you prevent the highlight spot on the end of her nose. Very distracting.
The flash looks exactly like my Godox V1 Round Head
sir simple teq excelent video which place sir shoot iam waiting next video
Using the 5-in-1 as a diffuser would have worked just great too. Or have the sun behind her and use the flash to bring out detail and catchlights.
Is an "on camera flash" different from the flash that comes on my camera? Either way, I think I need one.
Great tutorial! Thank you! 🙏
I really appreciate your tutorials, Mark! Simple and easy to understand; it’s clear that you’re a true Pro.
Excellent, Mark! Thank you.
Good video but unfortunately we don’t all have the benefit of someone holding a reflector for us
“wide open”
f/5.0
at -2 stop the flash miss some power but why you stay far of her? (at 1/2 of the distance, the gain of flash power is x4, right?).. thanks for your other fun and beautiful shoot video!!
The end product looks really unnatural. The light on her is super flat due to the flash being on camera, and it doesn’t follow the natural direction that the sun is pointing. Really need to remote trigger these flashes and put them through a modifier to get a nicer result