Hey guys for this post i want to hire two models to practice a photography concept that i always want to try but i forgot i had no model friends so i went out on facebook and instagram to ask you guys if anybody was willing to intern for this video and nobody responded so instead i got these two talents all right so in this video we’re going to be testing out flash on medium format with the hasselblad today uh the reason why i picked this room and with my friends is because there’s a ton of like white walls that we could just bounce light off of and we did run a couple of experiments a couple weeks back and i did learn a couple things about using flash.
I’m still not that experienced and using it on film is even more intimidating but you know like you only learn by doing it so we’re gonna be testing out like just having fun screwing around even with some like colored backdrops right here and um we’re gonna be testing out on some color film on some black and white film and we’re just gonna have a ball all right so here’s a quick tutorial on how to meter for flash on film so you get your little light meter most of the times you’re going to have it on the daylight setting but make sure you flip it to the flash setting and once you get your iso ready and your shutter speed ready go ahead and press it it won’t give you an immediate reading.
Because it read the ambient light and said okay this is the baseline now this is the standard for comparison now it’s waiting for a change in light aka your flash so when you’re ready to flash uh make sure you hold it right in front of there test it with your module boom now it says at iso 200 250th of a second shoot at f22 now if you want to do off off wall flash instead of pointing your meter right into the flash unit point it at the wall that it’s going to be bouncing off of and i’ll give you another reading so that’s a quick tutorial on how to meter for flash actually sit sit straight towards me so five four three two all right so i thought i’d just hop on here real quick to share some lessons that i learned from shooting with flash because i feel like it would be completely pointless and a complete waste of money.
if i didn’t learn from any of the things that we’ve been doing especially when we shot for nine hours that’s not a joke the first thing i learned is that shutter speed mattered a lot more than i thought when i metered it would always show me like maybe 500th of a second at f11 or 250th of a second at f11 and i would always follow those readings and even though they did give me the correct rating for the area of my subject that’s going to be lit whether it’s the right side of the face or their whole face a slower shutter speed wouldn’t necessarily ruin that photo a faster shutter speed will always render the background or any area that’s not flashed incredibly dark this is great for dramatic portraits and even if the meter told us to shoot at 1 500th of a second.
if you slowed it down that slower shutter speed will allow the ambient light to quote unquote fill in the background take for example these two photos up here the one on the left is shot at 1 500 and the one on the right is shot at 1 125th with the photo on the right it still gave me the same settings as the one on the left but i want to experiment with the slow shutter speed observation and the results are pretty drastic as you see changing your aperture or your iso does not change this effect this is all relying on shutter speed negative feedback actually has a great video on this observation so go ahead and click on the upper right corner.
if you want more details on that and the last lesson that i want to share with you guys is to plan and practice when you’re learning this thing this whole filming and shooting process with these two guys took nine hours given we did eat in between we did kind of relax and made a chill went at a very slow pace so we could have fun doing it but nine hours is still nine hours and it was a very long day it also helps a bunch to plan what shots he’ll take i went with the spray and pray method which has its benefits when it comes to volume but meticulous preparation will speed things up a lot draw out diagrams of where you want the subject to be and where the flash will be replaced relative to that test with different kinds of diffusions and shutter speeds and apertures test with different kinds of film stocks in my opinion going into a shoe with a plan like at least up to 50 is great and having creative freedom and space to kind of wing some shots is also really good too some professionals may disagree.
But that is just my personal opinion announcement two experiments so far with playing around with flash and if you ask me uh i still do not haven’t figured it out i think i’m pretty trash at it from the results that you guys have seen but this is kind of like the fun part at least about the film tuesday videos that i make because with all the whole like film photography world like i’m learning and teaching like as i’m going versus the whole digital stuff like i’m super experienced in that so you guys are developing with me i guess uh on tuesdays and then i will kind of like drop some knowledge on friday dropping knowledge on both days but it’s it’s both different and it’s been very fun photography with studio equipment in general is very new to me.
So i love being able to have a new frontier to explore because after a lot of years in anything really in sports and in art you kind of like get the rhythm of things and finding something exciting to make you fall in love with it again is always welcome to everybody who engages in these arts and in these crafts so for one i’m definitely looking forward to developing and getting a lot better with this stuff and number two i’m a little bit afraid of the costs because film photography videos are very expensive to make because of the cost of the film itself and the developing so hopefully you know i could be a lot more intentional a lot more meticulous so i can save myself some money.
Wherever i am maybe even develop at home and scan from home even though it’s uh going to be a lot more space consuming a little bit more time consuming but will save me some funds to make more videos so that’s all i have for you guys in this video make sure you subscribe like this video and comment down below about what you thought do you already play with flash strobes and studio lightings let me know what i can learn from you uh please share a tip down below maybe in the discord chat as well if you want to join in on that too and i will see you guys and girls in the next post peace.
