In order to make sure that we're all on the same page as we move forward in this course, I want to go over some of the basic equipment and skills that you will need to get started.
Equipement
As far as equipment goes, you will need a DSLR or mirrorless camera that has a hot shoe mount for a flash, and that gives you full manual control over aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
To complete this course, you will need one off-camera flash setup that is made up of:
- a flash
- a trigger
- a light stand
- any light modifiers
As we move through this course, you'll learn how to use multiple lights in your setups, so you will need to add multiples of this flash setup to your kit. Three flash setups will be plenty for most people.
You will also want to get some sort of reflector. You can get an inexpensive photography-specific reflector, like this one that has several different functions and folds up nicely, so you can easily carry it around.
Or you can go the DIY route with something like this that I picked up at the hardware store, which works great, but good luck getting it on an airplane or even in your car for that matter.
Finally, for our lessons on slow shutter speed, it's a good idea to have a tripod or some way to hold your camera still for those long exposures. With just this equipment, you should have pretty much everything you need to take your flash photography to the next level.
Skills
This course will use a few beginner photography skills, including:
- observing the basic qualities of light and applying them in studio, like intensity of light, the colour of light, the direction of light and the texture of light
- Manually controlling your camera
- Using on-camera flash positioning creatively
- how to balance the exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed and ISO
- a basic understanding of manual control of your flash
- how to balance the exposure of your flash and the exposure of your camera
- how your speedlight works and how to get it off camera
In the next lesson, you're going to learn how to combine a slow shutter speed and the ability of the flash to freeze motion to capture some really cool shots.
