This is probably THE most useful video on the internet for photographers. Thank you for giving me a refresher course that I can watch over and over again to keep this information fresh in my mind ! You are an EXCELLENT teacher!

In all my years as a photographer, never saw a better explanation of the Aperture/Flash relationship. Thank you!

I have the entire video of this class - Purchased the whole course. This is MOST amazing and MOST helpful course ever! If you really want to imporve in your light and photography, purchase this course and beleive me, you will imporve your photography and take it to next level. Highly recommanded.

Excellent explanation but it is noteworthy that changing your aperture and adjusting your flash as mentioned will only keep the exposure correct the same if there is zero ambient light. If there is any ambient light, then as you open the aperture the sections of the frame not blasted in flash will brighten while the subject (hit with flash) will remain consistently exposed. This is why you could also adjust your shutter speed to help control the ambient light. Since the flash is so much faster than the shutter, any shutter speed changes below the sync speed will control the ambient light exposure

Excellent, clear explanation on f-stops to flash power levels. Thanks you, Zack for sharing this!

COOL! THANK YOU ZACK! I have finally nailed these ratios. And because of this video, I know now how to set my camera in increment of f-stop with respect to my Speedlight and how the Shutter and Aperture change with respect to each other. It's good to memorize these numbers that Zack is making reference to but by setting my D300 to 1/2 Steps for normal shooting and for Speedlight I use 1-Full-Stop increment to match the Camera to the Speedlight; in turn, all this become simple. Cheers to You Z!

thanks Zack! just what i was looking for to wrap my head around!

and that's a fantastic explanation i have ever had. i am so glad to find your video and also glad for you being on KZfaq and help people who needs a detailed explanation. If there was a chance to hit the like button more times then i would have smashed the line button :P

Just purchased two speedlites . What a great video!

Excellent explanation! thank you!

"praying and spraying" hahaha, awesome lingo Zackman. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on flash/aperture relationships.

Very useful information. Thank you sir

Thank you for this!!! I needed this so much! Well explained! Aperture and your trigger! Equals the amount of power of your flash! Dah!

Muy bien explicado. Muchas gracias.

Thank you for your great explanation! Very helpful.

Thanks for the explanation!!!

Very good makes understanding lighting simple

Great explanation thank you !

@8element. The shutter speed has no effect on the exposure of your main subject as the flash happens much much faster than your sync speed. The only influence that a long shutter will have is to burn in a background that is not hit by flash. The size of the aperture controls the amount of light in flash photography.

Super great explanation! I've been photographing for years, less so with a flash and I am sometimes unsure how to work with the numbers. Not so much anymore. Thanks)))

Thanks zack. Life lesson learnt.

Very useful. Say you wanted a Bokeh and wanted to retain the exposure and then return back to previous settings? This video taught me how to do it so easily.

Thank you, you make my life so much easier!! 😌

@ptlofts Best way to understand WB is to shoot the different settings under different light conditions.... outdoors in open shade, sunlight, indoor natural light, incandescent light (tungsten) and flourescent. Use all the WB settings to see what you get. Now do the same thing with Flash. Best way to get to know your equipment is by using it. As for Focus.... AF uses contrast margins - use a sharp margin (eyeball) to get sharp focus, a soft margin (nose or lips) will not be so sharp.

Exactly what I was looking for

@ptlofts ...if only there were a way to search for these answers. Damn you Zach Arias for not spoon feeding me EVERYTHING I need to know. Daylight vs. Flash is some engineer's best guess, use a gray card to establish your WB. Too dark to focus? Hot lights, or bring a flashlight. Photography is about problem solving. Start solving some problems for yourself, and you'll be amazed at the creative solutions you'll come up with...or not.

Wow this answered so many question. was just spraying and praying before this video lol.

Whenever I take a single or group portrait in studio flash, I set my ISO to 400, shutter speed at 1/125 and my F stop at F/10. Then I use my light meter on a subject to measure and adjust my strobe lights until I get the reading of F/10 on my light meter. When everything is finally set up correctly, I let my subject hold a Colorchecker Passport next to their face and take a photo. This photo will be used as an adjustment for white balance and color correction in Adobe Lightroom. That's it !

how about the distance between the subject and the flash if you shoot for wide like couple in the sunset, and i need to shot a wide.

absolutely

Wowww this is wonderful ❤️

Fucking Yea ! ˝Im shooting at f16 but i want to shoot at f/4˝ ... that explanation is what i couldn't find in any other fansy tutorials .. explained , thanks !

Thank you ❤️

Hi Zack I wonder if you can help please. I'am an owner of a Nikon D850. I intend to use off flash camera. What radio controller n receivers will you recommend. Many thanks.

Cool vid!

AMAZING info!! I'm trying to learn to not be intimidated by flash and this explanation is REALLY fantastic! I screenshot the chart to keep on my phone's notes app for whenever I'm on a shoot. Keep up the great work Zack and B&H!!

Here's a little tip. when using flash (speedlite) indoors, I find that at the lowest power 1/128 I need my aperture on my 45mm f/1.8 at 5.6. Now, if I want to shoot at 1.8 but my light is at the lowest power, then I need to use a 4 stop ND. This will stop down the light 4 stops so my 1.8 aperture will now have the same light coming throiugh as if my aperture was 5.6 while having a shallower depth of field.

Coool great tip

great

I missed something in the end ...

btw, I don't even own a speedlight yet,...but when I do, I'll at least be one step ahead. lol

Fantastic! I have a question though. We have some Hensel flashes (I don't have the exact make in mind) and the intensity scale reaches from 5.0 to 10 in .1 steps... Does anyone by chance know if a 1.0 step is 1 stop or what is?

How is f/16 to f/11 one stop? If I half the light on the flash, I have to double it in aperture (or ISO or shutter speed). And doubling the aperture from f/16 means you have to go to f/8. Look at it this way: if you are on f/1, that's focal length divided by one. f/2 means you divide the light from your image by two. Means half the light coming in. Means you need double the light coming from ISO, shutter speed or flash. Did he made a mistake or am I completely wrong. And if so, why?

Never seen something useful as this! Great video!!!!

This would work if no diffusers or reflectors are used. Once you reflect or diffuse the light, you’d need to adjust again and this wouldn’t work. Right?

@ptlofts John green said that white balance doesn't matter, set it to auto and shot raw. you can change the white balance later. focus issues depends on so many things, there's no one answer to that question, it all depends on how much light is in the room and what you are trying to capture. like zack said you have to learn your camera and gears to understand what works. there's no one answer for that.

what about the ISO relationship :D

it's very helpful video for everyone thank you for guiding people.

How about the Shutter Speed / exposure time with HSS flashes? ;)

Okay so that means that if the exposure needs to be adjusted it is easiest to make changes with aperture or strobe power. If possible then we should avoid messing with the subject to light distance? If we do that we would be messing with inverse square law. I guess that would be the next video and a whole another can of worms.

Zack, regarding to the inverse square law and flash guide number rule... your method is incorrect.

The best out there!! Great vid.. thanks!

better than my sub lecturer.

MAAAN THANK YOU

Sorry for the inconvenience but this explanation someone has to translate text ... I understand very little because I do not speak the language but understand something and looks interesting .... note: THIS IS WRITTEN IN GOOGLE TRANSLATOR SO SORRY IF MY WRITING CREATE ANY INCONSISTENCIES ... thanks

Finally.

So genuine explanation .:p

now he needs to explain shooting with these outdoors against bright sunlight, which would require full power to compensate sunlight... but wanting to use a wider aperture.. time to equate distance of light into the equation and bust out the ND filters.. ;-)

I mean, I guess

More than 5 minutes to explain that?

.salüt.

1 stop = 2 apertures or shutter values

This could have been explained in 30 seconds.

fraud

So what is the point of this video all what he said is absolutely basic stuff

Wait till u go outside .. this simple explanation won't work in sunlight. need to factor in shutter speed in relation to aperture. and yep break out the ND filters.