FLASH: Improve your lighting course May 16, 2010

How to get your flash off camera and improve your lighting. Understanding how your flash works; and how to always get the correct exposure for any situation. Covering why and how you get your flash off camera; basic equipment and where to buy. We look at standard one flash set ups and the versatility of one flash and one stand and showing you how to achieve professional results with basic equipment.

This will be run as one day weekend workshops at £155. Workshops will be broken down as:

Session one:
Finding out your existing knowledge and experience. Discussing what you would like to get out of the course and how we aim to achieve that. We spend a bit of time looking at the basics of lighting and the principals of how you light and why we take the light off camera. It is an interesting subject and always worth taking the time to study lighting principles. This will build a good foundation to your knowledge and to help you look at light differently to enable you to achieve the results you want.

Session two:
Looking at the equipment used and how to fire the flashes off camera. Showing you all about flashes, stands, umbrellas, adapters, gels etc. and how to make or buy these cheaply. You will learn how to set up this kit properly and the different lighting effects that can be achieved with all of this.

We also concentrate on understanding your flash and how flash works, taking the fear out of using flash. Looking at getting the most from your flash on-camera and the basics of exposure. Showing you that flash can be simple. We start on the basis of off-camera flash, ensuring you know how get the correct light every time.

Session three:
We go more in depth with exposure to help you become a lighting specialist. Studying how to balance, light, aperture, ISO and shutter speed. Once you know these fundamental building blocks of lighting, you can then adapt any set up or situation to achieve the best result.

Experimenting with a one flash set up. This is where you really get to have a play around using the knowledge that you have already gained. Learn how to make the background light or dark, balance ambient light, soft and hard light, and understanding colour temperature.

Session four:
We will build upon your knowledge already gained from the course.
We look at dramatic lighting, rim lighting, subtle lighting, silhouettes and many more. You will get to understand standard lighting set ups that you can then adapt and build upon. As well as learning more about how to effectively use one light and recap the basic principals that make off camera flash so exiting.

By the end of this course you will have a good understanding of basic lighting principals and standard set ups. You will be able to feel confident about lighting most situations and getting a professional lighting look to your pictures from one standard, relatively inexpensive, hot shoe flashes.

Official Website: http://garage-studios.co.uk/courses/flash