All language subtitles for 4. Lens Choice for Flash - Reflections Academy

All right, we've made all basic camera and

flash settings clear.

So the next logical question would be which

lens to choose for flash photography.

Well, as with mostly everything else in photography,

it all really comes down to personal preference.

Yet, there are some things that you might

want to consider in order to make the

best choice for your desired result with flash.

Now, one of the most common things I

notice, especially with less experienced flash photographers, is

that they would often choose to shoot with

flash at wider apertures and at longer focal

lengths like 50, 70 millimeters, or even more.

It's just what many of us, including me,

use when we shoot weddings with natural light.

For example, when I shoot with natural light,

I'd often open the aperture to, let's say,

2.8, and I would shoot at 50

millimeters.

So I guess if we're used to this,

it would be just logical to continue doing

what we're used to, right?

But when we add the flash, this approach

of just transitioning from what we do and

doing the same thing with flash becomes a

bit problematic.

A longer focal length doesn't only bring the

subject closer in the frame, but it also

makes the whole background of our picture appear

bigger.

And the thing is that if we have

a shadow behind our subject made by flash,

it can easily dominate a big part of

the frame.

It just becomes too obvious.

Now, as I said, mostly everything in photography

comes from personal preference, and it's just me

now sharing mine.

But to me personally, this big ghost shadow,

it just doesn't work.

It immediately gives me that cheap, autumnal-looking

vibe that a typical DSLR dad would get

when taking pictures of their kids at vacation.

But hey, that's just me, and that's just

how I feel about it.

And as for everything else, there's probably a

way of making even this kind of a

look interesting and attractive.

So, I believe now it's pretty obvious that

I keep my lenses wide when I shoot

with flash.

And yeah, that's right.

My sweet spot for focal length for flash

photography is between 28 and 35 millimeters, and

that's it.

I rarely go any wider or any longer.

I just stick my lens somewhere in between

these two, depending on the frame I want

to create.

Now, just on the side note, I have

to point out that in some rare cases,

I would also use 50 millimeters with flash.

But this is a rare exception, and I

only do it when I try to recreate

natural light with flash.

I know I don't want to confuse you,

and I know this sounds confusing, but trust

me, just keep watching the course, and already

in the next lesson, you will get a

better idea of what I'm talking about.

So, to conclude, I could say, while I

was predominantly shooting weddings with natural light, I

was mostly shooting around 50 millimeters with open

apertures.

But now that I use flash a lot

more, most of my wedding photographs are made

between 28 and 35 millimeters with apertures higher

than eight, with some exceptions that I will

cover already in the next lesson.

And that's it.

There is only one last lesson for this

first part of the course, in which we

will cover light modifiers and bounce flash technique.

And right after that, we will get our

secret formula for flash photography revealed.

See you in the next lesson.