Manual TTL Flashes and the Setting Sun - Lighting Tutorial HD

When I light for an image, I have to control where the light is placed and on the camera is rarely a choice for me. Today, we are shooting a swordsman in front of a sunset on location in Los Angeles. We are going to take a look at how to get a TTL flash off the camera and also how to balance it with a setting sun. I am using a Canon TTL 600ex and a Strobies Pro-Flash TLi-C. This gives me two light sources that I can get away from the camera, with the help of my PocketWizards. I will put the Canon 600 flash on a PocketWizard Flex TT5 and mount it to a Photoflex Octodome. I will set this flash to zone A for my key light to the right of camera. The Strobies flash will go on a second Flex TT5 set to zone B. This will be my rim light. I am shooting with a Canon 5D Mark III and will use a Tamron 24-70mm lens. I will put the PocketWizard Mini TTi and the AC3 Zone Controller on the camera to control the two flashes. After I set both flashes to Manual, the zone controller will allow me to change the power on each strobe head from the unit on the camera. I will shoot with an ISO at 800 and an f10 aperture for deep focus. Starting off, I will use a 1/80 sec shutter but will need to lengthen it as the sun sets and I loose light in the sky. The aperture will stay the same but I will need to lengthen the shutter. The aperture stays the same because our strobes are balanced to the aperture. When I lengthen the shutter, it will not affect the strobe exposure on the face but will brighten what is not lit by the strobes – in this case, that is the sky. This was fun working with TTL flash and the setting sun. I like TTL flash so much more when I can get the light off the camera, place it where I want and use modifiers to shape the light. I hope you enjoyed our lesson and as always, keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.