Recreating Golden Hour - Using Flash & Lightroom To Mimic The Sun

Discussion in 'SLR Lounge' started by doer20, 30 Aug 2018.

  1. doer20

    doer20 Expert

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    golden-hour-photography-slrlounge-1600x1066.jpg
    Everything You Need To Know To Mimic The Sun
    Gain full comprehension of all your necessary in-camera settings, off-camera flash, and post-production techniques as you will learn, step-by-step, how to execute a simulated golden hour.

    slr-lounge-golden-hour-in-photography-1600x1066.jpg
    Post-Produce For Realistic Flares
    Create unbelievably convincing sun flares in Lightroom as we guide you through how to modify and manipulate any sun flare, real or not, to give your photos that iconic sun-kissed glow.

    slr-lounge-golden-hour-lighting-1600x1066.jpg

    Enhance Existing Flares With Inexpensive Tools
    Take the weather into your own hands and use small, affordable tools like LED lights to make any existing sunlight work for you.

    Download link:
    https://p-v.club/threads/recreating...-lightroom-to-mimic-the-sun.3975/#post-118133

    Exercise files:
    https://p-v.club/threads/recreating...h-lightroom-to-mimic-the-sun.3975/#post-38113
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 23 Jul 2021
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  2. anonzzz

    anonzzz Moderator

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    Here is a mirror for Mega. If you like the mirror, please also give a like to the OP @doer20

    [Mod Edit: Dead Link Removed]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 23 Jul 2021
  3. xiaoyuer

    xiaoyuer Legend

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    OK THANK
     
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  4. dofmaximus

    dofmaximus Master

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    Here are the exercise files and presets for Recreating Golden Hour.

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    Last edited: 5 Feb 2023
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  5. anonzzz

    anonzzz Moderator

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    I love SLR Lounge but teaching us that "ND + ISO = More Power" as shown in Chapter 2 at around the 28-minute mark is just flat out WRONG. On the surface, it may look believable because the wrong premise was given. I wonder whether this was ever corrected by SLR Lounge or challenged by someone in a public forum.
     
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  6. Kocaman

    Kocaman Master

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    When running your flash in HSS the flash loses efficiency. With ND filter you are likely to get better exposures however, you must ensure that you don't bump up the ISO for the sake of it, rather use the ND filter to reduce your shutter speed to put it synch with the max sycnh speed, this means that it will be a bad idea to actually use it in actual golden hour due to lower available light. Using lower ND stop filters is desirable to avoid excesive bump in ISO when needed. I would also like to mention that the whole idea behind the ND filter is to be able to shoot wide open when using flash during day light wihtout losing flash efficiency. When using lower f stop values, you don't really need a ND filter.

    Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LltjDbMjdX0
    He claims that using ND filters instead of HSS yields better flash efficiency.
     
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  7. NanaNikon

    NanaNikon Elite

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    You are sooo friggin smart! I just learned something from you! hahaha! Thank you!!
     
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  8. Kocaman

    Kocaman Master

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    You are welcome. When trying to recreate golden hour with flash. As a general rule of thumb the bigger and more powerful the flash the more wider shot you can achieve as the flash can be placed back further away from the shot to light up the environment for a convincing sunset. We are talking here 500W +. If you are running speed lights a tighter crop will be needed for a convincing effect.
     
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  9. macnoobster

    macnoobster New Member

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    thanks @doer20 for the link that didn't seem to work for me and thanks @anonzzz for the mirror ;)
     
  10. anonzzz

    anonzzz Moderator

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    @Kocaman I was very busy so I did not have time to respond to your reply until now. :) I whole-heartedly agree that using an ND filter is much more efficient than using HSS. I am just saying that "ND + ISO = More Power" is just misleading by itself. It is better to say these instead.

    1) Using ND filter is always more flash efficient than HSS (by about 2.5 stops)
    2) Set your shutter to max sync speed for max flash efficiency (relative to ambient)
    3) ND + ISO = Variable ND filter (https://p-v.club/threads/trivia-using-a-fixed-nd-filter-like-a-variable-nd-filter.15201/)

     
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  11. anonzzz

    anonzzz Moderator

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    Base on these fundamentals, we can properly understand what Pye Jirsa is trying to say. First, we need to get out of HSS by using ND filter as shown in (1). However, the ND filter used is too strong for the current ambient light shown in the example. It is a 5-stop ND filter but we actually just need a 2-stop ND filter to get out of HSS, thus we end up with a much slower shutter speed to compensate. By using (3), we converted the 5-stop ND filter into a 2-stop ND filter and are able to shoot at max sync speed (2) for maximum flash power. :)
     
    Last edited: 16 Jan 2020
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  12. Kocaman

    Kocaman Master

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    ND filter should only be used to bring camera shutter sync speed with the maximum or desired flash sync speed, anything more than that will be wasting image quality (iso) or flash power as those two will need to be used to compensate for excessive light loss in both flash and ambient light unless you want to play around with your aperture of course.

    I agree with most of what you said except for point 2. You don't always want to set up your shutter to max sync speed since on location light is forever changing, sometimes ambient light may increase or decrease depending on the weather, clouds moving in and out etc. You usually want it to be slight below the maximum sync speed so that you have some headroom for adjusting ambient exposure without messing around with too many settings. The only time I may have set it at maximum will be probably at near sunset since the ambient light will most of the times go down as the shoot progresses and I am only shooting for one look (dramatic, not dramatic and high key). I guess one other thing is you may set it at maximum sync speed if you are trying to freeze motion too whilst keeping a high key look (flash freezing capability greatly reduced as ambient light exposure is increased as opposed to low ambient exposure).
     
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  13. anonzzz

    anonzzz Moderator

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    At the end of the day, we as artists, have the choice of maximizing our flash power (but have to change 2 variables ISO/flash settings to change ambient) or shoot slightly below maximum flash sync speed and just need to change one variable (shutter speed to change ambient). :)

    https://p-v.club/threads/trivia-the...ay-to-control-ambient-light.15199/#post-51585
     
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  14. Echoitachi

    Echoitachi New Member

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  15. mwla

    mwla Elite

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    Mega link. Please like OP's post.

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    Last edited: 17 Mar 2021
  16. nic bic

    nic bic New Member

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    Mirror anyone?
     
  17. diosdado

    diosdado Veteran

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    Last edited: 5 Feb 2023
  18. Jupiter

    Jupiter Expert

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    I'm missing the exercise files and presets for this course. Mirror anyone?
     
  19. dofmaximus

    dofmaximus Master

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  20. Jupiter

    Jupiter Expert

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    [​IMG]
     
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