Freistellen beim Blitzen mit Easy Cap

Cut out when flashing with Easy Cap

These days, cropped images are often required for publication in a wide variety of media or channels. With the HD-601 HSS, Jinbei has a cordless studio flash in its range, which with its Easy Cap function helps you to crop objects more easily and to create professional images faster.

These days, cropped images are often required for publication in a wide variety of media or channels. With the HD-601 HSS, Jinbei has a cordless studio flash in its range that you can use with hisEasy capFunction helps to crop objects more easily and to create professional images faster.

What is Easy Cap?

With Easy Cap you can prepare the easier cropping of a subject, for example in portrait or product photography, directly when taking a picture. In the later image processing you set theCut out with little effort finished. When taking portraits, Easy Cap is a great help with the finest details such as hair.

What is a cutout?

A cutout depicts a motif without its disturbing background, cutting it out of the picture. It is important that the cutout precisely delimits the motif so that the cutout can be inserted perfectly into a new background using an image editing program.sst.

How do you get a cutout?

The first method: You do this in post-processing and, for example, use an image processing program such asAdobe Photoshop a. A wealth of methods is available with it, such as clipping with

  • a freehand selection / lasso
  • a clipping path
  • a choice of colors
  • Color channels
  • a layer mask

These procedures require some experience and practice, and they are time-consuming. Difficult motifs like hair or semi-transparent objects don't make things any easier. Chromakey solutions, the color-based image release via green or blue screen, have their pitfalls due to color fringes and annoying reflections.

How does Easy Cap?

No wonder that we photographers are looking for methods or products that save valuable time when clipping objects. And this is where the second method comes into play: the preparatory oneCropping when flashing.

We will show you this procedure, which Hensel calls freemask and Multiblitz Easy Clip, with two Jinbei HD-601 HSS cordless studio flash units and their Easy Cap mode. This variant convinces with itsrem attractive price / performance ratio and makes clipping while flashing affordable for beginners. In the meantime, Easy Cap is also available for the current top model of the HD series, the HD-610 HSS, via firmware update.

With Easy Cap two recordings are created, one with the desired one Illumination of the subject(Fig. Left and a second with the Illumination of the background (this requires at least two flash units. Due to the exclusive backlighting, the motif stands out like a black silhouette from it Fig right. This recording will be used later in addition to recording the subject in post-processing.tz.

Easy-Cap-Motiv_Freisteller-1

What do you need for Easy Cap?

The following devices were used for our structure:

  • camera andtripod. With Easy Cap it is important that neither the subject nor the camera move between the two shots. You should therefore use the serial picture function of your camera, especially for moving subjects, which triggers both pictures as quickly as possible.
  • Easy Cap-compatible flash unitsIn our case, these are two Jinbei HD-601 HSS cordless studio flash units. One is used as the main light, the other as the background light. Of course, you can use several flash units for even illumination. Up to four flashes are recommended for larger subjects.
  • OneRadio flash trigger like the Jinbei TR-Q6 for Canon, Nikon or Sony cameras, which supports group control.
  • Light shaper for the two flash units, such as a reflector and a 60 x 90 cm softbox as well as a reflector panel.
  • For post processing aImage editing program like Adobe Photoshop, which works with layers and alpha masks.

What does the structure look like?

TheLight sketch clarifies the structure: to the left of the camera is an HD-601 HSS with an attached softbox as the main light. To the right of the camera, place the reflector that brightens the subject. Align the second HD-601 HSS behind the subject as pure background light on the background. When setting up, make sure that

  • the flash for the backlight cannot be seen in the picture
  • there is as much distance as possible between subject and background
  • the illumination is optimal without stray / ambient light, with a completely white background so that the silhouette is easy to create. Your camera's histogram display will help you make an assessment.g.

Easy-Cap-Lichtskizze

What do you set on the flash units?

Set the on both flash units in menu 4e Easy cap function and All 2 on both devices. In our case, this stands for the two HD-601s with three flash units, for example, select All 3. The main light on the left becomes No. 1, that is, this lightning bolt is the first to trigger. The background light on the right gets No. 2 and fires as a second flash.zweiter Blitz.

Easy-Cap-Einstellungen-Blitzgeräte-1

What are you setting on the camera?

Einstellungen-an-der-Kamera

On the camera we set the white balance to the flash symbol, the shutter speed to 1/125 s, the ISO value to 100 and the aperture wide closed for the greatest possible depth of field.

When taking your picture, make sure that the main light illuminates the subject according to your ideas. To do this, set the flash output and the camera parametersaccording to your requirements a.

What do you set on the flash trigger?

Easy-Cap-Einstellungen-Auslöser

To set the power using the TR-Q6 remote release, selectgroups out. Assign group A to the main light and group B to the background light. Set the desired flash output for both groups on the shutter release.ein.

How does it go on??

Easy-Cap-Display-Kontrolle

Now it's ontaking photos. First you shoot the subject with the desired illumination through the main light. Then immediately take the second picture with the background light using the same camera setting.

The exclusive illumination of the background creates thesilhouetted figure of the subject. The less ambient / scattered light there is, the more clearly the silhouette emerges, the easier it is in post-processing.

How do you go about post-processing?

You open both images inAdobe Photoshop and copy the silhouette into the original image as a new layer. You can use tonal correction to refine the silhouette until only black and white tones are left.

Easy-Cap-Photoshop_Ablauf

Then, in the Channels palette, load the silhouette layer as a selection and invert it. Then select the lower layer in the Layers palette, press CtrlJ Mac: Cmd J and generate a new layer from the selection. Then draw in your desired background as a new layer and you are done!rtig!

Easy-Cap-Ablauf-1

This excerpt shows that Easy Cap is not a quick trick, but a high quality solution for easy clipping.n.

Easy-Cap-Freisteller_Crop