Comments on: using a neutral density (ND) filter with flash

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:14:08 +0000

Thanks a lot… I was trying to make sense of the ratio because obviously you know what you’re talking about.

Regards
Alfonso

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:39:33 +0000

Ooops! a typo. It should be 3 stops, as you noted.
Sorry about that. I’ve fixed it now.

Funny, no matter how many times I might proof-read something, there is always a mistake that can slip by. Thanks for the heads up.

Neil vN

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:28:44 +0000

Hello Neil,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Your website has helped me to grow as photographer a lot.

I have a question for you… I dont understand what do you mean by “I was able to go to a much wider aperture (2 stops) by adding an 8x Neutral Density filter”. I thought that everything had change by 3 stops.

Can you please let me know what am I missing?

Regards and happy new year!
Alfonso

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:18:45 +0000

This post saved me from buy additional speedlights and HSS-capable triggers! Thanks!

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:05:47 +0000

Al, check my reply in comment #4. It’s partially explained there.

For the photos at the top, I wanted the city in the background. The specific settings were … not quite arbitrary … but were selected to illustrate the topic, rather than for a specific artistic intent. The other two images are closer to what I was trying to capture.

Neil vN

By: Al Guzman

Al Guzman — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:09:07 +0000

My apologies for three straight posts but I have one more question – What are you setting your camera’s exposure on while in manual mode, the model or background?

In my situation above I exposed for the blue skies then took the photo of family with flash.

By: Al Guzman

Al Guzman — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:49:12 +0000

Sorry, just saw where you say a polarizer will reduce the ambient light by around 2 stops.

By: Al Guzman

Al Guzman — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:37:01 +0000

Glad you posted this article up, haven’t been to your site in a while and yesterday I had my family at the beach and was struggling big time to get the flash and ambient light to look good in the photos. I was using a canon 50d with my 24-70 f2.8L lense, shooting in manual mode and flash set to TTL. Shutter set to 250 speed, I under exposed the wife and kids by a stop but that required a much higher aperture than I wanted, I really wanted the background blurred out. Switched to HSS and couldn’t get enough light to get rid of the shadows on top of all that it was windy and my wife and daughter both have long hair which was blowing over their faces. Not a good day/experience but glad this happened with family and not a paid client.

Will a Tiffen Circular Polarizer have the same effect as a neutral density (ND) filter? And in my situation above with out a filter what could I have done differently to get a blurred background and not blow out the sky and ocean?

By: Anonimo

Anonimo — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:29:01 +0000

Great article. Deserves going to Tangent’s flash techniques content list (I mean, as a new chapter). Thanks again!

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:25:06 +0000

Kris, with TTL flash, you have to rely on the technology to help you out, and then nudge the TTL flash exposure up or down with your FEC. Nothing more to it. But you do have to chimp. As a start, check this recent post on a photo session on a rainy day, where I used TTL flash of camera. Even though Manual flash is more predictable and reliable in a controlled shoot, I find TTL flash gets me there faster. Neil vN