Portraits with shallow DoF & high-speed sync flash
High-speed flash sync (HSS) has two primary uses – being able to get to a fast enough shutter speed to stop action, and for shallow depth-of-field. Other than that, I rarely stray higher than max flash sync speed. So for me, it is a conscious decision to go to HSS. Or not.
For these playful portraits of my friends, Irene and Michael, I wanted to use the shallow depth-of-field with specific intent. Irene and Michael are at the core of a performance group called the Modern Gypsies. Their official website: Modern Gypsies productions. I have photographed the Modern Gypsies several times over the past few years for their own promotion. Since they are always in outlandish costume then, I wanted to photograph their portraits as themselves, sans costume and stage make-up. For this photo session we met up in their home turf, Brooklyn.
Two photos that have appeared on the Tangents blog before from promotional stills I shot for them: Irene as a BirdGirl, and Michael as PinkMan.
Straight-forward portraits wouldn’t be as true to who they are – I wanted to give a sense of some of their crazy inventiveness.
The idea I came up with was to have Irene’s portrait slightly surreal – Irene with her trademark see-thru violin … but I still wanted to include Michael. Some of his acts (such as PinkMan) has him bouncing around on stilts while in costume. I wanted to include him, but still have this be a portrait of Irene. By using a wide aperture (f/2), I was able to throw him out of focus in the background.
Camera settings and photo gear (or equivalents) used for this photo session
- 1/1,000 @ f/2 @ 100 ISO
- Nikon D4
- Nikon 35mm f/1.4G / Canon 35mm f/1.4 II
- Westcott Rapidbox – 26″ Octa Softbox
- (2x) Nikon SB-910 Speedlight controlled by PocketWizard FlexTT5 Transceiver & AC3 Controller
or alternately, the Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite controlled by Canon ST-E3 Transmitter - (2x) Manfrotto 1004BAC – tall light-stand
I used two lights here – a speedlight in a softbox on Irene; and a direct, unmodified speelight on Michael in the background. I wanted that shallow depth of field, hence an f/2 aperture. Since the f/2 aperture implied a fast shutter speed – we were shooting outdoors – we were in high-speed flash sync territory. We needed that 1/1000 shutter speed to freeze action. (Since the available light was the dominant light source, the flash wouldn’t be able to freeze the action on its own.)
The pull-back shot above shows the positioning of the two lights, with Michael standing more or less where Irene would be in the final sequence of images.
And here we have it – quirky portraits of Irene, with context … Michael on Kangaroo stilts.. These photos also appeared in my book: Portrait Lighting & Design.
Related articles
- When to use high speed flash sync (HSS)
- tutorial: High-speed flash sync (HSS)
- Other articles featuring the Modern Gypsies
- Their website: Modern Gypsies productions
Hi, Neil.
Probably asking a lot, but would’ve loved to have seen that shot without the flashes firing, to see the difference.
It’s summer in South Africa now so I’ll be depending on HSS a bit for some of my shoots because of the bright sunlight.
I checked the archives again, and there isn’t a useful comparable photograph.
When using a speedlight in HSS mode in bright sunlight, you’re better off going with bare flash. And then the GN display on the back of the flash will give you the proper aperture / ISO / distance combination.
Check these two related articles for more:
– Tutorial on how to use the GN of your flash.
– Getting the most power from your flash.
As always, great post. But Neil, I have a question not related to it. I would like to start a photo blog for my business, along with a website, and really like the features of your blog. Is it part of the web hosting company that you use, and if so, which one is it – if you don’t mind telling us? And if not, which web hosting and blog services do you use?
Thank you for all the help you have given us over the years. It is because of you that I decided to take the plunge into event photography.
Mike
This website is a WordPress installation. The look and layout is through a custom-designed theme. The functionality is all just what WordPress can do via plug-ins. What specifically did you want to know about?
Thank you for your reply.
I am trying to learn about web services, and I am just looking for one built-it-yourself, that has as many bells n’ whistles, so I don’t have to migrate later. I am one of those who has to see something to realize its possibilities, and who tries to educate himself as much as possible before jumping in. As such, I really like the features yours has, and the way it looks. The last couple of weeks I have found a lot of information on different providers, and given monetary restraints, I will probably just go with GoDaddy, and later create a blog with a secondary provider, or just move to WordPress.
But for now, I just want to thank you for what you do for all of us aspiring pros. One of these days I will post my (sometime-to-be) website, for your input. Thank you Neil :)
I love how natural the light looks on the both of them. I assume it’s because you lit them from the same position as the sun?
Ed … this time it has more to do with the flash (diffused by the softbox) acts more as a fill-light than a dominant light source. It really just helped with a more dynamic light on her than the flat, shaded light would’ve been.