Going to High-Speed Flash sync, ie, over maximum flash sync speed, comes with a penalty - loss of flash power. This might be a crucial thing when we are shooting in really bright light, and need to match that with flash. So here's a solid recipe for when it makes most sense to go to high-speed flash sync / Auto FP.
High Speed Flash Sync makes most sense when you need either
- shallow depth-of-field, or
- fast shutter speeds,
and
- you have the flash power to spare.
As mentioned in the tutorial on high-speed flash sync (HSS), there is Read more inside...
In teaching workshops on flash photography, I frequently encounter newer photographers who are overwhelmed by flash photography. Overwhelmed to the extent that they fear their flash, and would rather not deal with flash photography at all. Instead, they adopt the idea that they will only specialize in available light photography. Now, that kind of thinking is an artistic dead-end. As a photographer that aspires to truly being creative, you need to understand light, regardless of how it is supplied to us.
I do feel that flash photography is one of those Read more inside...
using multiple speedlights with high-speed flash sync
This photo of Angelique, our model, was taken at 1/8000 @ f2 @ 100 ISO. Yes, an eight-thousand-th of a second. The accompanying wide aperture (with an ultra-wide angle lens), gives a unique look to the image. The shallow depth-of-field and high shutter speed are mutually dependent effects in shooting in bright light. Working with a fast shutter speed, brought us into high-speed flash sync (HSS) territory.
Do keep in mind that this shoot was more of a technical exercise to work through the settings and see how the flash behaves Read more inside...
edited on Dec 08, 2010 :contest winner has been announced, with feedback from Josh about this photograph
When we've previously featured photographs that we tried to reverse engineer, there was a great response by readers of the Tangents blog. Similarly, many participated in the recent Photoshop contest. So I've decided that we should combine the two. Maybe even make it a regular event.
The contest then is to reverse engineer this photograph in terms of the lighting.
The winner gets a $50 B&H gift Read more inside...
Flash photography tutorial - balancing flash and ambient light
An email I received recently from someone explained how she is struggling with flash. The basic building blocks of photography are all there and understood, but it somehow doesn't gel when she uses flash. She explains how she understands exposure metering, but "the minute I attach my flash, nothing makes sense." Having read my book and scoured this blog, she admits that at the point where she uses her flash and needs to set aperture and shutter speed, she is completely lost.
I'm sure this is something many many Read more inside...
A presentation that I've given on several occasions, is called 'Just Give Me The F-Stop'. The presentation is based on the perception that many photographers, in trying to get to grips with flash photography, try to break it down into what they think are the understandable elements – the numerical values of the settings used. They want numbers, believing that in knowing a certain image was taken at 1/125th @ f4.5 @ 400 ISO, that they might get closer to understanding lighting. They want the f-stop.
However, the scenarios we Read more inside...
off camera flash for portraits of the bridal couple
My friend, Josh Lynn, just posted this spectacular wedding photograph. It does look like he used flash there, so I thought this would make a another good example to see if we can 'reverse engineer' a photograph in terms of his settings and setup.
I first had a guess at how he set this up; and then had a look at the EXIF data, and this revealed the true story. See if you can decipher this image yourself, without scrolling down at first ... Read more inside...
With this part of a photo session with Johannie, we worked in an alley. The light was very uneven, with some swathes of sunlight falling directly on her. (See the image below for the photo without flash.) To get rid of this uneven sunlight falling on her, we have to add at least as much light on her as the brightest areas lit by sunlight. In the example above, our exposure is set to 1/250 @ f13 @ 200 ISO and we can see from the bright patch of light on her shoulder, that we’re at the edge of acceptable exposure. Any wider on our aperture, or Read more inside...
A topic that has been briefly discussed on the Tangents blog before, is that of first curtain flash sync vs second curtain flash sync. First curtain sync is also often called front curtain sync; and rear curtain sync is often called second curtain sync. (This is also covered in my book on flash photography).
Since it is an important topic in flash photography, let's look at what this entails and the difference between the two ways we can sync our flash .. and why would the one way would be preferable over the other.
To help us Read more inside...
