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May 8, 2014

Outrunning the Curtain – Tech Thursday

Fashion Show with off camera flash - ©TimeLine Media

Testing

Flash photography is different, not difficult! Natural, or available is easier in the way that Microsoft Word is an easy as a text editor. With available light, what you see if what you get. There is no guessing as to the effect that the light will have on your subject in the photo, because you can see it even without looking through your camera. I am trying to step away, and attempting to use flash in every situation that I can. It is a challenge, but I think the results can be much better, and the files much easier to work with in post. This post is about the first lesson is using a flash off the camera. This can be a speedlight that you attach to your camera with a cord, or wirelessly – it does not matter which for this article.

Every camera has a set flash sync speed. This is a fastest shutter speed at which the flash can illuminate the full frame of the camera with light. Any shutter speed slower than that will also light the frame fully, but any speed faster will start to darken the frame. As an example, here are some photos where I attempted to keep the same exposure, only changing the shutter speed. The settings are in their captions:

1/60 sec, f/6.3 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/60 sec, f/6.3 – ©TimeLine Media

1/125th sec, f/5 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/125th sec, f/5 – ©TimeLine Media

1/200th sec, f/5 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/200th sec, f/5 – ©TimeLine Media

Shutter Speed and Flash

All of the above photos have shutter speeds slower than the sync speed of 1/250^th of a second. This sync speed will vary with your camera, so consult your manual to find it for your particular model. Now the next photo is at 1/320^th of a second, and the frame starts to darken from the bottom.

1/320th sec, f/5 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/320th sec, f/5 – ©TimeLine Media

This darkening is from the curtain that covers sensor. Its movement determines the shutter speed settings on your camera. It moves faster across the sensor as you increase the shutter speed. When you make an exposure with a shutter speed that is too fast, you start to catch the curtain in the frame when the shutter speed is too fast.

1/500th sec, f/5 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/500th sec, f/5 – ©TimeLine Media

1/800th sec, f/5 - ©TimeLine Media — 1/800th sec, f/5 – ©TimeLine Media

So if you are just starting to experiment with off camera flash, make this your first options to set on your camera. Conversely, check this setting if you are on a shoot and seeing something strange on the image. I’ll bet it is the curtain. This will save you a lot of frustration especially in bright settings! Give it a try with your camera to find your flash shutter sync speed.

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April 29, 2014

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Missing Cherry Blossoms

Washington, DC

It just happened, but I am already missing the cherry blossoms this year. The photos from this year’s blooms were really satisfying. The weather, and the amount of time that I had to take advantage of their peak really came together nicely. Morning, afternoon, and evening, were all available to me this time. Moreover, I did not have to rush around as in other years. There were so many photographers around the Tidal Basin this year, with all kinds of gear! There were so many that were trying different angles, and strategies to get the perfect photo. I joined them with my own attempts. Of course, not everything will work when you first try, and this was probably my biggest disappointment.

From this spot, most images are of the blossoms in the foreground with either the Washington Monument in the background towards the left, or the Jefferson Memorial towards the right. In between these two familiar sites is a clear view of the Capitol Building that is much further away. Because of the distance, it is much smaller than the other two memorials in the frame. Consequently it is not as popular a subject from here.

But I wanted to try going for it since it seemed really easy to see this morning. I used the longest lens I had in the bag, a 105mm focal length. This was giving me what I wanted as anything much longer would have made the building larger, but the blossoms would have been harder to distinguish. In the first frame above without any added light, the blossoms were really in shadow, and look like really ugly clouds or debris in front of the lens.

Sunrise Blossoms

My next thought was that I should add some light from a speedlight to illuminate the blossoms, and show off more of their color. I held the flash off of the camera with a sync cord so that the light would not be positioned directly in front of the blooms. Here is the result:

It was as expected, but not that great to my eye. I tried a few more frames changing the flash power, the angle of the flash, but it did not change much. Perhaps I could have tried “painting” on the light with a small flashlight or had a softer modifier for the speedlights, but I did not have any more time as the sun started to rise quickly out of the horizon really changing the look of the overall scene. Turns out – THAT was what I needed to make a better frame.

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703-864-8208

March 27, 2014

Photography, Technology | 0 comment

Flash Sync Speed – Tech Thursday

Outdoor photo with leaf shutter lens - ©TimeLine Media

The last two Tech Thursdays I have posted about the leaf shutter lens built into the FujiFilm X100s, Sony Cybershot DSC-RX1, and some medium format camera systems. They have some special abilities over dSLR cameras when it comes to syncing with flash units. Allowing for a faster sync speed, you create outdoor photos in bright sun while retaining shallow depth of field.

Most hobbyists and professionals use dSLRs for making images. However, they are limited in terms of what shutter speed they can use with flash. Look through the manual that came with your camera to see what the sync speed is with your particular model. Some cameras sync at 1/160^th of a second, but the fastest shutter speed I have seen with them is 1/200^th of a second.

Feature Comparison

If we were to take outdoor photos as these shutter speeds, we would have to close down the aperture to not let in too much light and overexpose the photo. What would happen if you were to set your camera to a higher shutter speed? These were taken with a Nikon D4, and the flash was a moonlight connected by a PC-Sync cable to the camera. This photo is set at f/5.0 at 1/200^th of a second, the flash sync speed of the camera:

Nikon D4 - 1/200th second flash sync speed - ©TimeLine Media — Nikon D4 – 1/200th second flash sync speed – ©TimeLine Media

This at f/5.0 at 1/320^th of a second:

Nikon D4 - 1/320th second - ©TimeLine Media — Nikon D4 – 1/320th second – ©TimeLine Media

This at f/5.0 1/500^th of a second:

Nikon D4 - 1/500th second - ©TimeLine Media — Nikon D4 – 1/500th second – ©TimeLine Media

The shutter is not open long enough for the flash to cover the entire frame. Eventually the entire frame will be black when the shutter speed is too high like at 1/1000^th of a second:

Nikon D4 - 1/1000th second - ©TimeLine Media — Nikon D4 – 1/1000th second – ©TimeLine Media

The leaf shutter camera can still do just fine set at f/5.6 at 1/1000^th of a second:

Fuji X100s - 1/1000th second - ©TimeLine Media — Fuji X100s – 1/1000th second – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Posts Tagged ‘flash’

Testing

Shutter Speed and Flash

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Washington, DC

Sunrise Blossoms

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Feature Comparison

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