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March 27, 2014

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

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March 20, 2014

Photography, Portrait, Technology | 0 comment

Leaf Shutter Lenses Part 2 – Tech Thursday

Outdoor portrait with leaf shutter lens and flash - ©TimeLine Media

Last Tech Thursday, I had the first post on using leaf shutter lenses. In doing a little research, there are not too many of these that are available in convenient or “affordable” kits. The ones that are available cost most than most DSLRs bundles with lenses – for the lens alone! These are normally in the realm of the medium format cameras with much larger sensors, and much higher price tags. A new medium format camera is in the $15,000 – $40,000 range with the accompanying leaf shutter lenses starting at $4500+.

So you can see why I was excited to learn that the relatively inexpensive Fuji X100s has a leaf shutter. As a refresher, here is a photo taken without any added flash outside. It is the metered exposure from the camera, and has a nice shallow depth of field with the trees and the shed going out of focus. The settings were 1/1000^th second at f/2.0 ISO 200. The shutter speed was very fast due to the open aperture. There was bright sun that is starting to set but is still high overhead.

Flash Photography Test

Flat outdoor portrait without fill flash - ©TimeLine Media — Flat outdoor portrait without fill flash – ©TimeLine Media

With a typical DSLR, you would not be able to use these settings to get proper exposure*. The 1/1000^th of a second exposure time is too fast for the flash to fully expose the frame. You will have a black bar along one of the long sides of the frame where the shutter is still covering part of the frame. You are limited to 1/200^th or 1/160^th of a second on most cameras. To find your, look in your manual, and look for the maximum flash sync speed. On the Fuji X100s, however, the leaf shutter lens is able to sync with the flash up to this fast shutter speed. This is the biggest benefit to using these types of lenses – having more control over balancing the available light in the scene with added light from a flash or strobe.

You can keep the nice darker blue sky, and saturate the other colors by underexposing the background with a high shutter speed. The flash power you can control from the strobe or by adjusting the aperture. Even though in some of these, the aperture was not wide open, it was only closed about 1 stop which keeps the background nicely out of focus compared to your subject. I cannot wait to do more shooting with this setup! It gives a lot more flexibility in what time of day to make outdoor portraits.

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March 13, 2014

Photography, Portrait, Technology | 0 comment

Leaf Shutter Lenses Part 1 – Tech Thursday

ballroom dance photography - ©TimeLine Media

The wintry weather finally broke for a little bit last week! I finally had a good chance to test one of the best features of the Fuji X100s camera – the leaf shutter lens. Most cameras produced today have focal plane shutters which have a curtain that opens and closes in front of the sensor. With a leaf shutter lens, there are blades built into the lens itself that opens and closes as the shutter opens and closes in the camera. As you press the shutter button on the camera, there is no difference in the operation between these two types of lenses. Where the big difference comes is in the fastest flash sync speed that is possible when using a leaf shutter lens. This opens up a lot of creative possibilities!

Camera Tech

On typical DSLRs, between 1/160th to 1/250th of a second is the fastest shutter speeds that you can use if you want the flash to fully expose the frame. If you use a strobe with a DSLR and have your shutter speed set higher (ie 1/500^th second or higher) you will start to get a large black band on your photo where the curtain is still covering a part of the sensor since the shutter speed is too high. This is not a limitation for leaf shutter lenses such as the one in the Fuji X100s. When shooting indoors, like ballroom dance competitions, this limitation is not a problem as 1/250^th second is plenty fast to control the light coming into the camera.

The limitation of 1/250^th really impacts outdoor shoots. If you want to use a flash, and you have to keep your shutter speed at 1/250^th or slower, that means you need to close down your aperture – f/8 or higher depending on how bright the sun is outside. In viewing these photos, everything including your background will be in focus making it difficult to separate your subject from the background. One solution is to not use a flash since you have plenty of light, but now all the tones in the scene are very similar making the image flat, and not as dynamic. Next week, I’ll show you how the leaf shutter lens really changes this photo with the change of a few settings in the same scene.

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