Digital Camera World » flash photography tips

What is flash sync? Your flash modes and when to use them (free cheat sheet)

jmeyer — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:16:53 +0000

What is flash sync? If you’re new to flash photography you’ve probably been asking yourself this question. In our latest beginner’s guide to flash photography we explain how each of your flash modes work and offer a handy photography cheat sheet that illustrates the process.

For many people, flash is that horrid burst of light that ruins indoor photographs, stripping scenes of all atmosphere whenever it goes off. However, when it’s used correctly, flash can be the saviour of many an image, and shouldn’t be confined to being used in darkness.

For example, a subtle burst of flash can be used to fill in shadows when shooting portraits of people with their backs to the sun. This means no more squinting, or dark shadows where the eyes should be. Instead, the flash turns what might otherwise be a silhouette into an evenly lit image. Here’s a quick guide to what you need to know about your flash modes…

What is flash sync?

Traditionally, the flash operates at 1/60sec. This means that when you’re using flash, the shutter speed is set to 1/60 sec and the flash is synchronised to fire while the shutter is open.

However, modern cameras take advantage of the fact that the flash duration is extremely short, and offer higher ‘sync’ speeds of around 1/200 sec or 1/250 sec.

Naturally, there’s nothing to stop you using slower shutter speeds, and this can be particularly useful for balancing the illumination of the flash with ambient lighting for a more natural look. This is often referred to as ‘slow-sync’ flash.

Sync speeds

Interestingly, the shutter speed is often not a significant factor in the flash exposure calculation. The way that the ‘focal plane’ shutter of your camera works means that you do not have the full range of your camera’s shutter speeds on offer anyway.

In normal flash modes, you need to ensure that the shutter speed is set at or below the ‘sync speed’ for your camera. DSLRs have sync speeds of either 1/200 sec or 1/250 sec, depending on the model; if faster shutter speeds are used then part of the image will be obscured by the falling shutter curtain.

Fortunately, most of the factors that need to be taken into consideration when calculating flash exposure are handled by the camera. A suitable sync-friendly shutter speed is set for you, unless you use the camera’s Manual (M) exposure mode – and as long as you are using the pop-up flash or a dedicated hotshoe flash.

An extra complication is that flash has a relatively limited range. The maximum power varies between the flash used – but once the subject is more than a few paces away, flash has little effect. This ensures that there are plenty of subjects where the use of flash is impractical.

PAGE 1: What is flash sync?
PAGE 2: Rear curtain sync, red-eye reduction and flash metering
PAGE 3: How your flash modes work (free cheat sheet)
PAGE 4: Built-in flash vs off-camera flash

Family Portraits at Home: tips for taking contemporary family photos on a budget

jmeyer — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:00:57 +0000

Taking family portraits in unfamiliar surroundings, such as a studio, can make them feel nervous – and you don’t want this to come across in your images. By shooting family portraits at home, you’ll be able to get more relaxed poses and happy expressions.

For this family portrait shoot, we decided to use a simple set-up without expensive and complicated studio lighting. We used three regular flashguns to create our home photo studio.

We placed two of them on lighting stands with umbrellas to reflect a soft and more flattering light back onto our subject. We then positioned each light at a 45 degree angle about 6 feet away from the subject and made sure they were switched to manual mode.

The third flash was mounted on our camera and tilted it towards the ceiling to bounce the light, but it also worked as a remote trigger firing all three flashguns simultaneously.

What gear we used

Flashguns
We used three Nikon Speedlights: one on the camera and the other two on stands. However, you can still get creative results using only one or two flashguns.

Two light stands
Jessops Portaflash lighting stands with adjustable tilting brolly brackets. These are easy to use, light and a good size at over two metres tall when fully extended.

Two umbrellas
A silver umbrella for a good coverage of light and a clear white umbrella, which creates a soft, diffused light.

PAGE 1: Great budget gear for shooting family portraits at home
PAGE 2: Best camera settings for shooting family portraits at home
PAGE 3: 5 tips to give your family portraits an edge
PAGE 4: Correcting family portraits post-capture

Off Camera Flash Photography: tips from Damien Lovegrove for shooting outdoors

jmeyer — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:01:45 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post, famous portrait photographer Damien Lovegrove shares his best off camera flash photography tips for coping with difficult lighting when shooting portraits outdoors.

Meet our professional photographer

Damien Lovegrove is one of the UK’s most sought-after wedding and portrait photographers. Having learned his trade as a cameraman and lighting director at the BBC, he swapped moving imagery for stills ten years ago and has since built up a hugely successful photography business. He now shares his knowledge through workshops and seminars. See www.lovegroveconsulting.com.

Meet our apprentice

Richard Twiner works in a civilian role for the police and recently completed an A-level in Photography. His course taught him all the ins and outs of studio flash, but outdoor and off camera flash still puzzles him. He’d like advice on perfecting his photo composition and lighting skills outside of the studio environment.

Technique Assessment

Is Richard using his camera and flash gear in the best possible way?

Lock and load
So Richard could use the flashgun away from his DSLR, he attached the Canon Speedlite Transmitter to his 40D’s hotshoe. Damien told Richard to use the lock switch to stop it slipping off mid shoot.

“When you turn it on, the red pilot light should come on,” says Damien. “If it’s taking a while then it usually means the batteries are going flat, so always make sure you carry spares.” The ST-E2 Transmitter takes a 2CR5 Lithium battery. We set the transmitter to channel 1.

Switch to slave
For Richard’s flashgun to work off camera, he was told to switch it to ‘slave’ mode. On the Speedlite 580EX II, Damien told him to hold down the zoom button for a few seconds until a sub menu appeared. Richard then moved the select dial to turn the ‘slave’ on and pressed Set on the dial.

He then clicked twice on the zoom button until the channel selector (CH.) started flashing, and set the channel to 1. With flash and transmitter in sight of each other, Richard pressed the pilot light on the transmitter and the flash fired.

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Setting up to shoot off camera flash photography
PAGE 3: Final off camera flash tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

Creative flash photography ideas: how to get artistic with your flower photos

jmeyer — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:28:20 +0000

Find out how to give your plant and flower photos a boost with this easy off-camera flash technique. This simple creative flash photography idea can be shot in any home studio, hassle-free.

The essence of good plant photography is about capturing the character of your specimen. Think of a plant as a personality and seek to express that in the same way a portrait photographer will strive to reveal the individuality of their subject.

With this thistle, we wanted to accentuate its intrinsic spikiness. To achieve this, we decided to backlight the specimen to create a strong highlight around its edges. We shot it against a deep black background (light absorbent velvet) to make the subject stand out.

To create the backlit effect we positioned a Nikon SB800 flashgun, connected to our Nikon D200 SLR via a SC-17 TTL Remote Cord, behind our subject, and then pointed it back towards the camera.

Pointing the flash towards the camera also caused some unsightly lens flare, so we positioned a piece of card between the thistle and the camera to act as a shield.

This is a simple but hugely effective technique that’s successfully enhanced the character of this thistle. Why not try it with botanical subjects of your own?

How to shoot and edit your flash photography flower photos

The set-up
Using a makeshift home studio, we positioned our flash behind the specimen. We connected the flash to the camera using a remote cable and pointed it back towards the lens to create a backlight effect.

Instant feedback
Using Lightroom 3’s Tethered Shooting feature, we were able to connect our camera to our computer. This is a great way to work in a home studio and the instant visual feedback on a large monitor proved useful.

Clean as a thistle
Moving our file seamlessly into Lightroom 3’s Develop mode, we processed our RAW file, tweaking the tones, colours and contrast. If you’re not using Lightroom 3, Adobe Camera Raw will be just as good.

Photography Lighting: using flash to cope with challenging conditions

jmeyer — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:01:58 +0000

In the final post in our Shoot Like A Pro series on photography lighting, we explain simple techniques for using flash to take control of your lighting environment.

Shot with on-camera flash

Unlike other lights, where you can see the effect of the position of any modifiers such as diffusers or reflectors, you can’t see the results with flash until you take a shot.

Flash doesn’t have to be scary, particularly if you are now familiar with how the direction of natural light affects your shots.

The quality of the light from most flashguns will be a little harsher than the light from your average reading lamp, so you still need to do some test shots with your own kit, but the basic principles of the quality and direction of light are the same, no matter what type of light source you use.

Shot with off-camera flash

Using a flash fired directly at the subject as the main light source is almost guaranteed to put you off using flash for life.

Used like this the flash works as a tiny point of light producing harsh, unflattering, high-contrast light.

You need to soften this light by making it appear to be much larger to the subject to make it more photogenic.

PAGE 1: Why you might want to use flash
PAGE 2: Soften the light from your flash
PAGE 3: How to use flash triggers
PAGE 4: Your remote flash options (infographic)

Bessel WP6 400Ws review: can you really take studio-grade lighting anywhere?

jmeyer — Sat, 04 May 2013 13:00:50 +0000

In our Bessel WP6 400Ws review we test whether this new portable flash system can deliver the results you need and give you quality studio lighting anywhere you choose to shoot.

The Bessel WP6 portable lighting system has a 4500mAh Li-ion battery that can churn out up to 400 flashes per charge, while maintaining fast sub-2-second recycle times at full power.

At 3.5kg it’s light enough to sling over your shoulder on its carry strap, and it also comes with a hard case, a full-size flash head stand and a handle for mobile use.

It features a powerful 400Ws flash head complete with 35W modelling lamp and spill kill.

For outdoor use the modelling lamp isn’t really up to the job, but the flash itself has enough poke to overpower all but the brightest direct sunlight.

As it’s a budget kit, you don’t get a second output socket for splitting power over two heads, so if you want to create a key and fill light set-up, you’ll need to fork out for another kit.

Although Bessel’s offering can’t match the polished build quality of some prestige brands, it packs quite a punch for a very reasonable price.

Buy it: www.bessel.co.uk
Price: £399

Score: 5/5

Best flash diffuser: 6 top models tested and rated

jmeyer — Wed, 01 May 2013 23:01:24 +0000

For softer, more natural-looking light, you need to add a diffuser to your flashgun. We test 6 of the top models available to help you find the best flash diffuser worth your money

Flash diffusers are great for ensuring more natural lighting in photos. They remove the harsh white light from direct flash by spreading out and softening light from flashguns.

However, there are dozens of models available, each offering unique features. Which is the best flash diffuser for your needs?

We tested six of the best flash diffusers available using a still-life setup, shot in front of a neutral wall using a tripod-mounted DSLR.

The rigid camera position and single light source didn’t eradicate shadows but was ideal for showing how each product diffused and/or bounced the light.

The flash was operated manually and its output was adjusted for each shot, to measure the degree of light loss each diffuser added.

A series of portraits was also shot to assess the practicality of each model, and to gauge the positives and negatives of different diffuser types.

Best Flash Diffuser: 01 LumiQuest Softbox III

Price: £44, $36
Buy it: www.lumiquest.com
LumiQuest’s Softbox III is up against some stiff competition in the diffusers field, considering that the well-made Lastolite EzyBox is available for a similar price (see opposite).

By comparison, the LumiQuest’s simple four-panel construction forms well, although the method of adhering it to a flashgun with Velcro doesn’t feel sturdy enough. It also means you need to have Velcro on your flash head even when you’re not using the diffuser.

But that’s not to say that the Softbox III doesn’t work. Far from it. It’s a decent enough performer for diffusing directional light, and the collapsible structure makes it portable, too.

Shadows are softened and it’s great for outdoor fill-flash work. It’s just that there are better products out there.

Our verdict
Pros… Delivers softbox-style light diffusion, and is easy to carry around.
Cons… Provides less diffused light than similar competitors, and isn’t sturdy.

Score
2/5

Best Flash Diffuser: 01 LumiQuest Softbox III
Best Flash Diffuser: 02 Honl eight-inch Speed Snoot
 Best Flash Diffuser: 03 Gary Fong Lightsphere
Best Flash Diffuser: 04 Rogue FlashBender Reflector
Best Flash Diffuser: 05 Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce
Best Flash Diffuser: 06 Lastolite EzyBox Speed-Lite
Five things you need to look out for when buying a flash diffuser

Photography Lighting: simple ways of improving the light

jmeyer — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:01:15 +0000

In our latest Shoot Like A Pro series post on photography lighting in all its forms, we take a look at some of the easy ways you can improve the light available to you.

Controlling the light for large subjects such as landscapes is impossible, but for smaller subjects such as portraits, close-ups or details in the landscape you don’t always have to make do with the lighting conditions exactly as they are.

There are plenty of different ways that you can alter the light, especially when you find yourself having to shoot in harsh, direct lighting conditions.

As we have already explained, to get softer light you need to make the light source appear larger to the subject. Moving the light closer to the subject will help to produce softer light, but this isn’t always convenient, or even possible.

Without a diffuser

If you are shooting a small subject in sunlight, then you need to use a diffuser between the light and the subject, to make the light source appear much larger.

This doesn’t have to be an expensive piece of kit, it can simply be a piece of semi-transparent white paper or cloth, or you could go for one of the folding diffusers such as those from Lastolite.

With a diffuser

PAGE 1: Taking control of the light
PAGE 2: Use a reflector to fill in the shadows
PAGE 3: Using fill-in flash

Best macro flash: 6 top models tested and rated

jmeyer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:01:28 +0000

What’s the best macro flash kit you can buy? We found six of the best options for close-up lighting to test how well they deliver controllable power and versatility.

Here’s the problem. When you’re shooting close-ups with a macro lens, the light from a regular flashgun will be very much off-axis, causing uneven lighting with dark, unsightly shadows.

For extreme close-ups, even the lens will cast a shadow on the subject! For even, shadowless lighting, you need a system where light is fired from both sides of the lens (a twin-flash), or from a tube that encircles the lens (a ring flash).

One solution is to use a ring flash adapter, which mounts onto a regular flashgun and diverts the path of its light through a large ring that mounts around the lens (as reviewed in our best ring flash for portraits test).

Another option, which is what we’re looking at here, is to use a dedicated macro flash. These consist of a circular flash unit that fits around the lens of your camera (more sophisticated models allow you to set the sides to different brightnesses, or trigger just one side of the flash).

The flash is triggered by your camera. Most of the models we’ve looked at are hotshoe-mounted, but the Nikon R1 kit works off a pop-up flash.

Best macro flash kits: Aputure Amaran Halo LED

Price: £50, $45
Buy it: www.ukphotodistro.co.uk
The Aputure ring flash uses an array of high-power LEDs rather than conventional flash tubes.

This enables a fairly powerful output in flash mode, and continuous lighting at reduced power, making it suitable for shooting macro video clips.

There is AF assist lighting in flash mode but no TTL flash metering. Instead, power is manually adjustable between full, half and quarter power output settings.

You can also switch the output to just the left or right side. Eight mounting rings enable fitment to popular filter thread sizes between 49mm and 77mm.

Our Verdict
Pros… Delivers constant lighting for macro video, as well as flash.
Cons… No TTL flash metering for auto power adjustments.
WE say… A lightweight, compact and inexpensive system.

Score: 4/5

PAGE 1: Best macro flash kits – Aputure Amaran Halo LED
PAGE 2: Best macro flash kits – Nikon Close-up Speedlight Remote Kit R1
PAGE 3: Best macro flash kits – Nissin MF18 Macro Flash
PAGE 4: Best macro flash kits – Sigma EM-140 DG
PAGE 5: Best macro flash kits – Sunpak Auto 16R Pro Ringflash
PAGE 6: Best macro flash kits – Viltrox JY-670 Macro Light Pro Kit
PAGE 7: Five things to look for in a macro flash kit

READ MORE

Photography Lighting: easy ways to take control from natural light to using flash

crutter — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:01:53 +0000

In our new Shoot Like A Pro series we take an in-depth look at photography lighting and how you can take control of the elements to get more balanced, beautiful pictures. We start this week by taking a closer look at the character of light and how the quality of light will affect your images.

Light is more than just how bright or dark it is; it’s also the key to the look, mood and atmosphere of your images. The direction of the light will affect how the shape and texture of your subject appears, while the colour and how soft or harsh the light is can totally change a shot’s appearance.

Light’s very important, so in this series we’ll show how a few simple camera tricks and techniques can guarantee better images – from choosing the right time to visit a photo location to taking complete control of the light by using flash.

You’ll also discover how to alter the character and contrast of photography lighting by using diffusers and reflectors. As you’ll learn, there’s nothing esoteric about mastering light, as much of it comes down to careful planning…

Understanding the character of light

There are three basic characteristics of light that determine how your shot will look: how harsh or soft it is, the direction and the colour.

It’s easiest to tell the quality of the light by looking at the shadows, rather than the areas in the light. Harsh, direct light creates strong, well-defined shadows, while the shadows created by more diffuse lighting are much softer.

The location of the shadows tells you where the light is coming from, as they appear on the opposite side to the light.

Lighting positions

How hard or soft the light appears is due to the apparent size of the light source from the subject’s position.
A small light source produces hard, directional light, while a very large light source produces much softer light.

Remember it isn’t the actual size of the light that matters; it’s how it appears to the subject that you are shooting.

For example, the sun is huge, but because it is so far from the subject it acts like a tiny light source.

The direction of a light source, and the shadows it creates, will affect how the texture and form of the subject will appear.

Light from the camera position (or behind it) will produce flat light on the subject, and also create shadows directly behind the subject.

This is good for capturing fine detail, but won’t reveal much of the texture or shape in the subject.

You’ll get much more interesting results when the light is coming from one side of the subject. This effect, known as side lighting, produces shadows on the opposite side to the position of the light, revealing texture and contours in the subject.

A common photography lighting situation you’ll encounter shooting outside during the middle of the day is when the light is falling from above the subject.

This can create unflattering results, especially when shooting portraits, as the eyes will be dark, and there will be shadows under the nose and chin.

How white balance affects the quality of photography lighting

Along with the quality and direction of the light, the colour of different light sources can have an effect on the appearance and mood of your images.

This variation in light is known as the colour temperature, and it’s why your camera has a white balance setting to correct the colours from these different coloured light sources.

The colour temperature of light is measured using the Kelvin scale. The lower the colour temperature, the more red the light will be, while the higher it is the more blue.

Normally you’d set a white balance to get neutral coloured results, either by using the automatic setting, or a preset white balance such as Tungsten, Sunny or Cloudy. But by setting the ‘wrong’ white balance you can also use these presets to give warmer or cooler results.

PAGE 1: Understanding the character of light
PAGE 2: How to control your photography lighting
PAGE 3: Taking control of the light
PAGE 4: Use a reflector to fill in the shadows
PAGE 5: Using fill-in flash
PAGE 6: Making the most of natural light
PAGE 7: Predicting the natural light
PAGE 8: Shoot in the direction of light
PAGE 9 Exposing in low light
PAGE 10: Shooting in twilight vs complete darkness
PAGE 11: How to shoot handheld in low light
PAGE 12: Why you might want to use flash
PAGE 13: Soften the light from your flash
PAGE 14: How to use flash triggers