Shooting High Speed Sync

Hello everyone,

This week I am going to keep things really simple and easy.

We all have some great events planned for this month and one of the challenges that I am sure many of you will face, will be lighting. You might have an event outside, and shooting in bright sun can be quite challenging. How can you shoot wide open and get a great shallow depth of field if your camera  only flash syncs at 1/200 sec? Why not shoot at f/1.8 or f/2.8 and get a shutter speed of 1/8000th sec.

That is where High speed sync comes in. Here is a great article that was previously published in shutter magazine. It is written by Michael Corsentino and gives you all the information you will need to shoot outside and get some great flash output while shooting at higher shutter speeds with wide open apertures.

Click on image for link to article.

Another great article that I would like to cover for this week as we plan our events is over on The strobist. 

How to shoot Events without TTL flash?

You might not get the results from your flash when shooting with TTL, and this is just a great way to learn how to control your flash if it does not have that function or you have an older model flash.

These are great articles as you prepare for your events. 

I wish you all, great success with your events and look forward to seeing your images in the coming weeks.

#aipodvolunteer.

Denzil

Using Your Strobes with a "T" Series Canon

One of the issues new students have been running into is difficulty getting their strobes to work with their “T” series Canon camera purchased through the Art Institute.

The tricky issue here is that the Canon “T” series cameras are a consumer grade DSLR and they are not equipped with a PC sync port like the professional and prosumer bodies are. Since the “T” series Canons do not have this PC sync port, they cannot trigger the strobes directly and you have to use a Master/Slave set up.

Most strobes are designed so that if you are using a Speedlite, the strobes will automatically fire when they see the flash of your Speedlite external flash. Now, what I did in my case was I used my Canon Speedlite mounted in the hotshoe on a Canon T3i and then pointed the Speedlite behind me and bounced it off the wall, which in turn fired my strobes without fail.

Hotshoe adapter that adds a PC Sync port to your camera

I know some students have told me that they have tried firing their strobes with their flash and it only works once in a while. I believe the problem here is they are trying to use their Canon’s built in flash, which is not powerful enough to make the strobes fire reliably. I know from my own personal testing in my studio this weekend I was only able to get the strobes to fire once in a while with the Canon’s built in flash, but when using one of my Speedlites, the strobes fired every time.

Strobe end of the Sync port

Now I know you may be saying, “well that’s all fine and good but I don’t have a Speedlite external flash and cannot afford to buy a $300-$600 Speedlite to make my strobes work.” Well, the good news is, you can get the inexpensive Bower External flash at Walmart for like $40-$60 or you can go on Amazon and buy one of the Chinese Yongnuo Speedlites, which are knockoffs of Canon Speedlites and run anywhere from $30-$65, depending on what model you buy.

Another thing I found out from another student, Jessi James is the hotshoe adapter that came with your trigger system, should be able to be used as an add-on PC Sync port. What this means is attach the piece to your Canon’s hotshoe mount and then plug your sync cable’s 1/8” end into the trigger system on your camera and the other, 1/4” end into one of your strobes. I could not personally test this part because all of my sync cables are PC to 1/4”, I have none that are 1/8” on one end and 1/4” on the other. Hopefully this information will help those of you who have had problems with your strobe kits.

One last note that I believe some students are having trouble with. Every camera has a maximum shutter sync speed, this is the fastest you can set your shutter when using flash or strobe lights. Check your owner's manual or Google to find out what the max is for your camera model, some it's 1/160, some it's 1/200. With many of the consumer grade DSLRs if you set the shutter too high it will effect how well your strobes fire. On my old Canon 1D Mark II if I set it too high, it would actually cause the camera snap a photo of the mirror as it moved. Now get out there and shoot those studio assignments.

Comments/Questions

Fill Flash

    Fill flash is using your flash to fill in darker parts of your image already lit by other light. I like to use it for all my people photos outdoors as it makes for better, stronger images.

    Adding fill flash to your images is easy, just turn on your camera’s flash and automatically get the results shown here. You don’t need to fiddle with any settings; just press the Flash (bolt) icon button and your camera does all the rest of the work, no camera pops up the flash by itself, so you have to turn it on by yourself and the camera does the rest.

    When shooting outdoors, fill-flash lights up people’s faces so they aren’t drowned in shadows and also puts highlights in their eyes so they look alive. Additionally, fill-flash lightens shadows and adds details to darker areas, while preserving the highlights. When shooting in direct sunlight, fill flash helps to make your images better, especially when the subject is back lit.

                                                            No Fill

    Using an external Speedlight is better than using the pop up flash built into your camera, mostly because the add-on flash has more power, which means greater distance and more fill light for your images. I recommend the 430 EXII if you are a Canon user and the SB-400 if you are shooting Nikon as these are two of the best units for fill-flash and these units are less expensive than the SB-500 or 580EX II which generally run around $500-$600.

                                                          Fill-Flash

    Fill-flash also helps with making your colors render more vivid and natural. When shooting with the flash alone I often feel that the shots seem to have a blue tone to them, which is why I use either a slight orange gel or an orange flash diffuser to make the light warmer and the colors stand out better. To have more or less fill flash, use the +/- to increase or decrease the power output of the flash and alter the overall light, which in turn changes the way the image looks.

    One last thing to remember is when using fill flash, make sure you take your ISO off auto, especially if using the pop up flash as the camera will set the ISO to the lowest setting, which means if you are shooting indoors, it will be too low.
Comments/Questions