Congratulations Northy @northy for winning #15!!
Northy has selected me to host the next challenge.
Do some of the camera settings intimidate you? Do you want to learn how to develop your photography skills and learn how to use your camera effectively without always going back to the “auto” function? These challenges are for you!
I'm am so excited to host this weeks camera settings challenge! Thank you, Northy, for selecting me! I am very honored!
This week’s challenge is: Slow-sync flash!
Slow-sync flash is a technique using slow shutter speeds and flash together to create a great effect! This is a popular technique that can be used to produce dramatic images of low-light action subjects. The idea is that you combine a slow shutter speed, which records blur, with a burst of flash, so you have a sharp image overlaying a blurred one to create a sense of motion.
A flash-to-ambient light ratio of 1:2 or 1:4 tends to be the most effective as you don't want flash to dominate the image. With a dedicated flashgun, set the power output to 1/2- or 1/4- power. If you are using an in camera flash, set the flash exposure compensation on your camera to -1 or -2 stops to achieve this ratio. Your camera should also be set to aperture-priority so it selects a shutter speed to correctly expose the ambient light, though you may find that you get the best results if you set the exposure compensation to -1 stop to underexpose the ambient light a little. Experiment and see what works for you!
Many cameras and flashguns give you a choice between first-curtain sync (where the flashgun fires at the start of the exposure) and second- or rear-curtain sync, where the flash fires at the end of the exposure instead. Either can be used for general flash shots, but when using slow-sync flash to capture movement in low light, second curtain sync gives a better effect, giving the motion blur trailing behind the frozen flash image instead of the other way around.
Have fun! I'm excited to see how your shots turn out! Here are some examples and links to help:
Experienced photographers who are knowledgeable in this particular setting are encouraged to offer “kind and constructive” suggestions on the posted entries. Those entering this challenge want to learn and improve.
This challenge starts today (lasts 10 days - goal to start on a Thur, Fri, or Sat), and 11-09 12:00pm Central Standard Time (17:00 Zulu time http://www.zulutime.net). All photos must be taken during these dates to be considered. Enter as many as you would like- the idea is to practice & learn. TAG YOUR PHOTO CSC-16 AND post your picture in this thread to receive feedback from other experienced photographers specific to this challenge.
Voting will take place , 11-19 (and remain open 24 hours) and the winner will be announced 11-21. The winner of the challenge will select an experienced photographer to host a new challenge. It is the winner’s option on who they want to host the next challenge; it may be someone they follow whose work they admire, or someone who is active offering suggestions on previous CSC challenges. The winner may also select an experienced photographer for the list of photographers who have agreed to host future challenges as another option. Here is the link to that list: http://365project.org/myhrhelper/365/2011-12-12
Expect to receive constructive suggests on how to improve your skills.
How to post your photo on this link:
1) Go to your page that has the photo you wish to post.
2) Copy the “share” code in the bottom right section of that page.
3) Return to this thread and paste the code under comments
Jerry I am sooo excited after reading this! This is what the Camera Settings Challenges are all about. I don't have external flash but I know I've seen the slow sync option and wondered what it was used for. I will have to study up but it is going to be a learning curve, Yeah!!!! You Rock Jerry
Have wondered what these flash setting meant! I think I'll have to give this a go. Thanks for hosting this one Jerry. @archaeofrog this is a wonderful shot and certainly helps explain slow sync!
@northy We'll experiment together! :) @archaeofrog This is awesome, Katie! Thanks for posting a pic to help with the visual! @salza Yay! I can't wait to see what you post, Sally! :) @grizzlysghost Thank you for that, Aaron! I didn't have any shots I could download! This is perfect!
My first try. I didn't have lots of time to play with adjusting the settings further but I wanted to give it a quick try to see what happens. It is so fun learning new settings and I'm going to like this one. I trust future shots are much better than this.
geez, you couldn't have posted this a few hours earlier. I was at the club taking slow shutter to show movement for my push challenge. If I would have known this was up, I would have tried more to find it. I know it is in my camera, but a glass or two in, and I couldn't find it. But I was thinking about it.
Jerry, I have been playing with the settings. I found rear curtain flash, but when I set it to a slow shutter speed, the flash goes off at the beginning and the end. Is that what is supposed to happen? I'm on holidays, and don't have the manual with me. I thought the flash would only go off at the end.
What an exciting challenge, I really look forward to seeing the results even if I don't have chance to have a go. One shot that I have always admired and which I think demonstrates this really well is Mark Lynham's sparkler shot that he took when we were doing our Open University photography course together. Not sure he ever posted it on here, but bet we could twist his arm to couldn't we @markyl ? ;0)
Although I dropped of the planet in terms of participating in the challenges, I think the CSC are tops. I have just read through this one and was amazed that my camera could do this.
Ok so I gave this a try tonight. Epic fail, help needed desperately.
My camera seems to flash twice too.
Mine ended up looking more like a double exposure. @onie@markyl
@tigerdreamer I have a pile of fails! the darker it is the better! Try a faster flash and make sure to set your camera to AV. I'm going out tonight to chase some trollies! :)
@tigerdreamer At each point along the way I held my hand still for about 3-4 seconds and then moved on to the next spot. The flash was second curtain, at the end, illuminating the knife, apple, cutting board, etc.
@orangecrush I was thinking about trollies too this evening. I'd challenge you to a duel,but I would probably loose. What do you mean by faster flash? I was on apperture priority. Some one else suggested a shorter time instead of two seconds. @archaeofrog Thanks. If I can get the first part down, I may have to try something like that.
@tigerdreamer I don't know what camera you have but on mine I can set the flash exposure comp setting. I set mine to -2 which really helped with the light trails!
@orangecrush exposure compensation, that I have and we did it in one of the earlier camera settings I think. I thought that was power and since you were talking speed, I thought maybe I needed to find another setting. I had it down to -2 for most of my shots, but I didn't seem to be lighting my cat enough so I bumped it up . I don't remember where it was for this shot.
My shots so far have also been a failure. But I have learned more about my camera. Slow Sync only functions in Aperture Priority and Program Auto. Rear Curtain functions in Shutter Priority and Manual. If you set Rear Curtain in Aperture Priority or Program Auto it will do a Slow Rear Curtain Sync. Also found out that my camera will do a repeating flash like a strobe. Now I just have to get some decent shots.
My first attempt, not quite what I had in mind but turned out to be closer than I thought. Reading above comments I may have used incorrect setting, I was using Shutter prioity so I will retry using Aperture priority!
@salza This is great, Sally! Aperture-priority selects the shutter speed so it will expose the ambient light correctly. I tried light painting with mine! Looks like I need more practice! :)
So here is another attempt. There seem to be so many variables. Speed of object, speed of flash to shutter, colors and backgrounds effect how well the blur shows. I think maybe I may try this with portrait and night shot. That may be easier than trying for the blur. But then again, I may be totally wrong.
I used the Rear flash and slow shutter while someone swirled the wine glass. I only have in-camera flash so it reflected on the glass but I think it did what it was supposed to. Please comment.
I really want feedback on the next 2 photos. I won't cry - I promise. I know this isn't a fantastic photo (Since my computer crashed I'm working with an old one and can't do any photo editing - not even crop).
I want feedback on the specific setting - if this is the desired effect, would it have been better to make some sort of adjustment. Once I can do this the right way I can figure out how to make great shots using it (I hope).
I decided to let my model choose how I set up my shot - this two year old had some ideas lol
@myhrhelper The movement is defiantly here in this shot! It looks to me like the flash isn't strong enough to freeze the final image. Cute little helper!
@salza Regarding your white balance, the flash is going to be a much cooler color than the lights in the room. (Flashes are usually designed to approximate sunlight.) That's why the card, illuminated by the flash, is white, but the trail of the card, illuminated by the room lights, is orange-y. To fix that, you either need to:
- put a gel on your flash to match the lights in the room
- take the picture in the sunlight rather than in a room so the colors match
- in post processing, selectively adjust the white balance on one part and not the other. Lightroom 4 allows that, or Photoshop does too
This challenge has been really tough. I have probably shot 200 exposures. I started with the on camera flash but the flash was overpowering the shot and the trails disappeared. Of course I broke the diffuser for the on camera flash.
1. f14, 1.6 sec, Rear Curtain Flash
I think the biggest problem with this shot is it really is too light out. If it had been darker I would have been able to get a longer exposure. Even with the short exposure time it is a much better shot than the 15 second exposures I took late last night.
I decided to get out my external flash figuring that would be easier to get the exposure I wanted. So I read my camera manual and the flash manual. Both stated that all I had to do was set "Rear Curtain" on the camera and the flash would communicate with the camera and pick up the setting. On a D300 "Rear Curtain" can only be used with full Manual and Shutter Priority. No problem I like to shot full manual anyway. I am all set up, compose my shot, press shutter. Pre-flash fires, curtain opens, curtain closes flash never fires. Check "reg" flash it works fine, check "slow sync" in aperture priority and it works. Recheck "rear curtain" still doesn't work. Back to reading again. Read articles on internet, go back to Nikon and read more. Finally find article that states that as long as you are shooting full Manual or Shutter Priority flash will override all camera settings but if you are shooting Program Auto or Aperture Priority and are using a slow shutter speed you need to change "e2 Flash Shutter Speed" to something slower than what you are shooting. I figure it can't hurt to change the flash shutter speed to a slower speed and the flash starts working. This is not a great shot but I did get the trails I was looking for.
2. f/20, 3 seconds, External Flash bounced off ceiling, flash shutter speed set manually in camera to 30s
While this challenge has been frustrating I have learned a lot about both my camera and flash. I also discovered that I can set my flash as a strobe. Sound kind of cool.
@colosimo thanks for the feedback. I must still brave shooting Raw and thus sort out white balance in post processing. With the card shot I had white balance on flash where as with the knife shot I set it on iridescence (tungsten). Both shots taken in very low light, no artificial lighting on. I only have the on camera flash, can you use gel on them?
My attempt. I think that I almost used a whole memory card trying to get this. I ended up using manual mode instead of Aperature priority...otherwise I couldn't get a long enough exposure to show any movement.
@salza You can use a gel on any flash, including the on camera flash. If you look at the knife shot, the hand is a little bit blue, due to the fact that the flash will be a cooler color than the tungsten white balance. I tend to find that being a little too cool is often less noticeable than being too warm, so that's probably the way to go if you're in the situation of having two different light source colors. Shooting RAW is a complete game changer... If you're wanting to really turn average shots into great ones, that's one of the easiest ways to take a huge leap. From the above pictures is looks like you've already got a lot of skills in terms of setting up a shot and managing to pull it off the way you envisioned, which honestly is way harder than it seems like it should be, and where I'm still trying to learn a lot more. Happy shooting!
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@archaeofrog this is a wonderful shot and certainly helps explain slow sync!
@archaeofrog This is awesome, Katie! Thanks for posting a pic to help with the visual!
@salza Yay! I can't wait to see what you post, Sally! :)
@grizzlysghost Thank you for that, Aaron! I didn't have any shots I could download! This is perfect!
@jantan thanks for bringing Mark and his fantastic shot to the discussion!
My camera seems to flash twice too.
Mine ended up looking more like a double exposure. @onie @markyl
@archaeofrog Thanks. If I can get the first part down, I may have to try something like that.
My shots so far have also been a failure. But I have learned more about my camera. Slow Sync only functions in Aperture Priority and Program Auto. Rear Curtain functions in Shutter Priority and Manual. If you set Rear Curtain in Aperture Priority or Program Auto it will do a Slow Rear Curtain Sync. Also found out that my camera will do a repeating flash like a strobe. Now I just have to get some decent shots.
I want feedback on the specific setting - if this is the desired effect, would it have been better to make some sort of adjustment. Once I can do this the right way I can figure out how to make great shots using it (I hope).
I decided to let my model choose how I set up my shot - this two year old had some ideas lol
Today's attempt - inspired by @archaeofrog
- put a gel on your flash to match the lights in the room
- take the picture in the sunlight rather than in a room so the colors match
- in post processing, selectively adjust the white balance on one part and not the other. Lightroom 4 allows that, or Photoshop does too
I hope that helps!
Your knife picture is fantastic! Great work!
1. f14, 1.6 sec, Rear Curtain Flash
I think the biggest problem with this shot is it really is too light out. If it had been darker I would have been able to get a longer exposure. Even with the short exposure time it is a much better shot than the 15 second exposures I took late last night.
I decided to get out my external flash figuring that would be easier to get the exposure I wanted. So I read my camera manual and the flash manual. Both stated that all I had to do was set "Rear Curtain" on the camera and the flash would communicate with the camera and pick up the setting. On a D300 "Rear Curtain" can only be used with full Manual and Shutter Priority. No problem I like to shot full manual anyway. I am all set up, compose my shot, press shutter. Pre-flash fires, curtain opens, curtain closes flash never fires. Check "reg" flash it works fine, check "slow sync" in aperture priority and it works. Recheck "rear curtain" still doesn't work. Back to reading again. Read articles on internet, go back to Nikon and read more. Finally find article that states that as long as you are shooting full Manual or Shutter Priority flash will override all camera settings but if you are shooting Program Auto or Aperture Priority and are using a slow shutter speed you need to change "e2 Flash Shutter Speed" to something slower than what you are shooting. I figure it can't hurt to change the flash shutter speed to a slower speed and the flash starts working. This is not a great shot but I did get the trails I was looking for.
2. f/20, 3 seconds, External Flash bounced off ceiling, flash shutter speed set manually in camera to 30s
While this challenge has been frustrating I have learned a lot about both my camera and flash. I also discovered that I can set my flash as a strobe. Sound kind of cool.