Freezing Action w/Speedlights
There was a recent thread that inspired me to do some testing. Here's a first look at what I'm cobbling together.
This is just some newspaper sheets affixed to a bicycle wheel. I shot it with a Nikon SB-600 and SB-800. The 600 was set to 1/64th power, and the 800 at 1/128th power. The 600 was triggered by radio, and the 800 optically slaved off the flash from the 600. So, no preflashes. Got it? Pretty boring, eh? Oh, yeah, manual exposure f/8 1/250th.
Why's it worth a second look? The wheel was spinning. By my crude calculations, the 27" diameter rim was running at around 21mph. I intend to do some more rigorous testing, but I make no claim that any of it will be carefully controlled. I don't care about the numbers. I just want to get better at stopping action.
1. Full Frame
2. Here's about a 100% crop out at the rim.
This is just some newspaper sheets affixed to a bicycle wheel. I shot it with a Nikon SB-600 and SB-800. The 600 was set to 1/64th power, and the 800 at 1/128th power. The 600 was triggered by radio, and the 800 optically slaved off the flash from the 600. So, no preflashes. Got it? Pretty boring, eh? Oh, yeah, manual exposure f/8 1/250th.
Why's it worth a second look? The wheel was spinning. By my crude calculations, the 27" diameter rim was running at around 21mph. I intend to do some more rigorous testing, but I make no claim that any of it will be carefully controlled. I don't care about the numbers. I just want to get better at stopping action.
1. Full Frame
2. Here's about a 100% crop out at the rim.
John :
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
0
Comments
Very cool!
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Image 1:
Image 2:
See the ghosting in the ball/arm in shot 1 vs. shot 2? By the way, even shot 2 has SOME.
Also notice something else - shot 1 has 2 different color temperatures because of the directional light. In shot 2, the temperature is more consistent because the light source is dominated by the flash.
However, it's a balancing act. The more you rely on flash as the dominant source the more powerful that flash has to be. AND the more you get a stark difference between your subject and background. Sometimes that difference looks ood and sometimes it doesn't.
Here's the technique in a more real-world situation:
Some people like the stark difference between subject and background, others do not.
Here's a shot without flash:
Both have their pros/cons.
REAL WORLD
Unless you're shooting very close to your subject, the power settings I used for this shot aren't particularly useful. Seriously, 1/128th power? But things are still pretty interesting at 1/8th with the Nikon speedlights. 1/8th power still gives you a flash duration of only 1/5900th on an SB800. Gang four of those puppies and you have a 1/2 power flash with a pulse that will stop any human generated motion. That is where I'm hoping to go with this project. I'm sure it's been done, but it's a new idea for me.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
I am surprised we haven't seen something like that used by some wildlife shooters at times.... With the higher ISOs available from Nikon, the very brief pulses of flash will hardly be noticed by many animals, I suspect.
I did use fill flash a few times in Africa, and the lion did not react at all; but one should only do that on their own recognizance, of course....
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Or with a very different kind of "shooter" standing over one's shoulder.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Sam
Now on to a stupid question...
How does one figure out what speedlight power setting will give you two stops below ambient, say in an ice arena?
I bet I slap my forehead when I read the answer.:D
Meter for ambient with ISO, shutter speed, and aperture in Manual mode. Now, without changing your aperture, set your shutter speed two stops faster than needed for ambient, and shoot with your flash in ETTL is one way.
A way some folks use, is to meter ambient exposure, and set that in your camera with the shutter speed two stops faster, to give you the darker ambient in Manual Mode. Now start adding flash power until you get the forground exposure you are wanting with your flash in Manual mode as well.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Yes, I agree.
I did not suggest High Speed Synch either, and all of these may be used, or needed.
How about describing to Bryce , your techniques for setting exposure with ambient two stops down from your flash.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Yes, please. I don't see how changing the ISO affects the ratio of flash to ambient in the exposure.
I assume we're talking about manual exposure mode.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Changing ISO, without changing flash output power, WILL change the flash guide number if shooting with manual flash, of course.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Whether you use ISO, aperture or shutter speed to adjust the exposure in manual WITHOUT flash/strobe and you adjust down, do you agree the photo is darker? When you have a camera exposure 2 stops below ambient light on your subject the resulting image is really dark. It's just as dark regardless of which of the 3 constraints you changed. So, when the flash burst goes off, there's only enough light recorded during the burst to record a successful image.
As for determining "two stops below" - meter the shot as you would without flash on - however you normally do that. Even take some test shots. Then adjust your exposure values. Typically I'll lower my ISO to 800 so I don't need noise reduction. AND I'll close down my aperture to f4-5.6 for football so I can get 2 players in good focus and get sharper results than my sigma 120-300 2.8 produces at 2.8. The light falloff takes care of my subject isolation. Shutter speed then stays around 1/300 to help with ghosting in case I'm a bit "over" the 2 stop situation.
I'm not usually this dense, but I still can't see how ISO affects ambient any differently than flash?
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Of course. That was never in doubt. It would be darker whether you shot with ambient OR flash.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Without flash it is darker - correct. SOOO, the camera/flash needs to output more light to compensate. Exactly the same as if you left ISO alone and increased shutter speed. However you drop the exposure, the flash needs to produce more light to compensate.
Changing the ISO has NO effect on the flash:ambient contribution ratio. Yes, it affects the exposure, but it affects the flash and ambient identically.
The question was how to change them relative to each other. ISO will not do that.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
I don't have any way to measure this stuff, but will try to do some results-oriented testing with as many as four speedlights in TTL. I gotta get that bicycle wheel spinning a bit faster. TTL, if it works in this scenario, will sure make sports shots easier. Manual flash power settings are tough when you can't control flash-subject distance. Seriously though, properly exposed athletes at say 1/6000th sec?? What's not to like?
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
I think you may be missing the main point in stopping motion in a "sports world" scenario.
As johng has pointed out, if your flash output is within 2 stops of ambient, then your going to get ghosting, no matter how powerful or short your flash duration burst are.
Re-shoot your newspaper wheel. Make sure that your flash output and ambient are only 1 stop difference. Do you see any ghosting? Keep experimenting with the flash to ambient exposure ratios and you will clearly see what johng is trying to explain.
In the real world, you will start to encounter variables that tend to make it difficult for your camera and flash to stop action. Your sync speed is what, 1/250 sec? Now that you've hit that limit, you have to work with ISO, aperture and flash power, you open up your lens to say f/2.8, now you have ISO and flash power to work with. (it should be obvious that you can't control distance to flash on a lot of sporting events) You only have so much flash power, and to keep from ghosting your ambient needs to stay at least 2 stops under your flash output, that's where you hit the wall, so to speak.
No amount of input will be more valuable to you than your own experimentation. Were just trying to point your efforts in the right direction.
Hope that helps...
Thanks Randy. Still though, I'm not missing John's point. I fully understand that changing ISO changes the equation. That was never in question in my mind. I was discussing shooting in manual exposure and manual flash. John was thinking in TTL terms all along. We were having two separate and nearly unrelated conversations about the same subject. Clearly, unless you're shooting "sportraits" where you can control the flash-to-subject distance, shooting field sports calls for TTL. That or a brain and fingers way faster than mine.
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
THAT's IT??? No more discussion? So, we are first starting in manual mode on camera. I take an ambient light reading. Sha-bang!!!! ball park is 2 stops below ambient.
what do I know? I know that for at around 8ft , 400ISO, 125th sec on 1/8th power in my exposure is around f8 (bright shade I can get an acceptable exposure with roughly 30% contribution from the flash.....)
So would I cut the flash power by 2 stops ( ooopps...beers...) I am going outside to stop the flights of honey bees in and out of the hive.
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
OKAY....so is this chart specifically for stopping action by using flash? or a modified guide number system?
Action Stopping bees is very similar to Action Stopping hummingbirds:
STROBIST Winter Treat: Frozen Hummingbirds
The-Digital-Picture - Hummingbird Photography Tips
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I am shooting manual right?
Are my flashes all dialed down on manual to some power based on the ambient light reading?
I can put 3 flashes on flexes and now what...I have read this post but I am missing something very small that isn't putting all together for me.
still getting ghosting
I suggest practicing with a single leaf to start. Set the camera/tripod close to a bush with a protruding branch and focus on a single leaf at the end.
From the second link:
"5. Starting Settings:
Camera set on manual
ISO-200
Shutter @ highest sync speed i.e. 1/200 or 1/250th
f/16
White balance set to flash"
Skip the flash for now and get control of ambient light until subject is very dark. Do this by obstructing ambient light sources with cardboard or whatever you have available.
Once the subject is at least 5 stops below middle gray (very dark), start adding the flashes.
"Flash set to manual and 1/16th power"
You may also wish to use less flash power for an even shorter effective exposure, and add more flashes.
Use distance and number of flashes to adjust flash intensity on the subject. Once you achieve a balanced exposure for the subject, record all of the distances to subject (camera, and each flash) and translate your setup to the bee hive location.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums