I hate my flash!

sanford tullis · April 28, 2008

I try to blur the tires on my racing pictures, but when I have to shoot my flash, I can't blur them. I was experimenting here and shot this one @1/30th of a second (on a race car running around 90 or so!) can anyone give me any ideas on how to blur the tire w/flash.

Thanks

donek · April 28, 2008

sanford tullis wrote:

I try to blur the tires on my racing pictures, but when I have to shoot my flash, I can't blur them. I was experimenting here and shot this one @1/30th of a second (on a race car running around 90 or so!) can anyone give me any ideas on how to blur the tire w/flash.

Thanks

Depending on your flash, you may be able to set it up to function like a strobe. I believe on the Nikon SB-800 it's called repeat mode. Basically the flash fires multiple times, instead of just once. This generates a blurred effect as a result of multiple fires. You're unlikely to get the exact result you'd get in daylight, but you'll come as close as possible with the flash.

SloYerRoll · April 28, 2008

sanford tullis wrote:

any ideas on how to blur the tire w/flash.

When you use your flash, your effectively creating a shutter speed for however long the strobes pulse is. A strobe pulse can be faster than 1/10,000 at lower powers. So even if you have a shutter speed of 5 seconds, the strobe will still freeze the action no matter how slow the shutter speed.

The only way you can work around this is to increase your strobe power output. When a strobe fires, it puts out a pulse of electricity for a certain duration of time. When you increase the power on the strobe, the same amount of electricity is used, but the pulse when the circuit is closed is longer.

So you could max out your strobe power and increase your aperture and you should see some burring. I don't think you'll get the blurring your trying to get though.

Clear as mud?

PineapplePhoto · April 28, 2008

Rear Curtain Sync?

SloYerRoll · April 28, 2008

PineapplePhoto wrote:

Rear Curtain Sync?

Still freezes the white in the tires. You'll just see a bit more ghosting.

donek · April 29, 2008

Took me a few minutes to find it, but I played around with the repeat function on my flash about 2 years ago. The image below is the result of that experiment.

You can easily see a motion blur effect as a result of the flash firing multiple times during one exposure. The SB-800 can be set to fire between 1 and 100 times per second (1 to 100 HZ). I checked my D200 manual as it has a built in flash. It does not indicate a repeat function, but does discuss a slow sync function for preserving backgrounds (that might work). It looks like you're using a Canon Rebel, but I'm not sure if you are using the on camera flash or not. The best thing to do would be to read your flash and camera manual to find out if the two functions I've mentioned are available. Older flash units can typically be found on e-bay for about 100 dollars. Many of them may have these functions although require being used in a manual mode with a DSLR such as your rebel.

i_worship_the_King · April 29, 2008

Via Nikon Website
For the SB-600 here's the durations:

1/900th sec. at M 1/1 (full) output
1/1600 sec. at M 1/2 output
1/3400 sec. at M 1/4 output
1/6600 sec. at M 1/8 output
1/11100 sec. at M 1/16 output
1/20000 sec. at M 1/32 output
1/25000 sec. at M 1/64 output

Looks like no prayer of getting blur without multiple flash....

bobcool · April 29, 2008

Or you could try another method...
I know this is tedious if there are many cars in the shot, but you could use the radial blur filter in Photoshop or Elements to simulate tire blur...

This is a quick rough job, and you can see I missed selecting the tread on the front tire, but it only took me a couple of minutes. I think it would only be worth it if you have shots like this of one or two cars, though - it would be a pain to blur eight or ten pairs of wheels for every photo.

SloYerRoll · April 29, 2008

bobcool wrote:

I know this is tedious if there are many cars in the shot, but you could use the radial blur filter in Photoshop or Elements to simulate tire blur...

Doesn't even need to be tedious. Just make a selection and copy each tire onto a new layer. Then apply radial blur to each tire layer.
Done.

JBHotShots · May 1, 2008

donek wrote:

Took me a few minutes to find it, but I played around with the repeat function on my flash about 2 years ago. The image below is the result of that experiment.

You can easily see a motion blur effect as a result of the flash firing multiple times during one exposure. The SB-800 can be set to fire between 1 and 100 times per second (1 to 100 HZ). I checked my D200 manual as it has a built in flash. It does not indicate a repeat function, but does discuss a slow sync function for preserving backgrounds (that might work). It looks like you're using a Canon Rebel, but I'm not sure if you are using the on camera flash or not. The best thing to do would be to read your flash and camera manual to find out if the two functions I've mentioned are available. Older flash units can typically be found on e-bay for about 100 dollars. Many of them may have these functions although require being used in a manual mode with a DSLR such as your rebel.

Basically I need to get my flash to fire multiple times? I have Rebel XT with 430ex and I don't think I have that option. Outside of buying another flash, does anyone have any suggestions?

I just got the 85mm 1.8 but I'm not sure that's the answer I am looking for. I usually use the heat races to get individual car pictures and in the features I try to get the action shots. With the 85mm and limited areas to shoot from, this lens should suit my style just fine; use it for heats and use 70-200 2.8 for the features. When I need to go to the 70-200 2.8 I am going to have to put the flash on so I would like to show some more action.

i_worship_the_King · May 2, 2008

Alternate solution...

http://www.rentalhq.com/FindStore/MemberImages/2197632511.jpg

JBHotShots · May 2, 2008

i_worship_the_King wrote:

Alternate solution...

http://www.rentalhq.com/FindStore/MemberImages/2197632511.jpg

There's always one in the crowd.:D

I have a track owner that wants to see me succeed but trying to convince him to add and or adjust would be awful tough. The only angle that I have is that I would have better pictures for his advertising.

apexonephoto · May 4, 2008

I shoot alot of dirt at night, and it may be how well you follow through with panning after you press the shutter. This shot is 1/200s ISO 400 and f2.8 and AI servo. This is from Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee.

This shot below is a few minutes later and if there was anything different about it, it was that I couldn't pan so great with where the fence was. LouDogsRucca, I would consider bumping up you ISO. 400 is kinda low for night time, if your camera has 500 or 640 I would try that before going up to 800.

Also Sanfordtullis, if you are trying to sell photos, you may want to turn the largest photo size to large or even medium, as anyone with a basic knowledge of internet browsers can copy all of your original high res photos. Not to mention a watermark would be a good idea.

sanford tullis · May 4, 2008

apexonephoto wrote:

I shoot alot of dirt at night, and it may be how well you follow through with panning after you press the shutter. This shot is 1/200s ISO 400 and f2.8 and AI servo. This is from Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee.

This shot below is a few minutes later and if there was anything different about it, it was that I couldn't pan so great with where the fence was. LouDogsRucca, I would consider bumping up you ISO. 400 is kinda low for night time, if your camera has 500 or 640 I would try that before going up to 800.

Also Sanfordtullis, if you are trying to sell photos, you may want to turn the largest photo size to large or even medium, as anyone with a basic knowledge of internet browsers can copy all of your original high res photos. Not to mention a watermark would be a good idea.

I have the protection turned on, on my Smugmug page and havn't found anyone who has been able to get by thier security. I have asked people I know to try and get them off of the site to test the security. When I post a picture on a forum, than they have been able to get past the security and that is ok with me, because then they are able to show me what to do to fix a problem I am having. If I am overlooking something on the security than please let me know.

apexonephoto · May 4, 2008

I thought you might be interested in reading this web page:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=87714&referrerid=9510

From,
apexonephoto

I hate my flash!

Comments