Can you explain this to me please: Was watching a video on Kelby Training by a wedding photographer. His technique is to shoot at 2 stops below the ambient light and use a flash for...

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

Was watching a video on Kelby Training by a wedding photographer. His technique is to shoot at 2 stops below the ambient light and use a flash for fill, off camera set to manual and mostly at 1/4 power ( with some variations). He starts with and ISO of 1000, lens pretty much open and a shutter speed of 1/30th to 1/60th. Hand held. That is my question. How does he get away with such a slow shutter speed. Does the flash freeze everything so the shutter speed is not that important? Appreciate your opinions.
Thanks,
Steve

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

The shutter speed controls the ambient light and the flash is controlled by the aperture. So under-exposing the ambient would make it a lot darker then what is illuminated with the flash.
This, I think, would throw the background out of the picture with emphasis on the subject.
The flash duration must be what is freezing the action. I was shooting water drop splashes with a shutter speed of 1/200 and the flash set at 1/32 power on manual and it was freezing the splash.

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

Thanks Tradio.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Stevieboy wrote:

Thanks Tradio.

that technique (two stops below, fill with flash) is very very common.

"dragging the shutter" (aka slowing down the shutter speed) is what allows ambient light into the "mix"

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

Thanks Rpavich but my concern is that with such a slow shutter speed isn't lack of sharpness of the subject a potential problem?

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Stevieboy wrote:

Does the flash freeze everything so the shutter speed is not that important? Appreciate your opinions.
Thanks,
Steve

You are correct. The flash exposure freezes the main subject. The flash fires at somewhere in the range of 1/800 to 1/4000th/sec depending on power output, so sharpness loss from movement isn't going to be an issue. The ambient exposure is low enough that movement in the background is less obvious, but long enough to keep the background from becoming a black hole. I can get away with exposures down to 1/8th of a second in these situations if the subjects are relatively static.
If they are moving, there is sometimes ghosting.
I'm not finding any samples of that.

1/8 @ f/4 ISO 800:

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Stevieboy wrote:

Thanks Rpavich but my concern is that with such a slow shutter speed isn't lack of sharpness of the subject a potential problem?

Well...it can be but flash is so fast and the ambient is so low that you don't realize it.

the background people are smeared...no way around it...but the subject is "acceptably sharp"

This isn't the ONLY way to get 'er done but it is a good way.

See Neil Van Neikerk's blog about how he does it...he's amazing.

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/2-flash-ambient-light/

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

Thanks guys. Appreciated.

cfloyd88

some with ghosting
1/2@ f6.3 iso 320

trc Loc: Logan, OH

rpavich wrote:

Well...it can be but flash is so fast and the ambient is so low that you don't realize it.

the background people are smeared...no way around it...but the subject is "acceptably sharp"

This isn't the ONLY way to get 'er done but it is a good way.

See Neil Van Neikerk's blog about how he does it...he's amazing.

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/2-flash-ambient-light/

rpavich,

That link is quite good in explaining the affects of flash compensation and overall camera lighting compensation and how they all interact together (and separately as well). There are also embedded links that extend the explanations which I find very informative and well worth while reading and studying. Thank you very much for posting that link and your explanations.

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

thanks

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

rpavich wrote:

Well...it can be but flash is so fast and the ambient is so low that you don't realize it.

the background people are smeared...no way around it...but the subject is "acceptably sharp"

This isn't the ONLY way to get 'er done but it is a good way.

See Neil Van Neikerk's blog about how he does it...he's amazing.

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/2-flash-ambient-light/

Neil's article reinforces the idea that just becasue you CAN shoot available light doesn't mean it's the best way to shoot it. Ambient lighting conditions can be really crappy.

Thanks for posting, rpavich

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Nothing new here, have been combining ambient with flash for 40 years now - by the seat of my pants - AKA brain - with manual film cameras and manual flash. But it is interesting to see how all this computer controlled stuff does it !

fotkaman Loc: Earth

Stevie, perhaps this example will demonstrate the subject matter. It was taken with a 50mm primer at 1/30s, f/3.5, ISO 500, aperture priority, fill-in flash at -2 intensity suppression.
;)

Nicky, the "Jumper"

gordnanaimo Loc: Vancouver Island

The camera is probably flash synced to 200 or 250/th