Ugly Hedgehog Newsletter

Hi,

I know that the second curtain for flash is used for action. Does it serve any other purpose?

Thanks!

Mary

Hiskid.58 Loc: Erie, PA

As far as I know, the only real purpose of it is to put light trails and ghost images behind the subjects and not in front of them.

Dennis

I thought, which is somethng I shoudn't do, that second curtain flash was to reduce red eye effects.

Hiskid.58 Loc: Erie, PA

Red eye is caused when the flash is too close to the lens. The light goes into the eyes, lights up the retina, which is blood red, and then the red light comes back out and causes red eye on the image. If you move the flash up higher, like with a flash bracket you see at weddings, it prevents the red eye. Some cameras have a red eye reduction setting. What it does is, it gives off light before the exposure which constricts the pupils and makes a smaller pupil for the light to go into the eyes and then reflect back into the camera. It's a mathematical thing, the farther you are from the subject, the farther the flash has to be from the lens. It's all in the angles. I hope this at least explains red eye for you.

Hiskid.58 Loc: Erie, PA

With regular flash, as soon as the shutter curtain opens, the flash goes off, then it stays open until your exposure time is done. With second curtain flash, your shutter curtain opens for the amount of exposure time and your flash fires just before the second curtain closes. The classic picture example is someone walking with a birthday cake. Normal flash, the flash fires and lights the scene, then you see the trail of light from the candles going in front of the person. Second curtain shows the candle trails behind the person, then the flash goes off and lights the scene.