Slow Sync effects
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I'm using a D80 with the flash set to rear sync. I have an SB600 attached but it seems to flash when i press the shutter and then again a few seconds after, is this normal?
Also is there a ideal aperture and shutter speed?
Should this be taken in total darkness to achieve the best effects??
Any advice appreciated
Also is there a ideal aperture and shutter speed?
Should this be taken in total darkness to achieve the best effects??
Any advice appreciated
The first one is the pre-flash, meant to take a check on metering and how much light is required for the flash later on...
I bookmarked this sometime back:
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/slow-sync-flash/
Not sure if it's useful to you..
Other than having the "desired" overall exposure, the shutter speed and aperture chosen have effects on how light trails will form on the sensor and the depth of Field.
For e.g. the following have roughly the same "expsoure" :
F/16 + 4 seconds + ISO 100
F/2.8 + 1/8 + ISO 100
F/2.8 + 1/30 + ISO 400
However the effect is different. If there is any moving subject in the picture, the longer/slower shutter speed will give a much longer trail.
So there is no ideal or fixed settings for any type of photography, including slow sync.
For slow sync, you're actually exposing for ambient light for most of the time when the aperture is open and only a small brief part of it ..... (1/200 or 1/250 etc., depending on the shutter speed your camera sync with the flash) is exposed to the light casted by the flash.
For e.g. if your setting is F/8 + 1/8 seconds + ISO 100 to shoot in slow sync and you use front curtain, the image sensor is exposed to the flash light first for the first 1/200 seconds (or slower like 1/60), the flash is then is gone after this brief period and the image sensor is left exposure for the rest of (1/8 minus 1/200) seconds to whatever ambient light around.
This means that if the surrounding is total darkness, all you get is the exposure 1/200 or 1/60 or ....etc. during the flash (i.e. only whatever the flash can reach is captured) and the camera image sensor is left to be exposured to total darkness for the rest of the shutter speed. So you won't get any apparent slow sync effect in total darkness. Of course, the flash power is controlled by the camera if some form of automatic TTL is used and is just enough to have exposure on what you focus on (assuming the flash have enough power to reach).
In real life, total darkness is of course unlikely.
Rear curtain slow sync is the flash shoots only towards the end of time the aperture is open so that you're exposed to ambient light at first before freezing the subject at the end so that there may be light trail or blurred subject (subject illuminated by ambient light or emitting light) behind the clear subject captured as a result of the earlier exposure to ambient light.
To get some good slow sync effect, you need some good ambient light and contrasty light condition.
Again, the setting (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) to use depends very much on the light condition and what effect you desire. So you need to understand the effects of the shutter speed will have on the picture for the light condition you have at hand.
Here's a link to many slow sync photos taken by someone for your reference. You can see the Exif of the photos too if you have the right browsing tool like Opanda Exif viewer installed on your internet browser or you save the picture and see them in properties under Windows XP.
Opps! I realise that he is shooting less slown sync these days. You need to search around the earlier pictures for some slow sync pictures.
http://partyflock.nl/gallery/
Make the time then read and try out this > http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/10/lighting-102-assignment-balance.html
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