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01/16/2011 09:52:28 AM · #1 |
Hi all,
I just got two B800s, big softbox, etc.
I have a shoot to do of a martial arts student in a martial arts studio later in the week (free shoot...just doing someone a favor).
I just got my B800s and it'll be the 2nd time I'm using them (going to do a test run today, hopefully with your help).
Here's what I need to know...
Is it possible to balance the flash with the ambient WHILE maintaining a decent shutter speed for action and a somewhat blurred background? Or do I have to sacrifice one or more of those things during the shoot?
Let's say for some of the shots I shoot around f2.8, 1/250 and just use less power on the flash...does that sound doable???
I think the problem comes with balancing the ambient AND capturing some action, right? If I have to drop down to 1/60th to get the ambiet to come into the shot, won't action be out the window at that point? |
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01/16/2011 10:21:50 AM · #2 |
Yeah, definitely feasible. You also have enough power to kill any and all ambient if you want to. Keep in mind that 1/250 won't freeze all actions and you may find that you need to kill the ambient by 2+ stops and rely on the speed of the flash pulse to freeze the action.
Just remember that your aperture controls the power of the flash and your shutter controls the ambient. If you have your AB's turned down and you're still overexposing, you'll either have to stop down or increase the distance from flash to subject. Remember your inverse square law here, as that will dictate hugely how much your light effects the subject vs the background. |
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01/16/2011 10:28:06 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by spiritualspatula:
Yeah, definitely feasible. You also have enough power to kill any and all ambient if you want to. Keep in mind that 1/250 won't freeze all actions and you may find that you need to kill the ambient by 2+ stops and rely on the speed of the flash pulse to freeze the action.
Just remember that your aperture controls the power of the flash and your shutter controls the ambient. If you have your AB's turned down and you're still overexposing, you'll either have to stop down or increase the distance from flash to subject. Remember your inverse square law here, as that will dictate hugely how much your light effects the subject vs the background. |
At 1/250 to freeze whatever action I can...won't that underexpose the ambient too much?
And what do you mean by pulsing the flash?
Message edited by author 2011-01-16 10:28:22. |
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01/16/2011 10:49:28 AM · #4 |
My comment about 1/250 is that martial arts can be very fast, and I'm not sure exactly what sorts of action shots you're trying to capture. 1/250 may not be fast enough to capture crisp shots of action at that speed. If this is the case, you need to kill the ambient, keep your shutter at 1/250 (max sync speed) and kill the ambient completely by lowering ISO and stopping down. What happens when you do this is the effective exposure of the person becomes the duration of the flash (that's my mention of the pulse... it's no special setting just the term I used to note the firing of the flash). The duration of the flash varies depending upon the power setting that is used, so I would urge you to consider looking into t.1 and t.5 times and how they effect action shots if you're not sure what I mean here.
If 1/250 freezes your action well, but underexposes your ambient, you need to increase your ISO to bump it up. How I would do things is determine how fast of shutter you can get away with for the given shots, then set the rest from there. If ambient is too low, I'd use one of the 800's to stand in for the ambient by kicking it off a wall or something, then rely on the other for lighting the person.
Message edited by author 2011-01-16 10:50:13. |
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01/16/2011 12:02:28 PM · #5 |
Are you shooting color?
If so, you also need to consider the color difference and adjust the color of your strobes to match that of the ambient light and then set your WB to match that light. Otherwise you'll have the areas illuminated by the strobes one color, the areas illuminated by the ambient another color and those lit by both some color in between. It's not something you can easily sort out in post processing.
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01/16/2011 05:11:56 PM · #6 |
| ONe thing you might try is using one AB to "create" the ambient--if the ceiling is low enough, light enough, point one up at it and use it to light the room, then use your other to light the person. Then you can ignore the natural/available ambient. But yes, if you need to slow down the shutter speed too much, your motion freeze will suffer some. |
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01/18/2011 06:48:31 AM · #7 |
| How did things work out for you? |
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01/19/2011 01:16:09 AM · #8 |
The test run went well. The action is slow enough to freeze. I shot close to a clean wall so not much need to balance the ambient as the flash illuminates the background as well.
I'll try to post some of the real photos after the shoot on Fri. |
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