Digital Camera World - UK (2019-12)

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com DECEMBER 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^93

Get close to the action

Matt brought four lenses with him to

Chicksands, including a 70-200mm and

a 100-400mm, but used his 24-70mm zoom

for most of his shots. This allowed him to

get closer to the action while maintaining

a safe distance from his subject, as seen

here while photographing Kate rounding

a downhill hairpin bend. For this shot,

he used on-camera flash, mounted

on his wireless controller’s hotshoe.

or our final shot, we set

Matt a fun challenge using

flash. Pulling out slightly

on a zoom lens while the

shutter is firing at a low

speed is called zoom burst and creates

a painterly effect, but the gloomy lighting

conditions meant we would have to try it

with flash. Rear-curtain sync – when the

flash fires at the end of the exposure

rather than at the beginning – would

coincide with the zooming movement,

so we selected that.

Using this technique on Kate, the flash

was held by a human light source slightly

ahead and to the right of the camera,

and was fired wirelessly. All Kate needed

to do was to stay as still as she could,

balancing on her bike’s pedals – the

sense of movement in the shot would be

implied by Matt zooming out a little from

his chosen focal length of 50mm. This

meant rotating the zoom collar on his

24-70mm lens by approximately 2cm.

Expert opinion

This isn’t an easy shot to get right, and

Matt only had access to a light stand

rather than a tripod, which would have

made a far more solid camera platform.

Balancing on a bike isn’t that easy,

either. Despite these obstacles, this is

a great attempt by Matt at a technique

he hadn’t tried before. Kate’s eyes and

clothes branding are in focus, and the

pleasing blur around the edges of her

bike makes this a fun portrait.

F

Challenge 4

Wild card round:

Try a trick shot

using flash

Camera Sony Alpha 7R III

Lens Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM

Exposure 0.5 sec at f/8, ISO 100