Digital SLR Photography - UK (2020-01)

USE THIS MODE IN LOW LIGHT TO CREATE ATTRACTIVE PORTRAITS BY USING

A S LO W S H UTTER SPEED TO RECORD AMBIENT LIGHT W ITH A BURST OF FLASH

SLOW-SYNC FLASH

A

S THE NAME suggests, slow-sync flash

is the complete opposite of high-

speed sync; rather than using a fast

shutter speed, you instead tripod mount the

camera and combine a long exposure –

such as several seconds – with flash. The

idea behind this is that the aperture controls

the flash exposure on the model, while the

longer shutter speed is used to draw in more

ambient light at night, so the background

looks well lit rather than underexposing to

appear black. With streetlights and other

illumination in the background, night

portraits can really come to life with this

technique when used properly.

As previously mentioned, you need a

tripod for this technique, so compose your

shot with your camera attached to the tripod

and ask your model to stay still. The flashgun

can be positioned direct, at 45° or to the side

• it really depends on the location and the
  pose of the model. We shot with the light to
  the side and the model looking towards it
  and away from the camera. Set your camera
  to shoot in manual mode with the ISO
  between 100-400, and an aperture that’s
  f/5.6 or wider. We shot at ISO 100, with a
  one-second exposure at f/3.2 for a shallow
  depth-of-field and the flash at 1/8 power.
  To avoid camera shake, use the self-timer or
  better still a wireless remote release.

WITH STREETLIGHTS AND

OTHER ILLUMINATION IN THE

BACKGROUND, NIGHT

PORTRAITS REALLY COME TO

LIFE WITH THIS TECHNIQUE

1 ) SET-UP: Shooting in a lit area next to a main road

meant that exposures had to be carefully timed to avoid

capturing trails from car headlights that would cause

overexposing the background with uneven light.

2 ) CAMERA SETTINGS: When shooting slow-sync

portraits at night you need an incredibly low flash output.

Shoot wide open, ideally wider than f/5.6, to allow as

much light through the lens as possible.

3 ) ONLY FLASH: By increasing the shutter speed by five

stops to 1/30sec and maintaining the same flash power,

the result is a massively underexposed background with

virtually no visible detail.

4 ) FLASH AND AMBIENT LIGHT: The combination of

low-powered flash, which ‘freezes’ any subject

movement from the model, and the one-second shutter

speed has created a well-balanced exposure where the

flashand ambient light have blended together.

W

HOWOULD’VETHOUGHT thatflashcanbeused

forcapturingdynamicmovementin actionshots?

But,that’sexactlywhatSecond-CurtainSyncdoes.

Thistechniqueusesa combinationofTTL on-cameraflash

oroff-cameraflash,anda slowshutterspeedsotheflash

freezesthesubjectbuttheslowshutterspeedcaptures

someoftheirmovement.Theresultis a semi-frozensubject

withmovementblurbehindthem.

In thecameraflashmodemenuthereareoftenseveral

settings,andforthistechniqueit’simportanttosetthemode

toSecond-CurtainorRear-Curtainsync.Thereasonforthis

is thatwithrear-curtainflash,whenyoureleasetheshutter

buttontheexposurebeginsandat theendbeforetheshutter

closestheflashfires.Thisthencapturesblurbehindthe

subjectandtheflashfreezesthemin frontofit. Standard/

Front-Curtainflashdoestheoppositeandlooksweird.

In termsofcamerasettings,shootin eithershutter-priority

ormanualmodesettobetween1/30secandtwoseconds

dependingonthespeedofthemovingsubject.Set ISOto

between100-400andif shootingin manualsettheaperture

toaroundf/5.6.Set yourflashguntoTTL modeandautofocus

tocontinuoussoyoucantrackthemovingsubject.

MIXED L IGHTING

Carefully combining flash and

ambient light has produced an

atmospheric night portrait.

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Photo Masterclass

SECOND-CURTAIN SYNC FLASH

64 Digital SLR Photography Januar y 2020