Tag Archive for: small flash

Small flash and the sun

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Tip:
Small flash is often regarded as “not powerful enough” but this is not true. Compared to the big strobes it might look that way however with the small flash system you can use something called HSS (High-Speed-Sync) and that makes it possible to shoot on much higher shutter speeds than with for example studio strobes or battery powered solutions.

Nadine buiten Oktober 31 2014 28 - October 31 2014

 

There are limitations.
Because the strobe “strobes” you will find that the light output is much less, but this is often countered by the higher-shutterspeed, but also recycling is much slower.You can of course add 2 strobes together for 1 stop more (add 2 more for another stop).

 

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Outside with small flash using the sun

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One of the things that I love to do is including the sun in the frame.
Often photographers are afraid to do this, for…. well I don’t know.
During the small flash workshop we always try to do one set outside to create something that a lot of people think is not possible with the small flash system, a day to night scene.

 

The nice thing about small flash is that there is an option where you can use something called “HSS” High Speed Sync.
With this option you can shoot on higher shutter speeds than with studio strobes (which are almost always limited to 1/125), meaning it gets easier to “push away” the ambient light.

 

By adding two strobes together you get 1 stop more of power plus recycling etc. is much faster.
The following shots were done with this technique during the small flash workshop.

Nadine buiten Oktober 31 2014 28 - October 31 2014

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Small flash from the side.

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Light from the side can be incredibly powerful.
Here, during the small flash workshop, I used a bare strobe to light Nadine, by using the zoom function you can tailor the light beam hitting the model just the way you like it.

Nadine Oktober 31 2014 6 - October 31 2014

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Tip for light meters and ambient light

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Often I get messages from people that their light meter is not reliable outside, inside no problem but outside…..
Do always remember that outside there is also ambient light.

Let’s say you have a small flash system (the system flashes like Canon/Nikon/Sony) and your shooting full manual and get a reading of F5.6 inside, now when you go outside a day later and you get F11 don’t expect that the strobe is actually on F11, it could very well be that the strobe is outputting only F8 or lower.

8 Juni 2014 Marie 0066 1

The meter works very simple
When you press the button to meter in strobe mode (the lighting bolt) it will actually wait for a pulse and start metering, now the pulse from the strobe is registered of course and the meter does it’s work BUT if the ambient light (on the giving shutter speed) is higher than the strobe the meter will of course give you the F stop for the ambient light (since it overpowers the strobe).
So the next time you’re outside and want to check if your strobe is registering, or if you suspect a problem…. first set the strobe on the lowest setting and meter, now start raising the strobe and if the meter value doesn’t change you know you’re metering ambient (or in other words, ambient is overpowering the strobe).

 

So don’t bash the meter, understand how it works 😀

now let’s look at some solutions….

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