Toby & HSS Vol.2

Following the initial thread posted regarding using HSS to take photos of Toby, here's a selection from a "shoot" done a week later.

Same kit as before, different location, and no wind

1 ISO 320 f6.3 @ 1/320



2 ISO 250 f3.2 @ 1/1250



3 ISO 320 f6.3 @ 1/320



4 ISO 320 f6.3 @ 1/400



Regards
Adrian

Some nice low angles bring things down to your subjects level there, and the flash exposure looks good also ..... I'd have probably gone about a stop lower on the ambient background exposures here, they look a little bright, and you would get more depth and colour at about one stop less. Glad to see the HSS techniques are still proving useful!

Nice ones. Looking good Toby !!

Great to see someone experimenting with HSS... Decent results too... Though I feel the -1 stop background tip is a good one,,, Well done...!!

Nice shots Adrian ☺️

Nice to see your model behaving well 😀

Yes experimenting with HSS has been good fun so far, with Toby being a great pro

Dumb question time now; when you suggest a stop lower for the ambient background, just drop the shutter by one stop?

Stu, long time no speak, hope you're well.

Thanks all.

1 stop faster shutter speed will reduce the ambient background lighting without affecting your DOF. If you use a smaller aperture you will be affecting DOF which is critical for these kind of portrait shots although 1 stop shouldn't make much of a difference.

Question for Nigel......if one did use a smaller aperture to lower ambient light and increase DOF this would reduce the effective range of the fill flash, which is less anyway when using HSS, correct?

There's some interesting points raised about the control over the ambient and flash exposure balance here ....

Firstly, to answer Peter's question just above; yes, any smaller aperture setting will mean that more power is needed from the flash in order to maintain a fixed flash exposure level. With P-TTL flash this is automatically adjusted in response to your aperture changes, but a smaller aperture will reduce the effective range due to the higher power needed. This range is displayed on the flash info panel (eg. 1.5 - 8m, meaning between 1.5 and 8 meters the flash should be able to expose a subject correctly).

With normal, non-HSS, flash then the exposure time ('shutter speed') does not affect the flash exposure, however for HSS operation then then the shutter speed does affect flash exposure (just like aperture and ISO), and so each time you dial in a shorter exposure then the flash will be powering out more light to compensate (and again the effective range will drop, just as for the smaller aperture).

Assuming that the wide aperture is the 'priority' here (always nice for portraits), then the other settings to change to darken the background are the shutter and ISO ...... to take one example here, No.4 shot at ISO 320 f6.3 @ 1/400, then one-stop darker could be achieved by changing either the shutter speed to 1/800th, or reducing the ISO to 160 ...

Of course it is necessary to ensure that the other parameters stay fixed and don't move in response to your ISO or shutter adjustments, and the best way to ensure this is to work in Manual camera mode and make sure that auto-ISO is not active.

Thamks for the reply Nigel, I hadn't thought about shutter speed affecting the flash, but I understand now it will in HSS, thanks.

[quote:Stu, long time no speak, hope you're well.[/quote]All ok thanks Adrian, I hope all is well with you 😀

Nice set, and a great example of flash put to great use.

Nigel and Peter, very well explained and greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.