Photo tricks. Part 7.

In this part I will describe a couple of tricks when using flash.

Photo tricks. Part 7.

Photo tricks. Part 7.

Increase flash range

Flash range is highly dependent on ISO, aperture, lens focal length, excerpts and the direction of the flash head. To illuminate a subject that is far enough away, the best option is a “head-on” flash (the flash head is pointed directly towards the subject). The built-in flash always works in this mode. If in poor conditions, for example, when shooting with a telephoto lens, the flash cannot “finish off the light” to the point where you shoot, you can raise the ISO or increase the aperture. Diffusers, on the other hand, reduce the flash guide number (maximum flash distance).

Usually Advanced External Flash display distanceon which the flash can work. This distance decreases (falls) very much when the flash transitions to high speed sync mode. High-speed sync only external flash units. On cameras, high-speed sync usually automatically turns on when a certain shutter speed threshold is exceeded. Let’s explain with an example, my camera Nikon D80 at shutter speeds from bulb, 30s to 1 \ 200s it works in the usual mode with a flash, but when the camera needs excerpt shorter than 1 \ 200s, high-speed sync mode is automatically turned on. In this case, the leading number of flashes drops sharply. The fall in the guide number is clearly visible on the displays of my flashes SB-900, SB-910. In this case, very often the flash can not highlight what I need, or, the backlight power is insufficient.To restore a leading number, you must either cover the aperture in mode A, Av (aperture priority), or switch to S, Tv (priority excerpts) or M (manual mode), and set the shutter speed there to 1 \ 200s or shorter. And also, you can lower the ISO, but often the ISO simply has nowhere to lower.

As an example, I will give a real situation: shooting a group portrait in the afternoon at F5.6 aperture, ISO 100 the camera needs excerpt about 1 \ 320. In 1 \ 320 mode, my camera is already switching to high-speed synchronization mode and its power drops dramatically, people's faces are dimly lit. Therefore, I put the camera in S mode, set the limit to 1 \ 200, the aperture becomes about F / 6.3, and I take the desired picture.

What excerpt is "milestone" can be easily detected using the built-in flash. It is enough to switch to mode S and try to reduce the shutter speed to a minimum. So, in S mode with a built-in flash, my camera Nikon D40 has a limit of 1 \ 500s, the camera D80 the limit is 1 \ 200s, and D200 1 \ 250s, and D700 unusual 1 \ 320s. In practice, the difference between 1 \ 200, 1 \ 250 and 1 \ 320 can not be felt at all. Well, if your camera does not have a flash, then it is either a very cheap soap dish or a very expensive professional device.

Attention: such games with aperture \ shutter speed require experience, since you need to understand that all parameters are connected and in fact, immediately take into account their effect on the photo. For a number of cases, radically different will be acceptable. excerpts, aperture, etc. I just gave an everyday example here.

Work distance indication

External flashes approximately show the distance at which they can work, highlighting the subject with the specified settings. This helps me, since I approximately know what effect I will get, or simply, it reminds me of the high-speed synchronization mode. But, with auto ISO turned on on Nikon cameras, the flash shows the maximum range. In fact, this number has very little meaning and it is very difficult to navigate it. This is another reason I recommend disabling auto ISO control when using the flash.

Conclusion:

The leading flash number is also a very important parameter that the photographer should follow. I advise you to conduct your own experiments.

Help to the project. Thanks for attention. Arkady Shapoval.

Add a comment: Maksim

 

 

Comments: 31, on the topic: Photo tricks. Part 7.

  • Lera pavlov

    Good afternoon, Arkady. Trying to leave a bright thought or ask. I have a Nikon d3100 and a flash of sb700. I shoot mostly not in the forehead, but with a self-made business card from a foam rectangular saucer cut out for a flash, by the way it reflects light very well and is larger in size than the native flash .As I noticed with an increase in ISO, the flash area increases and the shutter speed can be a little longer than 1/125 1/160 and not 1/200. You write a lower ISO and a shorter shutter speed or it only works to use the flash in the forehead when you need a high-speed system synchronization. With an external flash, I’m shooting only in M ​​ISO, I don’t have a F5.6-8 machine, while the ISO in the room is 400 street 200. Thank you so much for the articles that you have an interesting site.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      I wrote that power will increase if you exit FP mode to normal. Light from a flash that is 1 \ 125, that 1 \ 160 will receive the same, but from other sources, of course, a different amount.

  • Lera pavlov

    Thank you, everything is clear, I can’t read it carefully.

  • Alex de Kairoy

    Thank you.

  • dmitri

    Hello. There is such a problem with the Canon 350d + Zenitar M + Yongnou 560, it happens that when I shoot with a flash, the floor of the photo is illuminated, but the floor is not (that is, darker), as I understand it, is this because the shutter speed is too long? Although the flash has a notorious limit of 1/2000, it took off a little longer, but still it turns out that some are lit up, some are not, mostly the problem manifests itself in bright sunshine. Or maybe the problem is that the lens and flash are manual and the camera’s automation can’t cope? Give advice on what to do in such cases.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      It's simple enough, your camera Canon 350D do not support quick sync mode. The shutter speed at which the camera will work without stripes is only 1 \ 200c. More details here https://radojuva.com.ua/2011/05/flesh-dnem-kak-ispolzovat/

      • Alexander

        Good day, Arkady and other participants in the discussion, this flash (YN560) also does not support HSS (FP) mode, only the recently announced YN568 from this manufacturer will support HSS (FP), but its price will not be as tasty as to earlier models, and to be honest, YN manual flashes are very good for indoor use, because of the very low cost they can be bought several pieces, placed in different places in the room and highlighted with the help of radio synchronizers and various modifiers what you need, and if shka still in the title contains the EX, it is very well lit using Nikon CLS and Canon similar system (can not remember the name), but to work in the on-camera position better to take home, this is my IMHO, thank you for your attention

  • dmitri

    Thank you very much. As far as I understand, in order not to cover the diaphragm, you can simply use a neutral-gray filter, but will it affect the quality of the picture?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Yes you can. A good ND filter does not affect quality.

  • Maksim

    Hello Arcadia. After reading your article, it seems that the mode of high synchronization is typical for the video like on D90, but it is of little use. And this impression was created due to the fact that you say I shot a group portrait in the afternoon and the flash power was not enough. Please comment on my opinion.
    PS I am a beginner in photo engraving and did not work in high synchronization mode, but I understand why it is needed. Thanks for the site.

  • Maksim

    Arkady, I read an article about how to photograph in the sun with a flash, but the content of the article was not a revelation for me, since I had already read about short exposure synchronization more than once. And everywhere it is said that the guide number of a flash falls significantly, and how much it falls is not written. So the question is, by what amount does the guide number fall, or for different flashes it drops by a different amount, then tell me how this number falls in the SB-900. Or maybe this value is expressed in meters or feet from the maximum guide number of the flash. I would like to have some kind of adequate idea about the fall of the flash guide number at short exposures. otherwise, you yourself understand the word “significantly” does not give any mathematical or imperial idea about the fall of the leading forehead of the flash at short exposures. Thanks in advance for your reply. Best regards, Maxim.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      In FP mode, the flash range depends on the shutter speed - the faster the shutter speed, the lower the guide number. In normal mode, up to the FP limit, the range is practically independent of the flash, but depends only on the focal lens, aperture, ISO. Therefore, at different exposures - a different fall. If on the SB-900 and focusing at infinity at 1/200, the flash can illuminate the lens at 20m, then at 1/8000 it can illuminate the object only at 4 meters, falling on the face by 5 times. If the shutter speed is increased from 1/8000 to 1/1000, then the range will also increase, since the flash will be able to give more sub-pulses in FP mode.

  • Maksim

    Thanks Arkady. Now it’s clear what you can count on in FP mode. And it is clear that this mode is not like video in the D90, and if the flash power drops in those aisles as you write, then the FP mode has a fairly wide scope.

  • Maksim

    Hello, I have a question about the minimum flash range. Despite the primary obviousness of the concept, I just can’t enter what it is, where this restriction comes from and why it appears in the tables of the range of action versus aperture and ISO. At first glance, this is the distance that the light from the flash will illuminate in any case, no matter what settings are set. But I personally tried to set ISO = 100, closed the aperture to 32, set the power to 1/32. Absolutely black frame. What are 0.6? The maximum length of the lens. I do not understand. In the aforementioned table, I indicate 0.6 at least for aperture values ​​of 16-2.8, then it magically rises to 0.7 and 1.0 on aperture 2-1.4. I just want to understand how you can predict the operation of the flash in manual mode and finally understand these tables, which are impossible to understand without a professional photographer.

    On this score, quite recently, I had one hypothesis. What if the values ​​“1,0–8,5”, “0,6–2,1”, “0,7-0,6” in the distance table are not the distances that the flash can hit at different powers, but illumination depth (by analogy with depth of field) at maximum power? Those. this is the range within which all objects will have acceptable illumination. The very concept of acceptable illumination is very arbitrary. From what I see in practice, I guess it might be based on capacity in dynamic range. But then another question - what is the practical sense in the minimum radius? I would suggest that a smaller minimum radius may play a key role in macro flashes, which will likely allow for more control over the illumination of close-range subjects, while with regular flashes at such distances, a decrease in power will lead to sharp jumps illumination. This is just my theory, but after breaking the darkness of sites (including English-speaking ones), I never found the answer to this question anywhere.

    • Maksim

      After the series, add. tests, I came to the final conclusion that the value that is indicated as “minimum flash range” next to the guide number is related specifically to the exposure by analogs with the guide number. Just like the guide number determines the maximum distance up to which correct exposure is possible at maximum power, the minimum determines the minimum distance after which correct exposure is possible at maximum power. That is why these two min / max numbers appear side-by-side in the aperture and ISO distance tables. And that's why it grows with increasing ISO and at a constant aperture.

      There is no practical sense in the min number, because even when I shoot "head-on", of course I have to make sure that there is nothing between me and the subject, otherwise 100% of the frame is in the trash. It's 0.6 - just, as they say, a note. This is something that just needs to be taken into account, as well as the guide number, as well as vignetting, lens shadow, etc. All of this manifests itself in different ways at different settings.

    • Anatoly

      Yeah, I've never read such nonsense before :(

  • Nikita

    Faced the following situation:
    photographed indoors with window lighting (cloudy weather) + flash on nikon sb700. In the process of shooting, I set the following parameters in the “M” mode on the D90: shutter speed 1/4000, aperture f5.6, auto ISO was up to 800. Flash is directed upward + card, TTL mode, FP mode is on. The result is the strongest overexposure of the frame.
    And now I don’t understand why it happened. Aperture is closed, shutter speed is minimum. ISO was set at 800, but this is not 25600). The flash in FP mode beats with less power. It seems that all the elements are separate, that together they say that it should be dark on the frame.

  • Danil

    probably 1 / 200c and longer will be more correct?

  • Danil

    either switch to S, Tv (shutter priority) or M (manual mode), and set the shutter speed there to 1 \ 200s or shorter

    probably 1 / 200c and longer will be more correct?

  • Valery

    On Nikon d300, the YN468-II flash at shutter speeds of 1/4000 and up to 1/8000 draws only the top of the frame and the rest of the area is black, why so?

    • Taras

      YN468-II does not have high speed sync mode. The threshold value for the D300, after which the flash from normal mode is switched to FP / HSS, is a shutter speed shorter than 1/320. The shutter manages to open only a small slit at the top of the future image, as the non-native Yongnuo without FP-mode is triggered. If the shutter at a shutter speed of 1 / 4000-1 / 8000 had time to open the full width at once, there would be no such band. But this is impossible in this camera - the speed of movement of the shutters is always constant, and is determined by the design of the shutter mechanism, which is mechanical strength laid in it by the engineers.

  • alexey

    I am always surprised when someone buys something from third-party manufacturers, and then asks; why the pier doesn’t work like that.

    yes, here with the brand, you can barely figure it out, and even about all sorts of budget ones - it's good if it even puffs.

    • a guest

      And it always amazes me when people buy equipment without understanding the specifications, without reading the instructions, and litter the forums with stupid questions, and about third-party manufacturers it’s a lie, my puff mats work great, you just need to read the instructions and turn on your brains, take the camera and take a picture

    • a guest

      It also surprises me when they buy advanced puff for a carcass without FP and write nonsense here, the Internet is now available to everyone, and before you buy something, see reviews, specifications, etc.

    • Anatoly

      I am surprised by such comments. To be honest, on the contrary, it is easier to shoot with a manual flash, it’s just slow, unlike an automatic flash when you need speed. I read the comments and wonder why a person is given a head? And how I used to cope with manual flash as a kid🤣

  • anonym

    YN468-II does not have high sync. And the flash illuminates the brighter the more iso In dark rooms, the shutter speed is 1/500 F / 5.6 iso minimum 400 when the aperture is closed, we raise the iso, otherwise the pulse power may not be enough - several of them are made at high-speed synchronization and batteries play an important role I use enelup 2500mAh

  • anonym

    When choosing Multi mode on yn568ex, I get a picture on the flash display where the flash is on the camera. On the Debao Su800 A camera, I would like to be led. Where am I mistaken in the settings? Thank you. Oleg.

    • BB

      I could be wrong, but the Multi-mode is not designed for remote operation. A radio synchronizer, or a light synchronizer + built-in flash, will save the situation.

  • anonym

    Forgot to report: Debao su800 on Nikon d90.

  • Eugene

    for shooting reportage indoors, where there is always little light, I use the following parameters: S mode, auto-ISO from 400 to 3200, flash TTL mode. High ISO is responsible for the background, the flash illuminates the actual subject. With an increase in illumination, the camera automatically first of all lowers the ISO, moving away from “dangerous” values ​​in terms of image quality, the lower threshold of 400 does not allow an image to be obtained where there is a very light subject against a black background. With a greater increase in illumination, the aperture is covered, well, as it should be in S mode.
    Camera d5200, flash sb700.

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