Amber in Daylight: Slow shutter speed and a (fairly) Wide Aperture

[greggf]

You could be right. I only use Shoe mount flashes right now(several 580ll"s), with umbrellas and either a mounted 580exll on the camera, or an STe-2. When using hi-speed sync, the flash lets out multiple pulses to cover the duration of the shutter. So, you don't have to use full power of the slaves because of that. Plus you can always adjust your shutter speed to compensate. I haven't had any problems as far as triggering goes, as I'm usually pretty close to the subject, or I have the flashes turned to capture the pulse. I try to use the sun or existing light with fill from the flashes to overcome shadows. Of course, avoiding high noon or later bright light(ruins everything!!). Here is an example...and this was just a 580exll on camera with a sto-fen diffuser, sun at camera left at 7 o'clock....


MarkIV, 16-35ll, iso 100 2.8@1/1600th


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[neuroanatomist]

If you're a strobist like myself, how do you tackle a situation where you want to create a photo in broad daylight where you underexpose the ambient while using a fairly wide aperture while still staying below your max flash sync speed?

Great shot, Sean! []


Of course, as a non-strobist, the first answer that leapt to my mind was part of your answer in the Flickr post - ND/CPL on the lens to cut the amount of light reaching the lens. A week after getting my T1i, while shooting portraits of my daughter outdoors in the daytime with an EF 85mm f/1.8 set wide open, I was confronted with a blinking 1/4000. Even the 1/8000 on my new 7D wouldn't have been nearly enough. A week later, I had a B+W ND #103 (3-stop) in my bag. Problem solved! I am now also playing with aB+W ND #110 (10-stop) for some interesting daylight long-exposure shots.

[Sean Setters]

I have a 2 stop ND filter, but I've almost decided that's not enough for what I'm wanting to accomplish (hence the stacked filters). The Vari-ND filters from Singh-Ray seem best, but they are out of my price range. However, I found an alternative--the Fader ND from Light Craft Workshop. It works in much the same way. From what I've read, it's not built quite as well and has a couple of quirks, but for the price, it's probably just what I need. Unfortunately, it's out of stock.

[neuroanatomist]

I have a 2 stop ND filter, but I've almost decided that's not enough for what I'm wanting to accomplish (hence the stacked filters)

Yeah. I debated 2-stop vs. 3-stop and decided on the 3-stop because, 1) the CPL provides ~2 stops, why duplicate that with an ND?, 2) looking at the number of stops I needed with f/1.8 on a bright day, 3 stops would have been enough (especially now that I have an extra stop of shutter speed), and 3) I could always stack the CPL, since that's a slim mount, for ~5 stops.


I looked at the Vari-ND, but decided that for cost relative to likely amount of use, and the desire to go to greater than 8 stops for some really long daytime shots (I have actually stacked my 0.9 and 3.0 filters on occasion), I'd stick with standard NDs.

[Keith B]

You could be right. I only use Shoe mount flashes right now(several 580ll"s), with umbrellas and either a mounted 580exll on the camera, or an STe-2. When using hi-speed sync, the flash lets out multiple pulses to cover the duration of the shutter. So, you don't have to use full power of the slaves because of that. Plus you can always adjust your shutter speed to compensate. I haven't had any problems as far as triggering goes, as I'm usually pretty close to the subject, or I have the flashes turned to capture the pulse.

I only use an ST-E2 to fire my flashes. I have heard so many people slam the ST-E2. I have only ever had one issue that was easily fixed, once when I was shooting the sun was beaming directly into the IR receiver on the flash keeping it from firing. So I set up a flag and it was done.


This shot was done with two 580EXIIs, ST-E2 out side with no problems.


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