Wecan use this to our advantage by keeping an eye on where our subject is in the frame, in relation to the background lights. In the image below I could see that there was a ton of lights to the right of the subjects and not a lot of light to the left of them, so I knew that I should swing my camera to the left. In other words, we want to swing the camera toward the side of the frame with the least amount of lights.
Jason Vinson is a wedding and portrait photographer for Vinson Images based out of Bentonville, Arkansas. Ranked one of the Top 100 Wedding photographers in the World, he has a passion for educating and sharing his craft.
"The problem here is that the flash will also set the spread of light to match your focal length so that the entire frame is lit evenly. For this situation though, I only want my subject lit and the rest of the frame to be dark and blurred. To fix this, I manually set the zoom of my flash to be greater than my focal length. Most of my dance photos are at 20mm or 35mm so I zoom my flash to around 70mm or more depending on how close I am to the subject. "
I was curious if using a snoot or gridded modifier on your flash head would work better in this scenario? So that whether you're closer or further away from the dancing subject, you don't have to keep adjusting your flash's zoom (otherwise if you're too close and your flash is zoom all the way in, the exposure would most likely blast the skin or dress into oblivion)
I have never used a grid or a snoot for this and it would give a similar effect, but Jonas is correct, using TTL will adjust the power of the flash as needed. You can also adjust your flash compensation if the highlights start looking to hot.
I have been shooting partypictures long time ago before i started shooting weddings, i don't like that Overall blur over the People, for me the Picture Looks very amateurish if it is blurry like that.
I would rather enhance the ISO to 800 and shorten the shutter Speed to be between 1/4-1/20 seconds, depending on the ambient light. The People will be illuminated by the Flash.
Nothing wrong with your photos and to each their own... but I think the idea, at least how I use it and interpret it, are that it showcases the movement. There blurry to allure that something was taking place and help tell the story. Kinda like racing photos sometimes you stop all motion for a shoot and sometimes you pan the image.
Nice article Jason. I found it interesting that you prefer front curtain as opposed to rear curtain, I feel like I never like my results UNLESS I have it on rear curtain! :) like this one.So funny how we can all have different ways of getting what we like! Nice pictures and explanation BTW.
that's how things work when you have your camera on a tripod and the only motion you see is from moving subjects. When taking an image and swinging the camera, you will get light streaks over your subject no matter what curtain you sync with.
+1 Rear Curtain - just because every now and then I get a 'weird' looking shot. It's like taking photos of a race car - it'd look weird if you 'froze' the car then got a trail in front of the sharp image of the car: like it was going in super high speed reverse. Only happens to me like 1/250 shots (if that) so it's not really something to change your method for - plus dance shots hide it better anyway cos it's all random movements!
that's how things work when you have your camera on a tripod and the only motion you see is from moving subjects. When taking an image and swinging the camera, you will get light streaks in whatever direction you swing your camera regardless of what curtain you sync too. It's all dependent on the direction you swing the camera.
It's nice to see a cohesive explanation of this! I've used this technique a few times and people have always appreciated it. I figured out how to do it with a lot of trial and error though which is not always the best thing to attempt at a wedding (trial and error, that is)
I use Rear Curtain myself for images like these. I like to have my subjects layered ABOVE the light streaks. In the article sample images, the light streaks are layered over top of the subjects. With Rear Curtain, the light streaks are more appropriately designated to the background, instead of the foreground.
Glad I read this. I usually do a similar technique, plus I add in a couple of strobes in the corners of the room. I really love the look I achieve, but find the recycle time when using TTL frustrating, and the potential for blown out shots when using manual unacceptable. I'll try zooming it to 70mm next time and see if that makes things better!
Photographing weddings in Alaska poses the unique situation of our midnight sun. Often, outdoor or tent receptions end up being in full daylight even when they are late in the evening. Sometimes I just go with it, other times I try and overpower the ambient light with my strobes to create a party-feel that wasn't really there.
ok I tried this at a wedding yesterday for the first time. I got maybe 2 keepers out of 50 shots or so. Am I expecting too much? (I was expecting tack sharp photos of the subject but got quite a soft look?)
my first attempt at Fridays Wedding ! would have liked the subjects sharper would appreciate help on how to expose them properly ? I sed direct flash at 1/1 and still didnt freeze them properly? I did manage to make some light Snakes in one picture though and also gave one dancer a nice head piece made of light :)
looks like you got the right idea, the issue is that you are using to long of a shutter speed. the longer shutter speed allows the ambient light to affect the subject more, which makes the subject softer. i usually stick around 1/10th of a second and use a much lower flash power, which will also freeze the subject better since the flash duration is lower for lower power settings.
thanks I will try a slightly faster shutter speed next time, i tried 1/10th but found I didnt have enough time to move the camera and get it pointing at the subject how I wanted before the shutter closed. Still struggling to get the spinning effect aswell, evening spinning the camera 180 degrees and back again. Maybe the lighting wasnt quite right in the room to get that effect?
set your camera to front curtain sync. the flash will fire right as you hit the shutter and then you can move the camera as needed. This also makes it so you catch certain moments as they happen instead of hoping a moment lines up with the end of your exposure.
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