Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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Minimum shutter speed with a speedlite (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by frenshprince@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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Hi there,

I have a what I thought would be a simple question, but can find a simple answer on Google.

Some friends will have a party for Halloween, half indoor, half outdoor. Ans they asked me to take some pictures, since I’m the photographer. The thing is, it’s not really the kind of photos I make. And I have a little knowledge about using flash.

So here’s my gear :

Canon R6ii
35mm 1.8
24mm 1.8
Godox V860

I’m a little familiar with the concept of ambient light using a flash, but here’s my question : If I don’t want to crank up my Iso for ambient light, how slow I can go with my shutter speed ? People will probably dance and drink, so without flash, with good light conditions, I would probably go between 1/250 and 1/500. But with a flash, considering that it’s supposed to freeze the subject, how slow can I set the shutter speed ?

Thanks for your help

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[–] DrinkableReno@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

This is largely good advice. But shutter speed affects ambient light with flash. For the reason you said. The flash goes off at 1/1000th and then a slower shutter speed can allow additional ambient light to expose the background more.

Try it out, it's a fun trick. Take a picture of something in your poorly lit house but like have a kitchen light or something on further away. Start at 1/250, then lower the shutter as far as you can one 1/2 stop at a time and watch as the kitchen gets brighter but your subject stays the same since your aperture hasn't changed.

This is relevant for OP because he can either kill the background at 1/250 or show it at 1/60. But the action and people directly in front of the camera will be largely the same with the flash.

This comes up, especially with temperature imbalances. You can kill ugly lights with faster shutter speed. Slower shutter speeds means you often get two light temperatures, which can look ugly.