Son pitching baseball in the yard OCF X2

[deviousz28]

I blew the dust off my flashes, and found my stands while my son was pitching into a net after school in the front yard.

Thanks Scott

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5108/5606394403_40ff13a589_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606394403/)
IMG_7271JSK-2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606394403/) by deviousz28 (http://www.flickr.com/people/42031418@N04/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5061/5606978832_3455e6f044_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606978832/)
IMG_7272JSK-4 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606978832/) by deviousz28 (http://www.flickr.com/people/42031418@N04/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5302/5606978638_f533cb45aa_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606978638/)
IMG_7272JSK-3 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5606978638/) by deviousz28 (http://www.flickr.com/people/42031418@N04/), on Flickr

[10megapixel]

Not digging the HDR effect. Nice shots otherwise ;)

[deviousz28]

Not digging the HDR effect. Nice shots otherwise ;)

I never have tried a HDR effect, not sure I know how to to do it. All I added was detail, sharpen, and did a little dodge to the hair. The shots below are the before resized jpegs of the original SOOC raw images.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/5607157629_d9345fac71_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5607157629/)
IMG_7272WEB (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5607157629/) by deviousz28 (http://www.flickr.com/people/42031418@N04/), on Flickr

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5607157393_ce4c535a73_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5607157393/)
IMG_7271WEB (http://www.flickr.com/photos/42031418@N04/5607157393/) by deviousz28 (http://www.flickr.com/people/42031418@N04/), on Flickr

[CanonRebellion]

I like the effect!

[Ephur]

I keep looking at them over and over. He looks almost cut & pasted on there!

[edge100]

Shutter speeds and/or flash duration are too low to freeze the action. Look at the motion blur in the ball and his hand.

There are a few ways to get around this:

1. If you're using a Speedlite, use lower power and open the aperture/jack the ISO to compensate. Lower power = shorter flash duration = more action stopping. If you're using a studio strobe (other that the PCB Einstein or similar), use higher power to give shorter flash duration.

2. Use High-Speed Sync with fast shutter speeds, and open the aperture/jack the ISO to compensate for power loss.

3. Use continuous light with faster shutter speeds.

If you can't do any of these, then at least use rear-curtain sync so that the motion appears behind the ball/hand, rather than in front.

[Dano_nav]

edge 100 nailed it. Higher shutter speeds and larger aperature would help to freeze the action and blur out the background. Keep shooting....

[deviousz28]

I like the effect!

Thanks

I keep looking at them over and over. He looks almost cut & pasted on there!

Yes he does, not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Shutter speeds and/or flash duration are too low to freeze the action. Look at the motion blur in the ball and his hand.

There are a few ways to get around this:

1. If you're using a Speedlite, use lower power and open the aperture/jack the ISO to compensate. Lower power = shorter flash duration = more action stopping. If you're using a studio strobe (other that the PCB Einstein or similar), use higher power to give shorter flash duration.

2. Use High-Speed Sync with fast shutter speeds, and open the aperture/jack the ISO to compensate for power loss.

3. Use continuous light with faster shutter speeds.

If you can't do any of these, then at least use rear-curtain sync so that the motion appears behind the ball/hand, rather than in front.

Hey thanks for the tips. All I have is two bare cheap Yongnuo YN460's. with their RF TX/RX setup. If I go any higher than 1/200 I get a band of black on the photo. It was extremely bright outside so I had the camera set iso100 1/200 and I think f22.

edge 100 nailed it. Higher shutter speeds and larger aperature would help to freeze the action and blur out the background. Keep shooting....

Will do.

[edge100]

Hey thanks for the tips. All I have is two bare cheap Yongnuo YN460's. with their RF TX/RX setup. If I go any higher than 1/200 I get a band of black on the photo. It was extremely bright outside so I had the camera set iso100 1/200 and I think f22.


What flash power? The key to stopping action with flash is to have as short a flash duration as possible. With speedlites, durations get shorter as power decreases.

My advice then would be to:

- shoot at as low a flash power as possible...1/64 or 1/128
- this may mean opening the aperture significantly, and/or jacking the iso, in order to get the right flash exposure
- because you've opened the aperture or jacked the iso (or both), the ambinet exposure may be off. In this case, you have no choice but to shoot later in the day when the ambient fits more closely to your flash exposure
- 1/200 on the shutter is fine (and is as high as you can go anyway), as long as you have very short shutter speeds AND low enough ambient exposure


Do your speedlites support ETTL and high speed sync?