What is this called?

[whaase]

I've seen lots of photo's now where the shot is outside on a sunny day, subject is lit up with a flash and the background is dark. Is there a word for this type of shot to I can search it? lol I've played with the exposer and flash, but I can't get the effect to work.

[jra]

I don't know of a particular name for those types of photos. As far as doing something like that, it will take quite a bit of flash power to completely overpower the sun. If you shoot in the morning or evening, it may make things a bit more easy.

[whaase]

Hmmm, guess I'm out of luck :(

[rgs-]

it's called fill flash.

[Karl Johnston]

Striplights will get you an effect similar to this if that's what you're talking about

[gooble]

There are several considerations.

You need powerful strobes but you also need to be able to use HSS (high speed sync) or FP mode of your camera and flash units. Midday sun is bright and to underexpose it some you need to use a very small aperture, which may not be creatively what you want, or a fast shutter speed. Using fast shutter speeds with flashes introduces a problem though as the flash duration is very fast and fast shutters are not open all at once.

Once the shutter reaches a certain speed, the HSS speed, to expose less light to the sensor it forms a slit that travels across the sensor so at any given moment only a small portion of the sensor is exposed to light. The problem is the flash is still quicker and it will fire and end before the shutters have had a chance to expose the whole sensor so you'll get only a portion of your picture with flash exposure. To get the whole frame exposed by the flash the flash must insted fire a series of smaller flashes during the whole exposure time. This works but it lessens the light output of the flash.

Anyway, this is not a real simple procedure and I'd recommend you read more about it.

If you want to know what most people do, they probably have either studio strobes or hot-shoe strobes and they trigger with wireless triggers, Elinchrome, Pocket Wizards, Radio Poppers or similar types.

[Mike-DT6]

Whaase

The Strobist site will tell you everything you need to know:

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

The On Assignment section has plenty of examples, including some scenarios that talk you through achieving what you are trying to do. This one is along the lines of what you are trying to achieve:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/06/free-custom-backdrops-delivered-daily.html

Although not bright daylight the principles are the same, subject to the technical issues described By Gooble above.

It's all a matter of balancing the light available from your flash with the ambient light, in a ratio that gives you the effect you want - assuming that equipment limitations don't dictate otherwise! :-)

Mike

[jra]

You need powerful strobes but you also need to be able to use HSS (high speed sync) or FP mode of your camera and flash units.

You wouldn't necessarily need HSS, you could use a ND filter to slow down your shutter speed while allowing a fairly large aperture.

[gooble]

You wouldn't necessarily need HSS, you could use a ND filter to slow down your shutter speed while allowing a fairly large aperture.

True, but on the one hand you'd have less flash power due to HSS and on the other you're blocking ambient as well as flash light with ND's. Either way you're reducing the effectiveness of the flash, I guess was my point.

[Muskydave22]

but doesnt aperature control flash light not shutter speed since flashes are usually less than 1/3000th of a second or something like that?

dave

[gooble]

but doesnt aperature control flash light not shutter speed since flashes are usually less than 1/3000th of a second or something like that?

dave

Yes, but what are you responding to?

[vadim_c]

...
You need powerful strobes but you also need to be able to use HSS (high speed sync) or FP mode of your camera and flash units. Midday sun is bright and to underexpose it some you need to use a very small aperture, which may not be creatively what you want, or a fast shutter speed. Using fast shutter speeds with flashes introduces a problem though as the flash duration is very fast and fast shutters are not open all at once.

Once the shutter reaches a certain speed, the HSS speed, to expose less light to the sensor it forms a slit that travels across the sensor so at any given moment only a small portion of the sensor is exposed to light. The problem is the flash is still quicker and it will fire and end before the shutters have had a chance to expose the whole sensor so you'll get only a portion of your picture with flash exposure. To get the whole frame exposed by the flash the flash must insted fire a series of smaller flashes during the whole exposure time. This works but it lessens the light output of the flash.

Anyway, this is not a real simple procedure and I'd recommend you read more about it.

If you want to know what most people do, they probably have either studio strobes or hot-shoe strobes and they trigger with wireless triggers, Elinchrome, Pocket Wizards, Radio Poppers or similar types.
Do you know any strobes that support HSS ? I don't

[gooble]

Do you know any strobes that support HSS ? I don't

I was mainly talking about hot-show strobes. My knowledge of studio strobes is limited but I didn't think HSS on them was common, if available at all.

And it could be that HSS is only common on Canon and Nikon systems, I just don't know.

[mellofelow]

The new pocket wizards has a feature called Hypersync. It allows sync'ing studio strobe into thousands of sec. See example in this post... #40.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=708114&page=3