Flash Technique

I was watching a America's Next Top Model and a Australian photographer was shooting in a middle of the day.But pictures turn out like they were shoot in a middle of the night,models were nicely lit but all around them was black like it was night.He was shooting with a BIG ring flash that was all around the lens.How to achieve this look?Is it doable with 420ex?How to set up parameters on 20D?

Thanks in advance.

To underexpose daylight with flash, you need a very small aperture. If "sunny 16" is 1/100 at f/16, then 1/200 at f/32 would be three stops underexposed.

It takes a lot of flash power to overcome this at portrait distance. A big ring flash could do it, a 420EX could not. However, with a 420EX you could accomplish this sort of effect at very close distance for macro type stuff.

sasa007 wrote in post #3274471
I was watching a America's Next Top Model and a Australian photographer was shooting in a middle of the day.But pictures turn out like they were shoot in a middle of the night,models were nicely lit but all around them was black like it was night.He was shooting with a BIG ring flash that was all around the lens.How to achieve this look?Is it doable with 420ex?How to set up parameters on 20D?

Thanks in advance.

I bet he was using a MF camera with a leaf shutter that can be synced with a flash at a much faster shutter speed than a 20D can with its focal plane shutter.

wouldnt underexposing and using an ND filter and cranking up the flash output help? i've been boggled by the technique mentioned in the OP's post for quite some time now.

Neo_gen3sis wrote in post #3277942
wouldnt underexposing and using an ND filter and cranking up the flash output help? i've been boggled by the technique mentioned in the OP's post for quite some time now.

ND filters block light from your flash just as well as they block ambient light ... so there's nothing to be gained there (in fact, there's much to be lost). Unless you use a grad ND very cleverly ...

The issue is, quite simply, that your flash needs to be a few stops brighter than 1/250 worth of sunlight (or 1/500, if you're using a leaf shutter camera). No speedlight is *that* bright. Big studio strobes or ring flashes can do it though.

What you *could* experiment with is HSS ... but I suspect you'll hit the limit of your speedlight's power pretty quickly there too.

A DSLR with electronic shutter like Nikon D70 could sync at very high speed, even higher than MF cameras. Otherwise you must have ND filters and powerful strobes to underexpose ambient light.

hoanginc wrote in post #3278483
A DSLR with electronic shutter like Nikon D70 could sync at very high speed, even higher than MF cameras. Otherwise you must have ND filters and powerful strobes to underexpose ambient light.

I'm afraid not.

MF will sync at any speed - the aperture leafs are also the shutter - cant beat it for flash / daylight exposures.

High sync speed flash (multiple flashes) with dslr's you lose too much output and is only any good for close range.

steveathome wrote in post #3279390
I'm afraid not.

MF will sync at any speed - the aperture leafs are also the shutter - cant beat it for flash / daylight exposures.

High sync speed flash (multiple flashes) with dslr's you lose too much output and is only any good for close range.

Almost, not quite.
The aperture and shutter are two different units.
The shutter is a leaf shutter however, and exposes the entire frame at all speeds, while a curtain shutter will form a small slit at speeds faster then the sync speed.

The D70 offers a sync speed of 1/500s. No HSS needed.
1/500s about as fast as most leaf shutters go. With a few exceptions that go up to 1/1000s. You could loose flash power then however, since the full blast of a flash can be longer then that.

Many thanks Rene, I am in no way arguing with you, I understand this to be so with say a hassleblad or similar, but what about some of the twin lens reflex camera's, I was sure there was no second shutter with them?

I thought that was how they remained so quite in operation?

As said not arguing just keen to learn.

That's because there is no *mirror* slapping up and down...

Doh forgot about that (I haven't been to bed yet, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it)
Still didn't know about the second shutter on them though.
Cheers

steveathome wrote in post #3279390
I'm afraid not.

MF will sync at any speed - the aperture leafs are also the shutter - cant beat it for flash / daylight exposures.

High sync speed flash (multiple flashes) with dslr's you lose too much output and is only any good for close range.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear. I was talking about true high speed sync flash on cameras like D70 not the multiple-flash sync of most DSLRs. The D70 uses an electronic shutter when shutter speed's faster than 1/250s. Basically the camera turns the shutter on and off for the duration of the shutter, that's why it can sync at any shutter speed (depends on the flash duration of the strobe as well). This ability is unique to electronic shutter cameras only and most of the DSLRs on the market now use the mechanical shutter.

hoanginc wrote in post #3279729
Sorry I didn't make myself clear. I was talking about true high speed sync flash on cameras like D70 not the multiple-flash sync of most DSLRs. The D70 uses an electronic shutter when shutter speed's faster than 1/250s. Basically the camera turns the shutter on and off for the duration of the shutter, that's why it can sync at any shutter speed (depends on the flash duration of the strobe as well). This ability is unique to electronic shutter cameras only and most of the DSLRs on the market now use the mechanical shutter.

The max sync speed of the Nikon D70 is 1/500. You can't sync the flash any faster than that in "normal" sync mode without using multi-pulsing HSS mode. The same is true with the original 1D which also has a mechanical and electronic shutter.

PacAce wrote in post #3279823
The max sync speed of the Nikon D70 is 1/500. You can't sync the flash any faster than that in "normal" sync mode without using multi-pulsing HSS mode. The same is true with the original 1D which also has a mechanical and electronic shutter.

That max sync speed can be exceeded; however, you have to cover a certain contact on the hotshoe to go higher than that (assuming you mount the flash on the camera). With studio strobes you can sync at 1/1000 and there's never any dreaded black bars

hoanginc wrote in post #3280855
That max sync speed can be exceeded; however, you have to cover a certain contact on the hotshoe to go higher than that (assuming you mount the flash on the camera). With studio strobes you can sync at 1/1000 and there's never any dreaded black bars

That's interesting about benig able to sync at faster than 1/500 by covering one of the hotshoe pins. Wonder why Nikon didn't just make that a feature.

Re syncing a studio strobe at 1/1000 or faster, you will also be getting less light from the strobe by doing that since you're closing the shutter before the strobe has had a chance to discharge all of it's output.