Catching another tog's flash - what are the odds?

sammyd56

sammyd56

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A question for the statisticians out there. If there is a single photographer shooting next to you - what are the odds of catching a burst of his flash? :thinking:

My shutter speed is 1/500 and I'm not shooting bursts. The other tog, using an SB-900 in TTL mode, is not exactly rattling off frames either.

crazyflash-1.jpg
 
Happened a lot at the last wedding I did. Dunno what the odds are though - especially ad there was only two of you.

Best do the lotto tonight mate :D
 
Nice. You know if you sell this pic you now need to give the other bloke half the profit. :P

I often wonder how people manage at those press conference where there seem to be 50 flashes going off every second. There must be so many shots ruined by catching 4 flashes at once. Maybe they have to take this in to account and deliberately underexpose.
 
The Matt said:
Nice. You know if you sell this pic you now need to give the other bloke half the profit. :P

I often wonder how people manage at those press conference where there seem to be 50 flashes going off every second. There must be so many shots ruined by catching 4 flashes at once. Maybe they have to take this in to account and deliberately underexpose.
Click to expand...

I've wondered about that as well. I've also wondered how the people speaking don't end up epileptic or blind!
 
As well as catching another photographers flash in the exposure, presumeably there's good odds of it interfering with the preflashes/metering too, thereby causing your flash to underexpose.
 
Take a look at any of the pap photos in the paper that are shot in the dark/gloom and you'll see the unmistakable odd shadows and strange lighting of a pile of togs flashes all firing every which way.

Personally, I think its an effect that can look quite good - if what you are trying to convey is a person in the media spotlight.
 
Given that the photographers are looking for the same bit of 'action' and (being humans) react at roughly the same rate to visual stimulus I doubt it is that uncommon.
 
As I said, when its a pap scrum and less than normal daylight you get the mass of blasted flashes, like this:

btccoct6.jpg


(Thats the 2009 British Touring Car Champion celebrating his season win - hundreds of press togs trying to capture the moment in the October gloom)
 
as for the probability, to simplify it, if you say, two photographers take a photo in the same second, whats the chance of catching the other ones flash. then at your 1/500 shutter speed the shutter is open for 1/500'th of a second, if the flash goes off in this time you have caught it, so the probability is 1/500. Ive caught other flashes but it was at something like 1/30-1/80, which is considerably more likely.

The probability is skewed further if you consider the probability of taking within the same second, but then if something is happening to take a photo of then that is more likely, as is the time within the second that the picture is taken.
 
Happened to me at the I'm a photographer, not a terrorist demo in Trafalgar Square in January

4298678896_aedfe18783.jpg


1/100 sec exposure, FWIW
 
If you throw in the fact that many (?most) DSLRs use a pre-flash to meter as well as the possibility of red-eye-reduction settings causing several flashes, I would think that the chances of catching someone else's flash (of some sort) were fairly high.
 
This is the only time it's ever happened to me.

3458156115_1a6c9cda04.jpg


It's an image I still like. I think the silohette of the other tog is great.
 
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