Flash Portraits - what shutter speed ?

[mikeyw]

Guys,

I often shoot indoor flash portraits at 1/60th of the family to try and give a softer more flatering result. I shoot is S mode to allow the camera to select the aperture. Sometimes i'm seeing the result a little
out of focus due to my camera shake or the subject moving. Is 1/60th a litte too slow for consisently sharp results...Would 1/125th be a safer option ?

What shutter speeds do people tend to use indoors with external bounced flash ?

Any tips on better portrait technique very much apperciated.

Mike.

 

[Janice]

The flash should keep the subjects still and the shutterspeed will sort out the background/ambient light. 1/60 is fine although the bg maybe a bit blurred but they not be an issue if its a club or something.

1/125 or the relevant flash sync speed should be fine but you will get quite a dark background using that.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

You should ideally be shooting in manual, the shutter speed doesn't have any effect on the flash lit portion of the image, only on the ambient light. As the burst of flash is so brief (as little as 1/20,000 of a second) aperture is what controls the flash-lit part.

 

[Steve Smith]

If you have a focal plane shuuter then you need to shoot at or slower than the highest sync speed your camera can handle. You will need to look in the manual for that.

With flash the shutter speed is not relevant unless you are also recording ambient light.

The duration of the flash is very short so the aperture setting is used to control the flash exposure. If you also have ambient light then the shutter speed is used to balance this.

If you are getting camera shake with flash exposure then you are probably including a high percentage of ambient light in with the exposure.

Older 35mm cameras used to sync at around 1/30 or 1/60. Your D40 probably works faster than 1/125.

Actually, I just looked it up. It works up to 1/500 so you could try that.

Although 1/125 or 1/250 would be plenty fast enough.



Steve.

 

[levihaynes]

Guys,

I often shoot indoor flash portraits at 1/60th of the family to try and give a softer more flatering result. I shoot is S mode to allow the camera to select the aperture. Sometimes i'm seeing the result a little
out of focus due to my camera shake or the subject moving. Is 1/60th a litte too slow for consisently sharp results...Would 1/125th be a safer option ?

What shutter speeds do people tend to use indoors with external bounced flash ?

Any tips on better portrait technique very much apperciated.

Mike.

me too

I set the camera to manual and 1/60 F4 but use an external bounce flash. I get good results 95% of the time and the rest is usually my fault

 

[mikeyw]

You should ideally be shooting in manual, the shutter speed doesn't have any effect on the flash lit portion of the image, only on the ambient light. As the burst of flash is so brief (as little as 1/20,000 of a second) aperture is what controls the flash-lit part.

I'm a little confused now - if in the pic the subject is not exposed at 1/60th just the ambient light how come they can appear soft at times ?....is this only possible by a focussing problem ?

 

[mikeyw]

If you have a focal plane shuuter then you need to shoot at or slower than the highest sync speed your camera can handle. You will need to look in the manual for that.

With flash the shutter speed is not relevant unless you are also recording ambient light.

The duration of the flash is very short so the aperture setting is used to control the flash exposure. If you also have ambient light then the shutter speed is used to balance this.

If you are getting camera shake with flash exposure then you are probably including a high percentage of ambient light in with the exposure.

Older 35mm cameras used to sync at around 1/30 or 1/60. Your D40 probably works faster than 1/125.


Actually, I just looked it up. It works up to 1/500 so you could try that.

Although 1/125 or 1/250 would be plenty fast enough.

Steve.

Thanks Steve - Do I need to tell it to sync at 1/125 or will it do it automatically if the shutter speed is set to the 1/125 ?...i think i'll dig out my manual and do some reading :|