Post your Portrait shots!

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Jip

Senior Member
Seriously guys I hope you guys know that as soon as your flash goes into HSS mode you lose power, the light will be less intense since the flash has to strobe multiple flashes I stead of one.

Unless you use big of camera flashes there is no reportage flashgun yet to be able to HSS at the same intensity as it can when it just flashes once.

Once it goes into HSS it has to flash many times while your shutter curtain goes past the sensor, almost invisible to the human eye... if you’d want to do this at full power you’d either burn your flash and need a bigger capacitor. The flash acts more as a constant light rather than a flash.

Sure you can set flash at maximum in manual mode and it’ll automatically go do it’s HSS dance once the shutter speed is faster than the syncspeed of your camera. This does however change the intensity of the flash light.

Why else would Leica, Hasselblad and other brands spent a lot of money creating lenses/cameras with higher sync speeds like 1/800 for Hasselblad and 1/1000 for Leica etc. Why would they if HSS would be working fine... HSS has too many drawbacks to make it the standard for photographers working a lot with flash outdoors.
 
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Jip

Senior Member
I quote here from the Nikon website:

“This strobing action takes an enormous amount of flash power, and the flash essentially divides up the amount of light into segments as the shutter travels. The faster the shutter speed, the less flash power is available.”

See url: High Speed Sync: A Flash Technique from Nikon

HSS is NOT a replacement for high sync speed shutters, since you always have a intensity/power loss. So in short: Any speed above your camera's sync speed = loss of power. This why I like the 1/1000 sync speed of my S lenses, maximum power up until 1/1000th.
 
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snpr9696

Senior Member
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spb_stan

Senior Member
I was not aware that some people believe that HSS is full power over the entire frame, that would be a pretty hefty discharge capacitor the could supply that much energy for each pulse, maybe the size of studio strobe just for the capacitor. It is like any other reservoir, it has a total static capacity to which it can be filled. When releasing the energy, it does not matter in what size chucks the aggregate of the pulses whether 1 pulse or 1000 pulses, the maximum energy released is the same. ! pulse for full discharge or 1000 pulsed combined for the same full discharge. The difference in studio strobes is the rate the capacitor can be recharged, using AC mains, the charge rate can be hundreds of times faster to replenish. Pocket flashes are wonderfully efficient, cost effective and flexible but they have very practical limits of what 4 little AA cells can supply. That is easy to get around, use 10 of them with a cost somewhat less than a battery operated strobe, but at the cost of hassle supplying 40 cells, charging them for 2 hours and reinstalling.
It really comes down to need. If a shot NEEDS more light you have the option of supplying more light or telling the client you need to do it another way. There is ALWAYS another way to get a shot, it will not be the exact shot but it would be a creative solution to a technical problem the client does not need to know about. If creative solutions were so cut and dry, getting a book or watching Youtube video would put all the pro photographers out of business. The difference between pros who earn their keep and luck amateurs is consistently being about to solve these problems in novel ways that look simple only after it is done the first time.
For most cases however when an amateur runs into a limitation it is lack of experience that causes him to not think of a solution without spending money on equipment.
Amateurs to great work..sometimes.And probably in total produce more great images than pros because they, as a class of photographers totaling several billion people worldwide, it is save to say the best images come from amateurs. Pros do it often enough however on demand to make it worth using their services instead of combing the world for the shot that is no doubt better among amateurs.
 
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spb_stan

Senior Member
Here is a shot taken outside on a sidewalk with single flash and a reflector, overcast daylight this last Friday. D800, 105mm f/2.8 160 ISO 1/640 Manual exposure.
She wanted photos done but posed with a silly selfie type smile so waited until she was distracted and not thinking of posing and snapped it. Behind the monument to Catherine the Great in St Petersburg Russia. I was taking photos of other girls who asked to do shots out in the city when this girl who I did not know asked if I would do some of her. Since it was overcast and had been raining 30 minutes before, the fill of shadows did not require much power. Everything in manual mode
olga-aug4.jpg
 
J

Jip

Senior Member
spb_stan said:
I was not aware that some people believe that HSS is full power over the entire frame, that would be a pretty hefty discharge capacitor the could supply that much energy for each pulse, maybe the size of studio strobe just for the capacitor.
Click to expand...

Why thought exactly... I had to explain it 5 times, and still some just told me I'm WRONG, ha! That made me chuckle... Once I responded with an article by Nikon, no more reply was send... guess they can't handle the fact they were wrong...

Whenever I'm wrong even though I believed I was right to begin with, I swallow and appreciate the fact that I have learned something that day, if you can't do that you won't progress ever and you stagnate at the lever you are at.

Just my few cents.
 
J

Jip

Senior Member
Nice shot there, love the exposure, except maybe a bit distracting 'ugly' background, but then again this is a sort of candid shot right?! :)
 
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spb_stan

Senior Member
Jip said:
Nice shot there, love the exposure, except maybe a bit distracting 'ugly' background, but then again this is a sort of candid shot right?! :)
Click to expand...
Thank you, it was not really supposed to be a candid but made sure it was. I was on the sidewalk on a busy street shooting a friend for her portfolio when the one in the photo approached and asked for photos.I took a couple but she was doing the cheesy big grin people do when taking snap shots so acted as if I was fiddling with the camera for a bit until she released the grim, tightened face muscles and while she was glancing further down the sidewalk, took one I wanted, of her relaxed normal expression. I used 105mm on a 70-200 so had a little distance so it was easier to not be noticed. .The background is busy because there are about 15 people walking on the main street. I usually try to get a more serious look because it shows more of the person, and their thoughts than a posed smiling shot. The day before I got one of a new acquaintance where I started to give a little posing direction and she gave me 3-4 "looks" in rapid but fluid transition like a skilled model but she insist she never trained as a model. I posted one, her hand is perfectly flexed, and slightly parted lips that gave an aloof glamour image, sort of a street High Key blown background shot.
https://nikonites.com/portrait/39885-sidewalk-portrait-marina.html#axzz4p7rrgAS5

She went from that look smoothly into a serious direct head down tilted, eyes upcast that complete changed her appearance. Then glided into one where she held her hair just with fingertips with splayed fingers, with each joint flexed so a innocent questioning look. I had just met her and she had never modeled before but how she knew how to glide between poses and stop long enough for a few shots, keeping limb flexed or presenting angles that were flattering is not a natural way people approach a camera, with total body awareness. I will try to do more of her away from the street, where the backgrounds can be featured. That day I was using my D7000 which is still a viable camera. The shot here of the stranger was a D800. If one more person tells me my camera is old or not up to date because it is a third generation back I'll hit them. When a camera does not get in the way, it is fine. If people would keep whatever they have longer maybe their shots would stop looking like Aunt Mable's tourist snap shots. For a lot less money they do better by just using what they have if used in a more deliberate way. Interesting portraits could easily be done with a D40,one does not need a $2000 camera to hold a $50 lens. Good use of a home made reflector or $5 home made scrim will do more than upgrading cameras. That is my little pet peeve. Using what one has, more deliberately will deliver interesting images far easier than by buying the latest and greatest bodies.
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Those are great, good light, colors, and expression, but would look even better with a tighter crop like the other portraits on this page. Just my opinion...
 
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