Critique Welcomed Air over Sedona

[Chris Dodkin]

One of the 'features' of the X-Pro1, is a maximum flash sync speed of 1/180 - so when using flash for even fill duty, you have to work with this as you highest shutter speed.

I wanted to revisit the skate park in Sedona with Son #1 (who does inline skating) and only had the X-Pro1 to capture the shot.

So 'creative speed blur' is the order of the day - no choice as I needed fill flash

So here we go, taken from about 1" off the deck, 18mm lens, MF set to 2' - fill flash

 

[Brian Moore]

Very cool shoot, Chris!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Agreed. The limitations have worked in your favour this time.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I have been thinking about this over night - couple of thoughts...

If I'd remembered to pack the X100, it would have allowed sync at up to 1/2000, due to it's shutter design - so I could have gone with the frozen in time/space shot - doh!

I wonder if I set the X-Pro1 up to expose two stop under the exposure for the ambient light - making the flash the dominant light source on the foreground subject - would I have frozen the action with the short burt of flash?

The backdrop would be darker, but the ambient light wouldn't have illuminated the subject as it moved during the exposure, so I'm guessing the actual flash exposure would have been shorter than 1/2000, and would have frozen the action, with a dark shadow effect showing the movement.

Anyone any thoughts on this as an approach?

 

[Brian Moore]

Stage it again next time you're lad is available with his board. I think what you describe sounds very visually appealing. (Sorry I can't contribute any thoughts on the technical details, Chris; don't know enough about flash and shutter speeds etc.)

 

[Steve Boykin]

I also must plead ignorance on the flash-sync speed-stuff, that I'm way to stoopid to understand.

That said, I like it like this. That's a cool photo! And I would add, one that catches the spirit of the thing.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I was going to suggest that you still have the x100 ...
Although, If you want that look where the person is frozen with flash light with a trail behind them you don't necessarily want high speed sync. A lower speed will capture more ambient light and with the flash set to rear curtain you will get the blur behind the flash-lit and frozen subject

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Mmmmm, not investigated 2nd curtain set-up on the X-pro - might be worth a punt I'd say - thx Hamish

 

[Hamish Gill]

No probs ... (I'm sure you know how to suck eggs )

 

[Pete Askew]

I'm sure as Hamish suggests that the rear curtain approach would look good but I really like the effect you have achieved here with just a touch of fill. I doubt that stops would have been enough to have eliminated movement from the ambient light. What about going extreme with a small aperture / low ISO (ND?) and using a more powerful, maybe off-camera, flash and a long exposure to get a bit of background?