Original subtitles

Aperture brought us just a little twist, but

the real fun comes with the shutter speed

control combined with flash.

I've already mentioned in some previous lessons that

when I was beginning to use the flash,

I would put the flash on my camera

and I would instantly see my shutter speed

being stuck at maximum of 200th of a

second.

I also told you not to set your

shutter higher than 200th of a second in

previous practices.

So now let me finally explain what's going

on here.

The reason for this to happen, to have

our shutter not willing to go higher than

200th of a second, is that a lot

of flashes cannot synchronize their firing with the

camera quicker than this, so they simply leave

us stuck there.

However, some newer flashes come with the option

of HSS or High Speed Sync, meaning that

you can use them with shutter speeds of

up to 8000th of a second, which can

be useful in quite a lot of situations.

But before we crank up our shutter speed

if we have HSS, let's first see what

does actually shutter speed affect when our camera

is paired with flash.

And actually, I can explain it in one

sentence.

When we use the flash, our shutter speed

gives us the control of the exposure of

everything else but the part of the picture

that is lit with the flash.

In other words, the shutter speed gives us

the control over how much of the ambient

light we want to show in our photographs

when we're using the flash.

But isn't aperture doing exactly the same thing?

Well, no, it's not.

If we don't change our flash settings and

open up the aperture, our whole picture will

become brighter, including our subject.

Opening the aperture will affect both our subject

and the background.

But if we make our shutter speed lower,

our subjects will stay exposed completely the same

and we will just start seeing the rest

of the picture becoming brighter.

Let me show you two more extreme scenarios

so that you can actually understand how shutter

speed might affect your results in the future.

Okay, one might be that you're shooting in

the evening setting where the flash is usually

overpowering the available light.

If you leave the shutter at speed of

200 of a second, chances are that you

will only see your subject while the rest

of the photo will be completely dark.

By slowing down the shutter speed to, let's

say, 60th of a second, you will immediately

see a lot more of the ambience while

your subject will stay lit exactly the same

without ever changing your flash settings.

Now you might be thinking, well, will my

photos become blurry at shutter speed so low?

The good news is they won't.

Flash will basically freeze your subjects and make

them sharp, while the rest of the image

might get more and more blurry as you

slow down the shutter further.

So going down with shutter to, let's see,

1 fifth of a second and giving your

camera a bit of a shake, and there's

the dragging shutter effect that is commonly seen

in party shots like these.

But if you keep the shutter above 1

40th or 1 60th of a second, it's

probably gonna be fine and you're gonna end

up with sharp photos and a lot of

ambient light.

Just note that your flash has to be

stronger than the ambient light for this exercise

to work.

If the ambient light overpowers the flash, you

might start seeing that your subjects are also

getting blurry at these lower shutter speeds.

The point is to freeze your subjects with

the stronger light of the flash and then

give some time to the sensor to pick

up the rest of the ambient light around

them.

Okay, that's scenario number one.

Now scenario number two might be that you're

shooting in direct sunlight and you want to

shoot with flash, but you also want to

have shallow depth of field.

I already said that I'm not a fan

of this look, but it doesn't mean we

shouldn't learn how to achieve it.

In this case, we will need one of

two things.

Either a high speed sync function on our

flash or an ND filter, neutral density filter.

In case of high speed sync, a fast

shutter will help us take out the strength

of the sunlight so that we don't have

to close our aperture in order to expose

correctly.

Or if you don't have high speed sync

on your flash, a simple ND filter will

do the same effect as higher shutter, leaving

us with more space to open the aperture

in direct sunlight.

But both high speed sync and ND filters

come with some caveats.

I'll explain.

High speed sync is pretty simple to use.

If your flash has this option, you simply

turn it on.

And now you can raise your shutter speed

as high as you want.

That sounds pretty easy, right?

Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated than that.

When in HSS mode, the flash will actually

fire weaker than in regular mode.

How much weaker?

Well, depends really on the flash, but it

can go to up to four or five

steps lower than the full power.

And that sucks, I know.

And I will try to explain why this

happens without getting too technical.

When in HSS mode, the flash is not

firing once the shutter opens.

That what's actually happening is that the flash

starts pulsing repeatedly.

And it happens so fast that to us

humans, it still looks like a single flash.

I mean, it pulses only for the duration

of that fast shutter speed, like two thousandths

of a second.

But still, it must fire five, ten, twenty

times within that tiny fraction of a second.

And if you remember the talk about the

flash recycling time from the lesson about gear,

you will know that at some point during

this time, the flash has to recycle the

power.

Now, if you have ever fired a flash

manually at full power, you might have noticed

that it can take a half a second,

a second or even more to fire again.

So now you can guess how much on

power it has to cut in order to

be ready to pop the flash that many

times in that little fraction of a second.

OK, so if we want to keep it

simple and easy, then we should just stick

to ND filters, right?

Well, yeah, with ND filter, even in direct

sunlight, you might be able to keep the

shutter within the range of up to 200

of a second.

And now your full power on flash is

actually full power.

But you need to get a decent ND

filter.

Otherwise, you might kill your image quality.

You can get some color shifts or make

your pictures just lose sharpness.

So you need to spend a couple hundred

for this upgrade.

And then you have your expensive ND filter

and you have to screw it on and

off every now and then.

And that takes time.

So while we're playing by screwing our ND

filters, some important moments might be happening in

the background.

So that's why I honestly don't use ND

filters.

And I also don't use HSS.

I really don't mind having my aperture closed

for the reasons I've already mentioned in previous

lessons.

But this is something that, again, comes down

only to personal taste and preference.

I like to keep things simple.

And that's just me.

You should do you anyway.

And I know this was a long lesson

and a lot of theory.

But with shutter speed being such an important

factor when it comes to flash photography, I

really wanted to make sure you get all

the information you might need.

And after all, if you choose to go

the simple way like I do, I don't

want you to do that for the lack

of knowledge, but for your purposeful choice.

So to wrap it up, if there is

one thing I want you to take out

from this lesson, it's that when you use

the flash, the shutter speed will give you

the control over the exposure of everything else,

but the part of the picture that is

lit with the flash.

That's shutter speed in a nutshell.

All right, get a break if you need

it.

And we can then continue to our next

lesson, which I think is going to be

way easier.

And that's setting our ISO settings with flash.

See you there.