See the difference between natural light, flash and high speed sync
Mar 1, 2017
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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there plenty of ways to achieve the lighting you want or use the one you have. In this video from Derrel Ho-Shing, you’ll see differences between three different light sources and setups. He’s shooting the model using natural light, a flash, and high speed sync. Same model, same location, same time of day – yet pretty different results. Which one is your favorite?
Derrel uses a Canon 5D Mark IV and a Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art lens. As for the flash, he uses Flashpoint Streak Light 360 with Godox Octa Softbox.
First, he takes a shot with natural light only. He sets the camera to 1/1000 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100. Pretty neat results!
Next, he uses the flash with its native sync speed. This time he shoots at f/5.6 as he needs to slow the shutter speed down. If he shot with f/1.4, he’d get a way overexposed photo. So, here are the results:
The light on the model is fine, but the background is not blurred enough and it’s very distracting. You have to shoot with wider aperture, and in order not to have an overexposed photo, you have two solutions. First, you can use an ND filter and second, you can use high speed sync. And Derrel demonstrates high speed sync. He sets the camera to 1/3200 sec, f/1.4 and ISO 100 and fires away. Much better.
After the first series of shots, he takes another, with the model sitting on the bench. The order is the same: natural light, a flash, and high speed sync. And the background problem is the same with flash: it’s too sharp and distracts from the subject. Here are the results, so you can compare:
Personally, I prefer the photos taken with natural light only, and I generally try to use the natural light if there’s enough of it. But if my flash had fast enough sync speed, I’d definitely use the flash more. What about you? What’s your favorite example from these? And what kind of light do you mainly use?
[Natural Light vs Flash vs High Speed Sync | Derrel Ho-Shing]
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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10 responses to “See the difference between natural light, flash and high speed sync”
I like the High Speed Synch !
Or you could use a standard flash (without high speed synch) and a ND filter on the lens to be able to use f1.4, iso 100 and 1/250. You will get the same result without sucking your batteries to death at each shot. :) The differences of render are due to the balance between the natural and the artificial lights and the depth of field (the aperture), not to the HSS capability of the flash. :)
But you’ll also suffer from focusing problems and flare – nd filters can be more trouble than they’re worth sometimes.
Definitely prefer the HSS shot. For better comparison, he should have gone to Max sync speed for the flash photo.
Unfortunately i dont have HSS (FP on my reflex). I’m planning to invest on a new body. (actually have D5500)
Not really a huge fan of the HSS versions of these photos. Maybe because the backgrounds look too underexposed. Also don’t like the shadows the flash is creating, I think he could’ve gotten better results using a larger softbox.
I like to use flash at really low power, just to kick the shadow detail….sometime I’ve seen it being used way too much…
These are OK though
Natural light
…
Is it just me, or are all the images extremly soft? The subject isnt crisp in any of the images.