How do I lengthen shutter speed with out washing out the picture?

Question

I read this question, and I tried some long exposure shots myself. Every one of my shots though, is washed out. How do I achieve a long shutter speed while keeping the lighting natural?

Asked by J. Walker

Answer

You still need to expose correctly! Exposure is covered in depth in this answer. What you've done is increase one leg of the exposure, by using a longer shutter speed. Now you need to decrease the overall exposure by the same amount to get back to a properly-exposed image.

So for example, if your camera's exposure meter told you to take a picture at 1/60 s, and you carried all the settings over to manual mode but changed the shutter speed to 1/4 s, you have added four stops of light to your exposure and need to remove them.

You can reduce the exposure through in-camera settings:

• lower your ISO, as long as you weren't already shooting at the lowest ISO ("for the best quality"). If you were at 200 ISO, though, you could get one stop back by lowering the ISO to 100.
• use a smaller aperture. If you were already at f/11 to get the most depth of field for your picture, or if you're using a P&S camera without good aperture control, there's not much you can do here. But if you were shooting wide open you should be able to get several stops back.

You can also try to reduce the exposure by decreasing the amount of light coming in to your lens. There are two ways to do this:

• if you're impatient, use a filter. There are several strengths of ND filters, which are rated by how many stops of light they restrict. Polarizing filters typically cut out between 1 and 2 stops of light and also have other uses, so if you just want to buy one filter, a circular polarizer might be a better value than an ND filter.
• shoot when there's less light. Either wait for a cloudy day, or shoot at dawn/dusk, or shoot at night.

Answered by drewbenn

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What camera has the highest number of frames per second?

Question

This is not meant to have any opinions; simply number-to-number comparison.

Asked by Timothy Mueller-Harder

Answer

Vision Research Phantom cameras are very fast. The Flex can shoot 2,800 fps at full HD (1920x1080). At lower resolutions, the v711 can shoot at 1.4 million fps!

Answered by Dan Wolfgang

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What does it mean to “kill the ambient”?

Question

I have heard of a technique called "killing the ambient" in flash photography. What does it mean and how do I do it? This similar existing post I believe is separate enough to warrant this question - What exactly is flash sync speed, and should it be a factor in a buying decision?

Answer

You 'kill the ambient' when you set the flash(es) power high enough so that at the chosen aperture, shutter speed and ISO the contribution made by ambient light is insignificant to the picture. In other words, taking the picture in full darkness with flash only while all other variables are the same would give you the same result.

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How does the power of a flash relate to the duration of the flash pulse?

Question

Specifically for my Nikon SB-700, but also for flashes in general - how does the power setting relate to the duration of the pulse? Basically, is the power normally controlled by cutting down on the duration of the flash, or by more/less intense pulses?

I've not been able to find the duration of the flash pulse at each power setting anywhere. Also, I realize that the pulse isn't a perfect square, so is "duration" normally measured as the time from the beginning of any output to the end of any output, or say the shortest time window that contains 90% of the output?

Answer

This is one of the key differences between "speed light" hotshoe flashes and traditional studio lighting. With studio lighting, flash power is determined by the amount of capacitor charge, the duration increases (slightly) for lower-powered flashes. For hotshoe flashes, the capacitor is charged to full but the burst of light stopped when the proper amount is delivered (traditionally, by an electronic component called a thyristor).

One thing that makes the Nikon flash system awesome is that Nikon makes by far the best manuals for their flashes. Only Metz comes close. You can find a chart of duration at each power setting on page H17 of the SB-700 manual:

Flash duration (approx.)   1/1042 sec. at M1/1 (full) output
   1/1136 sec. at M1/2 output
   1/2857 sec. at M1/4 output
   1/5714 sec. at M1/8 output
  1/10000 sec. at M1/16 output
  1/18182 sec. at M1/32 output
  1/25000 sec. at M1/64 output
  1/40000 sec. at M1/128 output

As you note, this a curve, and you're exactly right that the normal means of specifying the duration do not measure the entire "long tail" of the curve. There's two values usually used: T.5 and T.1. The first, T.5, is the time that the flash pulse brightness is above 50% of the peak, and T.1 is the time that the pulse is above 10%. That's a little different from saying 90% of the output — which would maybe be more meaningful for photographers, but would be more calculation to determine. With these numbers, you just look at the peak and then figure out where the cut-off is on either side of the curve, and measure between those two points.

Generally, flash makers give T.5 rather than T.1, since that's a) slightly easier to measure and b) gives results which sound more impressive. For studio lights, the T.1 value is more useful and better reflects the real effect on exposure, but for speed lights, the abrupt cut-off means that at anything but full power, T.1 and T.5 are roughly the same.

Because these numbers are so low even at full power, I suspect that they are T.5 values (I don't see Nikon saying either way, which is generally means T.5), but since Nikon flashes are so nice, it's possible that they are T.1.

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What would be the fastest memory card for a D5000 that is worth buying?

Question

I own a D5000 and I wonder what memory card to buy for it. I will keep the kit 4GB and downgrade it to "backup" card probably (I will keep it always on me).

Considering a RAW image (I shoot RAW exclusively) is around 10MB and this card cannot shoot faster than 4 frames/second (it's bottlenecked by the internal buffer memory, RIGHT?! Not the memory card?) then it's safe to assume a 40MB/sec card should suffice.

But I'm not sure. Am I correct?

So what speed should suffice for a memory card put in my D5000?

Answer

Burst mode with RAW format will always be bottle-necked by standard SD-cards. I use a class 10 16GB card in my D5000 and I really don't see a noticeable different in the burst speed once the buffer is full compared to the old class 4 card I had. That's why pro cameras still use compact-flash and have larger buffers, it's much faster.

Edit to clarify SD card classes:

The class number is the minimum write speed in megabytes/second when the data on the card is fragmented. So a class 10 card will always be faster in the worst case than a class 4. The class number has nothing to do with the maximum write speed or the latency of the card however. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Speed_Class_Rating

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How does one photograph a car race?

Question

I have an opportunity to attend a Grand Prix later this summer, and am looking for some tips and advice on how to capture the action with my DSLR. I know little about racing, so this will be a unique experience for me.

There are a lot of places to seat myself around the course; does anyone know where the better locations may be will be? The map of the event is illustrated here: http://www.baltimoregrandprix.com/track.cfm

I expect there to be a ton of people, a lot of chaos, fast action, and a lot of things blocking my view, so any advice on how to get some interesting shots at this race would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

Location

Find a spot with a clear view of a turn or a curve on the race track, and get as close to the ground as you possibly can. However, there will be tall fences around the race course in Baltimore to keep spectators out and flying debris in, so the view from the lowest seats might be partially obstructed.

While the cars will be going faster on the straight segments, you'll probably see more interesting action around the curves due to braking and acceleration.

Try to get to the venue as early as you possibly can to beat the crowd. Inquire what it takes to get access as a news photographer if you're really serious about getting in. Who knows, maybe freelancing for a local news publication is all it takes, depending on the venue and organization that puts the event together.

Ideally, find a spot where you can stand up, but be conscious of people behind you so you don't obstruct their view.

Tripod

You might not be allowed to bring a tripod, but a monopod might be accepted by the event. Otherwise bring an umbrella and use that to support the camera when you pan slow-shutter shots of passing cars to freeze the car but get a nice motion-blurred background.

Mix it up

The cars will be passing many times, so take the opportunity to mix it up: Capture shots at super fast shutter times that freeze the motion and capture slow-shutter shots with and without panning so you get respectively motion-blurred cars and motion-blurred backgrounds.

Lens choice

You will want to bring a tele-lens with a long reach. If you can get close to a curve or corner then a 70-200 mm lens is sufficient, but a zoom with even longer reach will serve you better if you aren't able to scope out and reserve the spot beforehand. Unless thunderclouds roll in and darken the skies, then it should matter less whether you have a fast lens or not.

If you can't find a great spot up front, a lens with a long reach also gives you flexibility to try out the nosebleed seats where you might have a better chance at setting up without blocking the view of other spectators.

Examples

Below are two examples I shot from the Long Beach Grand Prix 2011 test runs. I was on my way to the waterfront in Long Beach, CA, when I heard the angry buzz of race cars so I followed the noise and got the chance to practice some high-speed action shots. I couldn't get right next to the track but an elevated viewpoint--maybe three stories up--turned out to work pretty well. I never leave without my 70-200 zoom lens, but a longer lens would have been better.

The Baltimore Grand Prix and the Long Beach Grand Prix are fairly close in concept; they are both races held on relatively narrow urban streets with many sharp turns.

Freezing the action: 200mm, f/2.8, ISO 160, 1/5000 (full size here)

Hand-held panning to blur the background: 200mm, f/18, ISO 100, 1/60 (full size here)

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How do I trigger the flash in a way that takes luck out of high-speed photography?

Question

I've tinkered with a bit of high speed photography (catching a water drop with low power flash in a dark room) and had success, but mostly through the volume of trials. I've got a shot in mind (I'd like to drop an Oreo into a glass of milk), and I'd like to minimize the number of tries it takes to work.

What techniques are there to help capture such shots?

UPDATE: Regarding the answers below, they touch on how to do high speed photography, but I was really hoping for a detailed technique for triggering the flash that was more than luck and at least more detailed than a link elsewhere. I may be hoping for too much, time will tell.

Answer

Because I am sometimes asked to do these sorts of shots as part of my business, where 'trial and error' is often incompatible with 'client budget,' I use a programmable intervalometer with a variety of sensors which give me that ability to capture the sorts of pictures where 'timing is everything.' Among other things over the years I've used such devices to capture images of bullets being fired, arrows flying, explosions, water drops, things being dropped into various types of liquid, 'shy' animals, and to 'slow down' industrial machines.

Although I've used many different systems, currently I use the Mumford Time Machine, and I've been very pleased with it.

While I realize that my answer may not appeal to everyone (DIYers, hobbyists, etc.), for someone with more money than time, or who is capturing these sorts of images professionally and doesn't have time to do it '600 times and pray one of them is usable,' there are definitely pro-level options that don't involve 'picking up a soldering iron.'

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