I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
For the most part, we rarely need to use flash outside in natural light, as there is typically more than enough daylight to capture the images we need. But, what if we wanted to add a little life to those boring, stationary images?
I recently reviewed the Godox V100 speedlight, and during that review, I played with a few setups, one of which was a simple outdoor setup in natural light. At first glance, the images seemed simple enough, but the shots also demonstrated a sense of movement from the subject.
This very cool motion effect is achieved through long exposure, and yes, typically long exposure leaves you with a blurry mess. However, when you couple that with a flash, you can capture a very cool and visually engaging blend of motion and a frozen subject in the same frame.
I did briefly explain this setup during a recent livestream, but I still had some questions about the details, and to be fair, I do think there are a few small, very important detials with this setup that can make the images significantly better in my opinion and I’ll be going over what those are here in more detial.
What do you need?
The good news is that this is a very easy setup to achieve for most people, as all you really need is a speedlight and a little bit of daylight. Can a different flash work? Yes, if you wanted to use a regular flash and have it placed on a light stand to one side, you can still achieve the same principle of movement and frozen action.
Do I need TTL?
TTL stands for Through The Lens, and it’s a clever technology that allows your flash to adjust its power based on the settings and ingredients you throw at it. Don’t get me wrong, TTL is incredible for setups like this, and it will certainly make your life significantly easier, allowing you to work faster and get more shots in a limited time. However, TTL is not required to make this work. If you don’t have TTL on your speedlight, you’ll just need to work a little harder, not moving too close or far away from the subject once you’ve locked in an initial speedlight power.
The Set Up
Background Choice
As I said, we’ll be setting this up outside, but that doesn't mean we can just do it anywhere. There are certainly things to look for when choosing a spot for this setup. I personally recommend finding a consistently toned background that doesn't have too many very bright and dark colours or highlights and shadows. We will be using this background as our long exposure backdrop, and if certain areas are far brighter or more colourful, they can ruin the long exposure effect by dominating the scene. I personally like the idea of a hedge or shrub, like you see me using here, as that gave me a very evenly toned backdrop to work with.
In the image above, you can see that it is still very much daylight outside. As a result, I brought in a large black flag to try to reduce the light hitting the model, but this wouldn’t have been necessary if I had waited another 30 minutes for the sun to set. You can also see a fan being used here. That is, of course, optional, but it’s another way to add some movement to the shot via some wind in the hair.
Keeping to the Shadows
In keeping with the aforementioned evenly toned background, I would recommend doing this setup in the shadows. Ideally, this setup would be done later in the day when you have a lot more long-thrown shadow areas to choose from and, better still, wait until the sun has just gone down for the best results. The reason for this is twofold: one, bright sunlight can make long exposure images very challenging to achieve, as the sun is simply too powerful, and two, we want an even-toned background with minimal highlights. As soon as the sun has gone down, you can achieve this setup almost anywhere you want.
Locking in the Exposure
This step is going to be the tricky one, but once you have this dialled in, you’re all set. Remember, we want to shoot long exposure shots. First, you need to determine what that means to you personally and the look you're going for. What I mean by that is, how much motion and blur do you want in your shot? For example, a 1-second exposure will give you a lot of motion in the background, versus a shutter speed of 1/15th, which will be far more subtle.
For me, I went for a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second. If you set your camera to that and take a picture outside, even after the sun has set, you’ll immediately see the first problem. The shot is bright, and I mean very bright. What we need to do now is bring that exposure down, whilst keeping that long exposure shutter speed. You have two options. First off, lower the ISO to as low as your camera will go. For me and my Nikon D850 (this is also one of the reasons I love Nikon), I have an ISO 25. This is equivalent to a 2-stop ND filter from a typical ISO 100 value, and I use it all the time.
With your ISO at its lowest, we next need to close down the aperture if the shot is still too bright (it will be). This varies, of course, but for reference, mine was set to f/11. The sun was still very much out for my setup, so that’s why I had to go so high on the aperture. If the sun has gone down for you, this will be less of an issue.
Background Exposure
In the previous section, I mentioned my settings, but I didn't explain what I was exposing for. At this stage, I haven't added the speedlight, so I’m only trying to expose for the background behind the model. For this shot, I don’t actually want the background to be correctly exposed, as I want the model to stand out. With this in mind, I opted to underexpose the background by 1 or 2 stops, and I’ll show an example below of what I mean.
On the left in the shot above, we can see what could be considered a ‘correctly’ exposed background. In the middle is what I set my camera to so as to darken that background down, and on the right, we have the model now standing in with no flash and an underexposed background.
Note that these are only example shots to demonstrate what I mean by underexposing the background, as I’m not using 1/8th of a second exposure here.
Exposing for the model
Once you have your background exposure locked down with your long exposure settings, all you have to do is turn the speedlight on and expose for the model.
If your speedlight has TTL…. you’re done. Simply start shooting.
I will say that although my V100 did have incredible TTL, I did opt to use the exposure compensator to reduce the brightness slightly by around 0.3 to 0.7. This just helped to avoid any blown highlights on the skin that can happen from direct flash.
If you don't have TTL, you just need to adjust the power of your speedlight manually until you’re happy. Of course, without TTL, adjusting for every shot as you and the model move, you’ll need to be conscious of how much you move around. Because as you or the model gets closer to one another at these shorter ranges, the exposure will jump up dramatically very quickly.
Adding the Movement
All that’s left to do now is add the movement. This may seem odd to many of you who’ve never done long exposure photography before, but the basics are quite simple: press the shutter and then immediately start shaking the camera around. There is, of course, a little more nuance to it than that once you know the effect you're going for, but ultimately, it's you moving the camera that creates the blurred effect.
The Final Shots
TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation
wait for the sun to go down
find a spot outside with even tone and non-contrasting colours
under-exposure your camera for the background with the shutter speed you want
turn on TTL on your speedlight
press the shutter and start swinging your camera about
Camera Settings
Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 24-70mm 2.8
Shutter Speed - 1/8th
Aperture - f11
ISO - 25
Kelvin - 5600K
Focal Length - 24mm
Further points to consider
Flash Zoom
Because I wanted to see movement in the image, I didn’t want the speedlight to freeze the entire frame. Most speedlights have a zoom function, which allows them to illuminate objects further away if needed with their longer zoom or to illuminate an entire group up close with their wider zoom. So, even though I was using this speedlight up close, I wanted to only flash the top half of the model, allowing the daylight and thus the long exposure movement to illuminate the bottom half.
To achieve this look, I simply set my V100 to maximum zoom, which is typically 105mm. You don’t need to do this, of course, but you may find that it's harder to see the movement in the shot, especially on the model, if her entire body is being lit and frozen by the flash.
The image on the left above is a normal, non-long-exposure image. See how there seems to be a pool of light illuminating the model’s top half? And as you look lower down the image, you’ll see that it gets darker. It’s by using this pool of light on the top half, thanks to the speedlight zoom, that we’re able to leave the bottom half unfrozen by flash. Look again at the right-hand image above, and you’ll see that the spots on the dress aren’t frozen as the flash never reaches them. It's this separation of movement against a frozen image that gives such a sense of movement and energy to the shot.
How much movement?
We’ve established how we technically achieve movement via our longer shutter speed, but how do we manage and control that movement? This is going to be the very creative aspect of this setup, and as I mentioned above, to those of you new to long exposure, it will seem very odd at first to start swinging your camera about after you've pressed the shutter.
On that note, I advise waiting until the shutter has been depressed before initiating the movement. If you start swinging the camera as the flash goes off, you’ll likely get unwanted movement in the final shot.
How you achieve the movement is up to you, but I'd recommend trying a few different motions to see what works best for you. Try moving the camera from left to right or vice versa to instil a sense of model movement. Try moving the camera straight up and down, or even try spinning the camera around using the lens as the axis. This will result in a very swirly pattern, and although very eye-catching, can be a little much.
Lastly, if you have a zoom lens, try taking the shot and then immediately twisting the lens to zoom into the subject while the shutter is open. This can create a very cool effect, and one that really draws the viewer into the shot.
In the example image displayed here, you can see that I've clearly spun the camera on the lens axis after the shot has been taken. By doing this, the further out you go from the centre of the shot, the more prominent and noticeable the motion effect is.
Lastly…
One final note to bear in mind is to use an L-bracket on your camera if you choose to shoot with your speedlight on your camera’s hot-shoe and in portrait orientation. If you fail to do this, your flash will be off to the side and not above the model's eye-line when you turn your camera on its side. This results in some ugly cross-lighting and unflattering shadows, and it is definitely best avoided. Don’t feel bad if you do this though, as I still see scores of photographers and YouTubers making this mistake, so it’s an easy error to make. Thankfully, it’s also very easy to avoid.
In the above image, you see the resulting image from shooting a flash image with your speedlight on your hotshoe and in portrait orientation.
In the above shot here, we see what a huge difference it makes to the quality of the light when you use an L-bracket to keep that speedlight above the model’s eye line.
If you’re interested, you can learn more about the L-bracket and when best to use it here…
You're Using Your Speedlight Wrong!
Also, if you’re interested on my thoughts regarding the Godox V100 Speedlight that I used for this shoot, you can check out my review on it here…
Godox V100 Speedlight Review: This is Cheating!
I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
JHP Livestreams…
I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube
