So why would you use a leaf shutter,
instead of a focal-plane?
I'll tell you on today's episode of
Ask David Bergman
Hey welcome back to Ask David Bergman of course,
as always David Bergman here answering your
photography questions on Adorama TV.
Don't forget to go to AskDavidBergman.com,
ask your own photo questions,
I just might answer it right here on a future show.
Today's question is from Andy S, and he asked;
What are the benefits of using a leaf shutter system
and outdoor flash photography
especially when trying to overpower the Sun
Leaf shutters! Alright it's a great question
but before I get into that I'm going to talk about
why you would want to use flash to overpower
the Sun in daylight.
We're here in New Jersey
and unfortunately today is an overcast gray day
but if it was bright and sunny
you'd think oh I've got plenty of light to make a picture,
why would I use flash?
Well there's really a couple reasons why.
The first one being you might want to add in
a little bit of flash just to fill in shadows
on somebody's face
If the Sun is overhead and it falls down on somebody
you get these really nasty shadows
and it's just harsh, nasty light.
So you can use some flash to do that.
You could also even block the sunlight and then create
your own nice beautiful soft light on your subject
if you were doing a portrait.
I've done different videos about both of those topics
and I'll put links to those down below.
But really what we're talking about today is the different
ways to add flash in when using
different kinds of cameras.
Now the thing is, most people are using DSLR cameras
and those have what's called a focal-plane shutter.
And what that means;
There are two curtains inside the body
not in the lens but inside the camera body
that moved to expose the picture
and what happens is if that moves really fast,
if you're shooting at a flat very fast shutter speed,
it's going to move too fast to get the entire flash
exposure in the picture.
So you're gonna wind up cutting off the flash
you might have seen where you try to shoot at a
faster shutter speed and your camera actually won't let
you go faster than let's say 2/100 or 2/50 of a second
in that case that is your maximum flash sync
that you can shoot with that camera
each cameras a little bit different,
but all focal-plane shutters and most DSLRs
have that limitation for that very reason
So, but the challenge with that is,
it's actually not a huge problem in many cases,
but the challenge with that is if it was a bright sunny day
let's think about some exposures
if I was photographing somebody,
in front of Manhattan here and I had a lot of sunlight
then I would have to,
if at 100 ISO if I was at a shutter speed,
my max shutter speed let's say 2/50 of a second,
the corresponding aperture to get the right exposure
might be around f/16 maybe even f/22
on a bright sunny day.
Here today because it's so overcast
we're shooting at about f/8
to get the right exposure.
Now that's all fine but the challenge with that is a
couple of things first of all at f/8,
I need to get a lot more power out of my flash,
so I'm probably gonna need to use bigger flashes
or multiple speed lights
and I'm really gonna,
or if I do use one speed light,
I'm gonna have to turn it up to full power
it's not gonna recycle very fast,
and it's gonna eat batteries really, really quickly
so there are some other ways to combat the limitation
of that max shutter speed, that max flash sync speed,
but they involve things like high-speed sync or
hyper sync and there are a few technologies to do that
but those all have compromises if you use
high-speed sync you lose a lot of power from that flash.
So it will work if you can get the flash in really close
and in certain scenarios it's a great way to go
but you have to give up a lot to be able to do that.
So now let's talk about medium format cameras,
most of those cameras have what's called a leaf shutter,
Andy, which is what you asked about
Now that shutter is not in the body,
it's actually in the lens itself
and the way that opens and closes actually exposes
the entire sensor all at once
way faster than that moving slit does
in a focal-plane shutter.
So because of that it allows you to actually
shoot with flash at any shutter speed the camera
will allow you to shoot at.
So for example I'm here with
the Hasselblad H1D, 50C,
which is a medium format mirrorless
by the way this one's from Adorama rentals
thank you guys for letting me use this for the video
and I've got a 90 millimeter 3.2 lens on here
and this has a focal-plane shutter,
the shutter is in the lens
by the way that's one of the reason medium
format lenses are so much more expensive
than DSLR lenses because they have shutter
mechanisms inside of them instead of in the body.
So here's the thing if I expose, let's bring in Andres.
Come on in here buddy.
Now get that jacket off I know it's cold
but you can make it.
I'm wearing my jacket,
but you have to take yours off for the picture.
So um, so we're gonna make some quick pictures here.
Now I'm already set here to
expose properly for the background.
Which again as I said 100 ISO,
let's do it as if it was a DSLR 250th of a second at f/8.
Now we can see what that's gonna look like,
so let's shoot a couple frames here real quick.
Good.
Boom, awesome!
Alright so that's what f/8 looks like.
Now it's exposed properly the picture's fine,
but honestly that background,
those buildings in Manhattan,
it's a little too in focus for me,
I'd rather have it really more out of focus.
I want to shoot wide open with this lens which is 3.2,
now to go to 3.2 I have to bump up my shutter speed,
and with a DSLR ,with a focal-plane shutter,
I can't do that, I can't go any higher
with my shutter speed, any faster.
Luckily, because I'm using a medium format and
a leaf shutter I can shoot at any shutter speed
this camera will allow.
So I can bump this up to 1,600th of a second,
at 3.2, at the same ISO, 100 ISO.
Now one little note,
gear that I'm using,
I am using a Canon speed light inside
the full tech soft lighter here behind me,
and I'm triggering that flash using the PocketWizard+3,
I have one on the flash and
one on the transmitter on the camera.
So the PocketWizard is actually only rated
to trigger a flash up to 5/100th of a second
but there's an unknown/little-known feature
for some reason that isn't more widely talked about in
the pocket wizard that allows you to
shoot at faster shutter speeds.
It's called fast mode and all you have to do,
there's a couple little settings you have to change,
the pocket wizard that's on the flash itself,
you have to change that to HSR mode and
then you have to shoot above channel 17
and turn off all four groups A,B,C,D,E.
Once you do that you'll see a little F show up
on that PocketWizard and that is fast mode
and will allow you to shoot at faster shutter speeds
than 5/100 of a second.
So all I have to do, I've changed that,
and I'm using that no problem,
now I'm at 3.2 at 16/100 of a second,
let's make that change here.
So I'm gonna change that in the camera.
Boom boom,
this is a touchscreen so I'm able to change it on here
and 3.5 and 1600 I also have to adjust my flash setting
I'm gonna bring that down,
so I'm gonna turn that down to, 3 stops down,
from where I was.
So I've turned that down now 3 stops
and let's think about that for a second
I'm using a speed light, I'm able to shoot 3 stops down
that's gonna give me a lot more
availability of power out of this light.
So I can use a speed instead of having
to use a big strobe I can have a speed light
at quarter power instead of a full power.
So let's see how that looks,
Andres come on back in here
and I'm gonna shoot a couple of frames here at 3.2,
so you can see the difference.
There we go
I'm gonna shoot one more just so you can see
how that looks.
Excellent.
Alright so you can see how that looks at 3.2.
That's really the image I wanted to make
Now that picture I couldn't make it with those settings
on a DSLR again without using high-speed sync or some
other technology that has a bunch of compromises in it,
but with a leaf shutter inside this medium for my
camera I was able to go up to 16/100 of a second
bring my aperture wide open to 3.2 at 100 ISO
and get the picture I really wanted to do.
So now let's think about this for a second,
if you're able to do that and shoot,
I could shoot wide open which means,
I brought the power down on that speed light
I'm only using one little canon speed light inside of
this giant 60 inch soft lighter
and I'm able to get enough power out of that thing,
even at quarter power,
I'm all the way down at quarter power
I don't have to shoot at full power,
I don't have to bring a big studio light out here and
because I've got this thing dialled down,
the batteries are gonna last a lot longer
it's going to recycle a lot faster
there's so many advantages to being able to do that.
So that's the reason why I would use that.
Andy thanks for asking that question, it was a great one,
I hope that helps.
Don't forget if you have your own photo question,
go to AskDavidBergman.com,
fill out that form there,
and your already right here on Adoramma TV,
I hope you're a subscriber,
click the little button down below,
make sure to subscribe if you're not.
There's so much great free photo content here,
every single week.
Thanks joining me I'll be back here next week
with another episode of ask David Bergman