The Secrets To Using Flash Creatively When Doing Action Photography
Action photography is one exciting line of photography that is also challenging at the same time. Action photography shots capture the electrifying moments of the subject indulging in various activities. Knowledge in action photography is helpful when taking photos of skateboarding, mountain biking, and other kinds of sports activities. It is also something a photojournalist or a wildlife photographer needs to be proficient in.
To get good action shots, you need to have some knowledge of the activity you are planning to photograph. This knowledge will give you an insight on the right place and time to shoot. You need to develop a great sense of timing since timing is a crucial element in action photography. Action photography is about capturing the best moment possible. In short, great moments captured makes for great action photographs. Knowing when to anticipate the peak moments of an action will make you to be in a better position to take breathtaking action photos.
Aside from developing a good sense of timing and having skills like panning, prefocusing, and follow-focusing, you also need to know how to use flash when doing action photography. You also need to practice on these skills and techniques to know the right to combination to use when taking various kinds of action shots. When taking action photos, you will usually encounter various light conditions and having knowledge on how to use flash will really come handy. While many action photos are taken outdoors that makes the scene brightly lit, for example, you also will have to contend with fairly dark shadows if you don’t use flash correctly.
When photographing in fast settings, you can have well exposed photographs with the help of a flash. Aside from the scene’s natural light, flash can fill out the shadows in your photograph. You can also achieve some cool effects by combining flash with slower camera shutter speeds. Aside from the built-in flash in your camera, you can also use other flash equipments to enhance your photographs. Here are some of the creative ways of using flash when doing action photography:
- Slow Sync Flash. Slow sync flash, in a nutshell, is using flash together with slower shutter speed. It is a function found in many camera models nowadays. You can capture a defining moment perfectly with the help of slow sync flash. With it, you can have a relatively sharp image of your subject and you can get some natural ambient light from the scene. There are also cameras that lets you do manually use slow sync flash by manually setting your flash length and exposure length. You would need to experiment a lot to know the right combination of flash strength and shutter speed length for various kinds of events or situations.
- During Exposure. You can use the slow sync flash technique while panning along with the movement of your subject. By doing so, you can keep the image of your subject intact and crisp while having a blurry background for effects. You can also try zooming your camera’s lens in or out during exposure for you to get the sense of movement in your shot while capturing it during the flash.
- Using Off-Camera Flash. You can try using off camera flash to augment the built-in flash of your camera. You can use one or more off-camera flashes to light various angles of your subject. There are various off-camera flash techniques that you can try to light your subject as it travels from one angle to another. Experiment on this and you are sure to get some very spectacular results.
Hope this has been of value – if you want more helpful tips and information check this…
stay focussed,
Ray Baker
PS. This is where you go to start a photography business
