Shoot striking portraits with high speed flash

When it comes to flash, nothing compares to the creative control of going manual. Once you switch off TTL and break free from the constraints of auto mode you can shape and master lighting for any subject. 

For many, working with manual flash for the first time can seem daunting, but once you’ve got your head around the basics then it’s actually all very easy.

The ELB 400 Hi-Sync To Go is good versatile kit and it’s especially suited to location work where you need to be as flexible as possible. It’s also a good example of a truly versatile flash kit when it comes to working beyond TTL.

Getting started

If you’re new to using flash in manual mode then a good starting point is to set ELB 400  to half power, then set the camera’s shutter speed and aperture, take a test shot and check out the result. If the exposure doesn’t work out at all, then you can increase or decrease the power of the flash, or move it closer or further away from your subject. Once you’re in the right area exposure-wise you can start to refine things. 

A simple rule to remember is, the aperture exposes the subject and the shutter speed controls the background exposure. Looking at how this works practically, if the subject is overexposed, close down the aperture and if it’s underexposed you need to open the aperture. When it comes to the background, if it’s overexposed, increase the shutter speed and if it’s underexposed, decrease the shutter speed.

This works effectively with one constraint which is the camera’s maximum sync speed. This refers to is the maximum shutter speed that the camera can be used at with flash, it’s usually around 1/250sec. If you use a shutter speed above this then only part of the frame will be  exposed.

This happens because of the way that both the camera and flash work. Starting with the flash; the flash light that we see is actually progressive, with a peak of power that builds and fades. As this happens quickly, it’s not visible to the naked eye, but it has an effect on the images captured by the sensor because of the shutter curtains.

This is an issue because when the shutter speed is increased above the camera's sync speed, the second curtain shutter is hot on the tail of the first and, unlike at slower shutter speeds, the whole of the sensor is never actually fully exposed.

This means that when the flash peaks, the first and second curtains are both covering part of the sensor and only a small band of the sensor is actually exposed. The maximum sync speed of a camera refers to the top shutter speed where the whole of the sensor will be exposed for the flash duration.

Why go faster?

You may well be wondering why you need to go faster with shutter speed, especially if you can get a good shot using any standard flash. 

High speed flash is becoming increasingly important especially as photographers leave the confines of the studio to capture more adventurous atmospheric and environmental portraits. 

There are many flash units that offer high speed sync now, and they use two basic systems. The first is High Speed Sync (HSS), which sends out a series of pulses, in effect turning the flash into a strobe. Although this works, it creates less powerful illumination than the more sophisticated Hi-Sync (HS) used by the ELB 400 kit.

The HS system needs to be used in combination with a compatible transceiver such as the Skyport Plus HS transceiver (available for Canon, Nikon and Sony systems). This enables the Quadra Hi-Sync Head to emit a single pulse just before the shutter fires and that enables the whole sensor to be exposed. The Skyport also enables you to remotely adjust the power of the lights.

As the HS system creates more powerful illumination than HSS systems, it means that the lights can be placed at a greater distance from the subject to create more flattering lighting.

The Elinchrom Hi-Sync system enables you to shoot with shutter speeds up to 1/8000 of a second, so you can shoot on a bright day with a large aperture to capture well lit subjects with blurred backgrounds. This type of setup would usually cause the background to be burnt out, but you can even go for some real stylised shooting by using a fast shutter speed to darken a bright sky.

As well as using Hi-Sync mode to shoot creative portraits, it’s also suitable for freezing fast moving objects and subjects such as dancers.

Elinchrom’s ELB 400 Hi-Sync To Go Set is a relatively lightweight portable kit that makes it a great choice for location work and has the ability to shoot with High Speed Sync (HSS) or Hi-Sync (HS).  We have kits available for Canon, Nikon or Sony.