Shooting in Midday Sunlight

Summer shooting or Midday shooting can be very challenging.  Flash sync speeds are usually a maximum of 1/250 for most modern cameras.  Also, ISO can only get you down so far. On a bright day the exposure can be  1/250 at F22 or even F32 at ISO 100.  So what can you do?  Most on-camera Speedlights aren’t powerful enough and even if you put two of them on a bracket, you are still going to fall short. There are two tools that will make life easier.  The first is a 2 stop ND (Neutral Density) filter, otherwise known as a .6 or a 4x, both nomenclatures will get you the same thing.  The second is a strobe with some muscle.  My preference is a 400WS  Lumedyne.  There are other options too, but this is the system I own and have been using for over 20 years, very modular, very useful for many types of assignments.  When used together, this will help yo maintain F8 and have enough power to shoot a full bridal party and keep most of those nasty shadows at bay.

Photo of the Week – October 6, 2008

Can you believe it’s already October?  Here’s a photo by Phil Fox with some nice autumn colors.