Slow Sync - Work Diary

For my slow sync photoshoot, I shot in the studio, as I had access to the softlights and a remote flash firer, which would create a stronger flash than my on-camera flash. I decided to use two subjects for my shoot, and directed them to move in large movements, as I thought this would create a large amount of motion blur, which is what I wanted to achieve for this shoot.





Here is my favourite photo from the my slow sync shoot. I feel that this was successful as a slow sync photo as you can see where the flash is fired on my subject in the foreground, lighting up her face. That part of the photo also shows her face before she started moving fast and blurring, which I liked because it creates two different effects in the same picture. I also like that this her face face, when visible in the foreground, is strongly in focus, and that the blurring of her movement has created a light trail that almost completely conceals the person she is running around. I shot this image with a shutter speed of 1" and an aperture of f9, meaning just enough blur was created that you can still see some elements of human form through the heavily blurred movement.  The use of flash and movement together means the resulting image has a large tonal range, with some dark tones shown on clothing, and very light ones on the blurred hair.


This is an image from my shoot that I feel didn't go very well. I shot this image on 1" and f9. While this image effectively displays the slow sync technique, as the blurred subjects have clearly been lit from a flash, I was unhappy with the way this image was composed. The subject on the right doesn't quite fit into the frame, therefore some of the blur effects from her movement are not captured in the photo. I also feel there was too much distortion from the blur effect with the subject on the right; unlike the picture above, in which you could see a clear image of the subject's face as well as a light trail of their movement. However, there is a small example of this from the subject on the right, as you can see a light up version of her face on the right, as well as the blurred light trail of her movement.

This technique might be something I will use in my personal project, as I feel that slow sync flash would work well incorporated into the street photography elements of my project. However, it may be harder to achieve without studio flashlights and on location; you will need to be taking photos of people, and you will need to be very close to your subject, especially if you would be using an on camera flash like I would be, as the flash won't reach far.