1/100 @ f1.6 @ 1000 iso

“Dragging the Shutter” is a term used to describe the technique of using a slow enough shutter speed to allow a measure of ambient light to register when using flash.

This term originates from an era when photographers would determine correct flash exposure for on-location photography by :
 - setting the ISO speed according to the film used,
 - setting the aperture according to subject distance  (depends on flashgun’s guide number),
 - then using the shutter speed as the ONLY way of independently allowing more ambient light in, slowing the shutter speed far lower than max sync speed when shooting in low light.

(This worked fairly well for colour negative film, because the labs took up the slack in exposure miscalculation when printing the images.)

However, with TTL flash on a D-SLR, you have more flexibility than this.  And I’m of the opinion that the phrase “dragging the shutter” is archaic in the era of TTL flash photography.

As explained on these two previous pages …
 - Manual flash vs TTL flash,
 - juggling the three controls
… TTL flash exposure will follow your chosen aperture and ISO.
This means that your choice aperture and ISO effectively becomes ‘transparent’ to your flash exposure.

Hence you can equally well use your aperture and your ISO and your shutter speed, to allow more or less available light in, independent of your (TTL) flash exposure. (Obviously we have to work within reasonable ranges.)

So it would be of great benefit not to get locked into the idea of “dragging the SHUTTER” to control your available light, when you could equally well use any of the three controls when you use TTL flash.

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Many photographers seem to have a hard time wrapping their heads around this idea - that with TTL flash it isn’t only the shutter speed that you can control, but that you can now use all three settings (shutter speed, aperture, iso), to control how your available light registers .. and still not affect your flash exposure.

Let’s look at all of this in relation to some images:

1/100  @  f1.6  @  1000 iso
Canon 1Dmk3 / Canon 85mm f1.2 II / Canon 580EX

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1/125  @  f1.6  @  1250 iso
Canon 1Dmk3 / Canon 85mm f1.2 II / Canon 580EX

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1/100  @  f2.0  @  1600 iso
Canon 1Dmk3 / Canon 85mm f1.2 II / Canon 580EX

If you look at my settings for all three images, my shutter speeds weren’t all that slow, BUT if you look at the images you’ll notice that the available light most definitely did register.  And this was because of my choice of aperture and ISO.  With a wide aperture, and a high ISO,  I allowed ambient light to register, and give context to my photographs.  And then I added TTL flash to it, and exposed correctly for my subjects, opening up shadows and controlling contrast and cleaning up skin tones.

I didn’t need to specifically “drag my SHUTTER” to get to this point.

What is at the very heart of this, is the idea that you get better results with on-location flash photography, when you make sure your ambient light registers to some extent - whether you use your aperture, ISO or shutter speed.

So in trying to understand this technique, don’t stare yourself blind against the idea that shutter speed is the only thing which allows you to independently control your ambient light, separate from your flash exposure.  With modern (ie, TTL) flash photography, this technique has become a lot more interesting and versatile.

It was an honor to be invited to be a presenter at the convention held this past weekend by the Professional Photographers’ Association of Massachussets (PPAM).  The 4 day convention was held in Natick, a city just outside of Boston, and I had a 3 hour segment on Sunday afternoon.  My presentation was a scaled down version of my workshops on flash photography techniques. 

The response afterwards was tremendous; numerous people thanked me and congratulated me, and I even got several “best presentation of the convention” comments.  Not only was that gratifying to hear these comments, but also to see that there were actually more people at the end than when I started the presentation. 

Here’s a compilation of a few images, mostly of the time during the break when I was chatting to people in the front. It seems I can’t keep my hands still when I talk.

I was sponsored by Ultra Color Lab in Boston, who created a sample album of my work.
The design of the album can be seen on my wedding photography blog.

(1/20th @ f2.8 @ 1250 iso)

I am frequently asked whether I use a tripod at all to help overcome the slow shutter speeds that I often shoot at.  The question also often relates to shooting handheld, below the arbitrary value of 1/60th of a second.

The choice of shutter speed at which you will get a sharp (enough) image will depend on a number of factors, such as how fast your subject is moving and at what angle compared to your camera, and whether you are panning with your subject.  And also choice of lens, and camera’s sensor size, and your own ability to hold a camera steady.  And luck.  And also on how large you want to display the image.

I’m not going to attempt a broad explanation covering every possibility that we’ll encounter as photographers, but answer the question in terms of the work that I do - which is primarily wedding and on-location portrait photography.  

My own preference is for ’sharp’. I like crisp images, and don’t much like too much motion blur.  But this is a personal artistic choice.  So I tend to shoot at higher shutter speeds where I can.  Part of this is simply because I am not that steady in hand-holding a camera.

And in attaining higher shutter speeds, I tend to use fast optics, or shoot at higher iso settings.  Or I just use flash at times to stop motion blur.   But there are times when I am shooting in low light, and have to use a slow shutter speed …

Now I know this will aggravate many photographers, and perhaps rightly so .. but I rarely use a tripod.  I have two of them that I constantly have in the car (okay, okay .. van) that I travel to shoots with. One of the tripods is a big beast, and the other a superlight carbon-fibre tripod. (Both are made by Manfrotto.)

For most of the photography work that I do, I find that my shooting style is too fast-paced for a tripod, and hampers the fluidity with which I want to work.
So as an alternate to using a tripod, I make do with:
- stabilised lenses,
- being careful in steadying myself, or
- purposely placing my subject such that they are shaded and will be lit by flash.

In this first example, which has appeared elsewhere on these pages: 
The piano player is shaded compared to the brighter background.  So he was mostly lit by flash .. and this would’ve frozen any camera shake.  (The ultra-wide angle lens would also help mask camera shake in this instance.)   Any noticable camera shake would’ve been in the out-of-focus background. ie .. you’d never notice.

(1/15th @ f4 @ 800 iso)

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In fact, I use this idea in how I very often specifically set people up in areas where they are shaded in comparison to the background. I then  use the instantaneous burst of flash to freeze any noticable camera shake.  This next image, an impromptu portrait of my friend Thomas, shows in part how I set out to manipulate such a scenario. 

I deliberately positioned him in a darker part outside this venue, and then lit him with bounced flash.  In this case, the shutter speed of 1/100th was fairly high, but the technique would’ve worked just as well at a much slower shutter speed - simply because the flash would’ve stopped any noticable camera shake.

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In this image - a candid photo of a mom and her daughter, the flowergirl - I was shooting at a slow shutter speed, but knew that the low ambient light would barely register, and therefore flash would stop any camera shake.  (The stabilised lens just clinched the deal.)

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With this photo below, the background was lit by a (manual) Q-flash triggered with a radio slave, and the foreground is light from a bedside table lamp. To enable the tungsten light to spill enough light onto the bride for the camera to register, I had to use a slow shutter speed of 1/40th (@ f2.8).   I controlled how bright my background is, by changing my ISO and aperture … and then I could control how bright the tungsten light would appear in relation to that, by riding my shutter speed. 

The slow shutter speed here was possible because I used a stabilised lens.  But I also ensured success by shooting a sequence of images. So part of my slow-shutter speed technique, is to make sure I take a series of shots.

Stabilised lenses are essential additions to any camera bag.  It enables you to get sharp images under circumstances that would be difficult otherwise.  With the image at the top of this posting, the slow shutter speed was just due to the low light levels - and the stablised lens was crucial.   

In this engagement session, I was able to get a slow enough shutter speed (1/20th @ f10) to get the New York taxi cabs to streak past. The stabilised lens was essential here.

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Therefore attaining a usable image at a slow shutter speed, is not just down to a single thing that we could do - but a combination of techniques applied with some thought.

I’ve received some questions about why I chose this particular image as
the representative image for my series of photography workshops.

Most people looking at this image wouldn’t immediately realize that there is flash involved.  This image however, is typical of the way I work, and how I use flash to sweeten a scene. The thought process of how I got to this result, was explained on a previous blog posting - how I got from here …

…. to the image you see at the top.

This is only part of what I teach in my workshops - to simultaneously seamlessly blend available light with flash, and do so fluidly, adapting your technique to any scenario. This image and the way I achieved it then represents exactly what I hope people will come away with from their experience with me: How to use flash to help you achieve the images you visualized.

Two years ago I attended a small get together for photographers in Mystic, CT.  That meeting drew 28 people and was the catalyst for the main pages on this blog - the flash photography techniques.  It was also the very first presentation I did in front of other photographers, and as such was the actual kick-start to the workshops that I present.

So it was with real pride that I was invited to do a presentation again this week in Mystic - the third such get together. By now the event had grown to 120 photographers meeting up!  The subject of my presentation this time was how to use flash for some quick scene sweetening. (A description that Bruce Dorn kindly allowed me to appropriate for myself.)

The get together had evolved into a 12 hour program with top-notch speakers. And it was a real honour to do a presentation along with top photographers like David Mielcarek, Monika Broz, Michelle Turner, Steven Frischling, Walter van Dusen, Joseph Prezioso, Ben Chrisman, Michael Cody and Doug Boutwell.

Walter my friend, you did yourself proud with this event, really upping the standard to a new high!
And Jeannie, hopefully the shirt is less crumpled for your tastes this time.