using the stroboscope mode of a flash for stills

[KPM2]

Hello,

This is my first post in your forum.... and English is not my mother language ....

I will share this stroboscope mode of a flash for stills.

I am a hobby photographer, and maybe this technique is nothing new, well known and you talk every week about it. If so, please say so, because I would like to see their pictures and how they use it and so on.

I have a Metz 58 AF-1 digital and this flash has such a stroboscope mode (beside manual, A-mode, P-TTL (yes, I am a Pentax user) and P-TTL HSS.

I didn't know what I personally can do with this stroboscope mode, ok, I know how you use it normally, but I do not such pictures.

The idea came when I made my flower pictures and some I posted in our (Pentax-forum) monthly flower thread.

So, I hold the flash in my hand (the flash is not connected to the camera) and during the 8.sec shutter speed time, I move the flash around. For to start the flash*s stroboscope run, I must only press the test button on the flash, and it starts. During this 8 sec. (I like to use such 8 sec., but it is not a must) I can start the flash 2-3x , so every single run has 16 single flashes -> I use between 32...48 single flash lights and all from different directions. The exposure is pur "handmade", because I regulate the exposure:

- how long I stay at one direction and do not move

- how big is the distance to my subject ( for the pictures I post here -> ca. 1....0.5 meter)

- you must not use ever single flash during a run, just hold the flash during a run not pointed all the time to your subject .... I let it illuminate the room than.

My flash and the grid tool (the CTO I use only when I need to match the WB to an extern tungsten light source in the scene .... but not for this pictures)



my setting for the flash is (mostly):



examples:

Orchids are wonderful for to let the light shine through the leaves





the next picture : the light from all the different directions (all single flash has only a min. power of 1 /225) let the inner structure of the flower get visible



next picture: light from the side and nearly on light from the top



you must of cause not only take pictures of flowers ;-)

next picture: light was coming from a lot different directions



this technique do such a lot fun !

EDIT: .... and now the big "but": when you make 5 pictures, every picture will be different ! you are nearly not able to redo your movements, when you will change for example only a minor point in one illuminated area. Every single picture is quasi a uniat. That I like a lot, but maybe not everybody. Therefore, you can add workflows like:

the camera is anyway on a tripod, so take some pictures where you let the flash only 1x run and therefore your subject is only in a part well illuminated. Than the next pictures also only one run, but with an other direction and so on. In PS you use than the pictures with good illuminations (or erase the bad areas) as additional layer and on that way you built up what I do via one picture during the 8 sec. And of cause you can burn the too dark areas in PP up to your taste.

I don't know your cameras, but this PS layer workflow I can simulate with for example my K1, when I use multiexposure. My K1 show me after the first picture the result on my display, and with this, I can decide if I need at this or that area more light on my subject and do this in the next picture-run. Now my room is dark, and than I can see this pictures on my K1's LCD relative well.

BTW: how dark must the room be for my 8 sec. ?..... just do a picture and look, how your subject looks like via only using the "ambience" light. Via this test, you can also use a ratio with ambience light/ stroboscope flash light ... but than, use a CTO for the flash, else you get two different WB into your picture and this you can not match in PP.

best regards KPM2

 

[KPM2]

Hello

I did edit the text already 9 times .... that's why I use now this post.

again .... best regards KPM2

 

[clicknz]

Thanks for sharing the lovely images and your technique. I’ve used ‘painting with light’ techniques with continuous light before, and occasionally with manually firing a flash a few times during a long exposure, but I like your method of using the strobe function!

 

[KPM2]

Hello clicknz

Thanks for sharing the lovely images and your technique. I’ve used ‘painting with light’ techniques with continuous light before, and occasionally with manually firing a flash a few times during a long exposure, but I like your method of using the strobe function!

My pleasure ! and thank you !

I hope that some reader will try it out, because the pictures via it gave an give me such a joy.

For me, the difference to a continuous light source is that the flash only illuminates the scene every now and then during a movement and only briefly. This creates other shadow formations. If you want to try it out, start with the flash setting posted and then adjust it later to suit your needs.

However, I see the grid for the flash as absolutely necessary, otherwise the spotlight effect of each individual flash would be lost.

best regards KPM2

 

[KPM2]

Hello again clicknz,

tips:

We all have our own objects, but to talk about it, I use an orchid picture I took 10 years ago with my first DSLR, a 6 Mp Pentax is DS.

This picture was not taken with this technique, but it shows very nicely what happens during fluoroscopy and the close-up (bellow unit with 100mm macro) in this picture makes it very clearly visible:



I call it the face of an orchid.

Shining through makes internal objects visible. You even get a kind of three-dimensionality: back leaf details - internal leaf details- outer leaf details. But that doesn't always make it look sharp!

The face of the orchid is mainly an internal detail.

While fluoroscopy requires a lot of these individual flashes (or, as here, a single strong flash), direct illumination from the front only requires a minimal number of these individual flashes, or you then hold the flash further away.

Only you can know whether your objects allow light to shine through at all; an orchid, for example, is an ideal object for this.

When taking photos, I make sure that the highlights are well exposed. The parts that are maybe too dark are re-exposed later in the PP.

Finally, a note:

Photography is just a hobby of mine and I enjoy the freedom it gives me.

When I post-expose dark areas of the image, I no longer use the base ISO for the image there, but an ISO, sometimes even much higher. So I can enjoy what great possibilities modern cameras have in this regard. I now only take 3-5 pictures per picture like this, and if the highlights look good... I leave it alone and the dark areas are adjusted in the second step using post-exposure in the PP.

Of course I can well imagine that a professional may not be able to use such mixed ISO images and the effort required to achieve an almost perfect image at the base ISO can than be time-consuming

at last: a multiple exposure picture (1x camera with lens and 1x camera without lens)



Using the individual flashes, each with the lowest power, you can regulate the transitions between the camera with and without a lens and places such as the camera bayonet very well

It just wasn't that easy to remove the lens without moving the camera :-D

best regards KPM2

 

[GianLuca]

Wonderful work, KPM2,

My M400 flash has no strobe option, but will try to fire it multiple times on a 30" exposure.

Thanks for sharing your art and technique.

 

[KPM2]

Hello GianLuca

Wonderful work, KPM2,

My M400 flash has no strobe option, but will try to fire it multiple times on a 30" exposure.

Thanks for sharing your art and technique.

Thank you ... my pleasure to share this technique !

I just looked at ebay and a Metz 58 AF1 do not cost that much. I personally would have no problem to get a used one, because my Metz 58 AF 1 runs and runs and runs, in other words, this flash can get very old and still works great. The Metz 58 AF-2 is in principal the same flash and the last Metz 64 AF 1 is also in principal an 58, it only has a longer zoom and therefore a hight guide number.

best regards. KPM2