flash in sport photography

Oliver Tyreman by sam ashley



Oliver Tyreman by Percy Dean




Photos of Ollie Tyreman taken by me experimenting with high power flashes with sports photography set with low shutter speeds to increase the exposure
Set up - one wireless metz flash set at 1.1
Shutter speed one thirtieth of a second which is incredibly slow and without the flash it would just be a blur.
The photograph below was taken by Lee Jay on a Hasleblad 30ml. I was present when he took this photograph and I am visible in the background and I saw how he constructed this photograph by constructing three wireless flashes to make this image - one flash from the top, another from the side and also a fill in flash as well. He used a slow shutter speed to produce the photo which is quite similar in lighting to my photo. The higher the intensity of the flash, the slower the shutter speed can be due to the light fixing the image onto the centre of the film
Oliver Tyreman Tech 10

flash in sport photography

flash in sport photography

Harold E. Edgerton
"tennis Player"
This photograph by Edgerton made me think about how lighting can affect the final image
In the 1930's there were no fast sequence cameras and so the way that Edgerton encapsulated the motion of a tennis serve by using studio lights on a long exposure was very effective.
Each time the flash fired in 100th of a second the lighting information was recorded down on film. It is of course a very transient shot, capturing a single moment in time .


Experimental work in multiple flashes at slow speeds
The shutter speed was set at a fourth of a second
f5.6 iso100 with flash at 1-64 on a set of three flash sequence
Due to the slow shutter speed and the flash that was used so it flashed three times when the shutter was opened the flash helped to fix each fraction of a second onto the sensor creating a muliple layered shot

IMG_0l copy

View Peddecord Photo's map

Taken in (See more photos here)

I alluded to the fact earlier that I had shot with my D2H at 17mm and my RB67 at 50mm which provided equal FOV for the most part. I got my slides back and scanned them and the tonality of the Provia again just makes my jaw drop, I seriously only need to scan and crop with Provia, no color or tone correction. Parfait!

I won't start a film vs. digital debate here as they both have their own merits and to write one off arbitrarily is to cut off one's means of expression.

Strobist: WL Ultra 600 into 45" Umbrella, to the right; pair of SBs bounced of the wall for fill.

mik drop 1936
Harold E. Edgerton


Specks SP250 F16 180mm macro lens 3 Studio Flashes Back one set at F22 Front one at F13 Bottom one set at F14 Left one set with diffuser box at F16

Here is an example of high speed food photography which is extremely difficult to get precise as eye should be open to see the strawberry in the air and the other eye must look through the view finder in order to release the shutter at the correct time.Although 250 is the mark off point for digital flash sync speed and will get a clear image with no blurs I felt sometimes that 250 could get some blurred motion in very small objects and especially in dark areas. Also sometimes there is a fraction of a lag time. The way to get around this is either to use a medium format camera which offers a faster sync speed due to the shutter leaf system offered by Haselblad and Mamiya cameras which offer a speed of 400 and 500. One can clearly differentiate between digital 250 and the medium format 400 and 500 and obviously the latter is a much higher quality and generally much sharper.

Flash £.5
Flash 3.5

s/p 60 F9 Dlash 3.5




s/p 1/4 F9
flash 3.5

Trial shots to try to create a long shot with flash to get a dramatic lighting effect while the background stays in correct exposure. As you can see from the top photograph it has been shot at what 60th of a second and with the same aperture as the bottom one. However, due to the reasonably fast shutter speed the ambiant light (natural light from the lights in the hall) for the sensor to pick up so the foreground object is the only object that it picks up due to the flash. When set at a very slow shutter speed of 4 which would normally create a very blurred shot with just the ambiant light on its own the background and the foreground is in correct exposure as the shutter has enough time to absorb the ambiant light in the background. However, due to the flash it helps to retain a sharp image on the subject

1 Portrait on location
Using low key lighting with portable studio flash .
The photograph will include an NHS night-shift cleaner with mop and bucket in one of the long hallways at St. James' Hospital. The representations of this
character will have to be very carefully thought out so as not to be stereotyped. As above, I have tested out the problems that I may encounter to create perfect exposure on a long scale shot i.e. the corridor. An example of the kind of photograph that originally inspired me is y George Simboni From Portfolio taken with a medium format or a large format camera which I will also use for this shot due to my having access to and RB67 which sinks up to the top speed but will not be used as I will use a 4th of a second shutter speed and will need a tripod also to stop any blurring occurring. The props and models will be easy to obtain as I have friends working at St. James' Hospital who can help me make the necessary arrangements to photograph on the premises.


Portrait/Fashion Shoot Number Two
For this shoot I will be focusing on representations of masculinity such as hunter gathering and carpentry both being very ancient human occupations and the latter in fact being the livelyhood of Jesus Christ. Therefore I could add some meaningful biblical connotations to my work with the use of high key lighting to create a halo effect around figures portrayed such as in the famous "Last Supper" scene painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. I have looked at the work of various artists who have produced very theatrical photographs such as Gregory Crusom and also especially Finlay MacKay whose series of photographs for the Diesel company's advertizing campaign entitled "Today we work hard" won numerous awards. MacKay's house style lighting creates very meaningful photographs that I will try to recreate within the studio.
The photograph will be targeted at men with high disposable incomes of class status A and B
interested in cutting edge fashion
Props and Assistance
I will obtain the tools and wood from my uncle as he has a large collection of old fashioned saws and carpentry tools as well as a bench and timber with the bark still remaining on it. I could do the shoot in the cellar of his house as shown in the photograph below which I took recently.
For this set up I will be using high key lighting and also low key lighting for shadowing effects
I will be using a very fast shutter speed either 250 or higher with the RB going up to 400 so as to capture the actual fragments of wood splintering off as work is in progress for I have already explored this effect successfully with strawberries and cream
For this project I will be working with Tom.