Can I get a pure black background in daylight with a Canon 20D and flash only?
Asked 10/19/2010
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I want to create a daylight photo where the subject is lit by flash and the background goes completely black, without using extra gear beyond a Canon 20D and flash. I understand that flash exposure is mostly independent of shutter speed, and I was thinking about using the camera’s flash sync speed, low ISO, and placing the flash close to the subject. Is this realistically possible at the 20D’s sync limit, and if so, what setup helps minimize ambient light?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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To overpower the sun during the day you need either very high speed sync (i.e. with a leaf or electronic shutter), or tons of light and an ND filter.
The theory is that the exposure from a flash is practically unaffected by the shutter speed, so by using a high shutter speed you let in the same amount of flash but much less ambient light, allowing your flash to overpower the ambient.
The problem is, with most cameras, including your 20D you can't shoot past 1/250s when using the flash, as beyond that the second curtain starts closing before the first has fully opened and your flash is only visible in part of the image.
Some new flashes offer high speed sync, which pulses the flash to act like a continuous source. The problem with this approach is that when you up the shutter speed you let in less flash as well as less ambient so you don't gain anything. Some people combine several flashes to compensate for the loss of light, but in mist cases there's no difference between multiple flash HSS, and using tons of flashes with normal sync plus an ND filter. Here's a good post about using HSS to get the effect you want with multiple flash units: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/05/joe-mcnally-desert-shoot.html
Hit the comments for a lengthy debate on the merits of HSS vs. regular sync and ND filters (the short answer, you don't gain any extra power with pulsed HSS).
Older digital cameras used electronic shutters which don't suffer from the second curtain problem and so can sync up to 1/4000s without pulsing the flash, letting you overpower the sun with a single flash unit. See http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/01/control-your-world-with-ultra-high-sync.html
edit:
With no extra gear, assuming you have a flash capable of HSS your only option is to get as close as possible with the strobe, light power squares with distance, meaning getting twice as close gives you 4 x the power, getting four times as close gives you 16 times the power! I would start at your base ISO, f/5.6 and walk the shutter speed up until you lose the ambient.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
15y ago
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Only in limited situations. In normal daylight, a Canon 20D’s max flash sync speed (about 1/250s) is usually not fast enough to make a sunlit background go fully black with ordinary flash alone.
Why: shutter speed mainly controls ambient light, while flash exposure is brief and mostly unaffected by shutter speed. So to darken the background, you’d normally raise shutter speed—but on the 20D you can’t go much past sync speed with standard flash, or part of the frame will be blocked by the shutter curtains.
To get the effect, you generally need one of these:
- a much more powerful flash setup,
- high-speed sync / leaf shutter / electronic shutter options,
- an ND filter plus lots of flash power,
- or a naturally dark background.
Without extra gear, your best chance is to:
- use ISO 100,
- use the max sync speed,
- stop down the aperture,
- put the flash very close to the subject,
- and choose a background already in deep shade or far darker than the subject.
That’s why many “black background in daylight” sports shots are actually made with shaded backgrounds, long lenses compressing the scene, or in darker environments—not by overpowering full sun with a small flash.
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