HELP! Ghost subjects are haunting me!

[JKeena]

I've been shooting with my Pocket Wizards and 550ex flash. When I get the slides back from the lab some are pretty good but on some my subjects (skateboards and bikers) are ghostly. This means the flash isn't strogn enough to capture them but my light meter was telling me to use that shutter speed (around 1 sec) when I plugged the aperture (are 4). I could only open the aperture another half a stop, 1 stop at most. Some of the pictures I am handholding but others I am using a very sturdy tripod. These particluar most recent bad pics are shot with a 15mm lens so I am really close (with in 8ft) and the flash is on the camera. Other pics I shot had the 550ex on the floor facing the subject. What should I do to get my subjects from disappearing? -Justin

P.S. This is THE most annoying monkey on my back for too long. I can get great skaters doing great tricks, timed perfectly and with good composition. I just get stuck with ghost skaters! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

P.P.S. Actually, here is another thing. When I use my $25 Vivitar 283 it is lighting the subject even better than my 550ex! ( I put a Vivitar SL-2 optical slave on the Vivitar flash). I can see shadows on ceilings more than 25 ft high! And the Vivitar I'm just manually setting to the "yellow" setting and crossing my fingers with it being around 8 to 15 ft away from the subect. The 550ex I'm trying to control and so far crossing my fingers works better than anything else! ok, I'm done. Thanks!

[another view]

Can you post an example? How are you setting up exposure with the 550 - the same way ("A" mode) as the 283? Those two flashes should have an output that are pretty close. Also, any slow shutter speed will blur your subject, even with flash. The slower the shutter speed, faster the action and lower the flash output; the worse it gets.

[Chunk]

With the slow shutter speed you are getting ambient light recorded as well as the flash exposure. Set your shutter speed to 1/60 or 1/125 so that the amount of ambient light captured is minimal and the only significant light recorded is from your flash.
What type of camera are you using?
Here's a page that does a pretty good job of discussing flash use. It uses a Vivitar 283 for examples.
http://www.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/flash98.html

[92135011]

If you use a filter, take it off.
If you havent tried stopping down some more, then do so. It will help
Maybe your lens is only single coated and an older type which needs to upgraded to one that is multicoated

[JKeena]

I'm using a Canon Elan 7e which has a 1/125 sync speed. I was having trouble before with the sync speed and getting images which were too dark so I started metering for ambient light and usign the flashes to atleast capture the subject in full, even if he had motion streaks around him and the background was all over the place. I am shooting with a Sigma 15mm lens and a Canon 20-35mm, both new with the past year and a half and I think both are multi-coated. So the suggestion is to shoot at the sync speed (1/125)? I'll try it again while usign two flashes. I have the 550 on manual setting and I am metering for it to get the right shutter speed for around an aperture of 4 and it was telling me to use a 1 sec shutterspeed. So I should just use the sync speed and forget the light meter? NO wait! I just realized that I must have been metering for ambient and not for a pop-flash. I'll have to go back and read my instructions again...haha. I'm still a little confused though...


The picture of a skateboarder is 15mm lens, handheld, with an on camera 550 flash and a Vivitar 283 slave. WIth a Sto-fen diffuser on the 550ex. The picture of a biker is the 20-35mm lens on 20, with the camera on a tripod. No on-camera flash, just the single 550 on the ground hooked up on PocketWizard. No diffuer on the flash. Hope these examples can help you help me. haha. Thanks again! -Justin

[another view]

If you use a filter, take it off.
If you havent tried stopping down some more, then do so. It will help
Maybe your lens is only single coated and an older type which needs to upgraded to one that is multicoated

This is a different type of ghosting. If you shoot with a light source pointed at the camera (as in the sun or a flash) you will get some ghosting like this. Multi-coated lenses and taking off filters will help but not eliminate it - another way to cut down on ghosting and lens flare is to use a prime lens which has less glass surface.

Technically, what JKeena is talking about isn't ghosting, it's motion blur.

[another view]

Hope these examples can help you help me.

Flash exposure is determined only by aperture, not shutter speed. If you shoot at the maximum sync speed on the camera, you'll freeze the subject (probably not completely) but the background will go dark. If you go with a longer shutter speed, the subject will blur but you'll get light in the background. This is the tradeoff.

OK - let's do the math: One second at F4 is seven stops more light than 1/125 - that's how much darker your background will be (black except for the white dots of the light fixtures). Since you're still at F4, your flash exposure didn't change - so your subject is still lit the same way.

So - how do you keep the shutter speed up and still get a little light in the background (assuming that's what you want)?

1. Use faster film - try 800 or even 1600. If you have access to a good black & white lab, try Ilford Delta 3200; and shoot it at 1600 or 3200. I don't see what film you used, but even if it was 400, going to 1600 would bring back two of those stops into the background.
2. Use a faster aperture. You're already at F4 so you might not have anywhere to go unless you have a fast prime. But with wide angle lenses it's pretty rare to find anything faster than 2.8 and that's only one stop. Of course, Canon has that really great 24mm F1.4 but that's still only two stops, has a four-digit price and in reality you wouldn't want to use F1.4 for this anyway - too little depth of field.
3. Bring in a truckload of studio strobes to light the background.

Faster film is probably the best choice! One thing that might help is to carefully time your shots - there is a split second that the rider isn't moving, between going up and coming down the ramp. If you get that spot, you'll also have less motion blur. This isn't a subject that I've worked on so I'm not sure if that's practical advice or not... But you're on your way to some pretty cool shots!

[JKeena]

I shot both of these on Fuji Provia 100. I like the color saturation and it's a pretty cheap price . I always want to shoot 400 but it's like 10 bucks a roll! I shoot black and white artsy stuff but right now I'm trying to get colored slides down because I'm submitting my portfolio to a skateboarding magazine for an intership this summer and from what I understand slides are the way to go if you aren't on the digital train yet.
I'll try shooting at 1/125 and using both flashes in order to have mroe light hit the subjects and not give the camera time to see what is on the other side of the subject. HGopefully this will solve some problems. Right now I don't care about the background as long as I can get the figure in full with out seeing through them! I just want sharp subjects that aren't clear, that is the main goal. And shouldn't the flash be capturing at least a main image and then have trails off of it even when I'm shooting at such a slow shutterspeed? Another View was saying these are motion blurs but on the slide the subject is sharp, just a bit clear (these scans do look otu of focus/a bit blurred but the subject really is sharp! ha).

P.S. I've tried Delta 3200 and that is some heavy grain for my liking! =) I have to be in a REAL artsy mood to use that stuff again! haha

[another view]

Provia 100F is a great film - and 400F looks identical. You won't be able to tell them apart, even shot in bright sunlight, on a light table. It is expensive though. Another option is to shoot 100F at 320 and have the lab push two stops - but the downside is that the extra charge from the lab will cost at least as much as the extra price for 400F, and it will be a little more grainy this way. Use this as a last resort if you need 400 but don't have any with you.

Don't add any more light from the flash for your subjects, they look like they're well exposed. Try one variable at a time, that way you know exactly how what you change affects the end result. Start with a 1/125 shutter speed and see what that does. And stick with Provia 100F too.

"And shouldn't the flash be capturing at least a main image and then have trails off of it even when I'm shooting at such a slow shutterspeed?" Actually, it is doing that. Take the first shot for example. The flash went off when he was in the spot that you can see. He's transparent because the shutter speed was so slow (one second). The other 99.99% of that exposure when the flash didn't fire was recording ambient light. Since he wasn't there anymore, the ambient light on the ceiling recorded the just ceiling itself (not him anymore in the part of it that he was blocking).

If you had a 5 second exposure the ceiling would be brighter; a 1/125 second exposure much darker. The brightness of the subject wouldn't change because the flash exposure didn't change. The flash exposure was the only thing that recorded him.

Hope this helps!

[JKeena]

I'm going to shoot soem mroe bikers this week so I will try your suggestions of going with a faster shutterspeed first because I am not concerned with the background as long as I get the subject clear and sharp. Thanks for all your help!