Nuking Sunlight

[dhyravy]

This was my first experiment with overpowering the sun. (not really but it looks like it) This was done using 2 Sunpak 383s, one to the left of subject and set at 1/4 power on a lightstand into a silver umbrella and the other at 1/2 power to the right and ~10 feet away on stand. Camera was at f8, 1/500, manual with a Sigma 18-50 f2.8.

[livin4lax09]

looks good. what did the available light look like? did you meter for it? I'm curious because it looks like late day.

[dhyravy]

The natural light was around f6 1/640. This was 45 minutes before sunset. The trick here is using the max sync speed you can get to minimize the daylight and let the flash light the subject. With the wireless triggers and my D50 I have been able to sync at 1/1250. There are a couple of columns on the Strobist blog about overclocking your flash. The D50 and some other bodies have a mechanical shutter up to about 1/125 and then use electronic sensor triggering to achieve higher shutter speeds. This works out very well when using off-camera or non-dedicated flash due to the camera not being aware that a flash is being used and not limiting the shutter to the "max" sync speed.