Video: Using high-speed sync to overcome bright light when capturing outdoor portraits

In the latest 'Laws of Light' video, photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens shows how to use flash and high-speed sync to capture beautiful portraits in bright sunshine.

If you're using flash and shooting at your camera's flash sync speed, which is often somewhere around 1/250s, perhaps slightly slower or faster, you won't be able to shoot at a fast aperture in bright light. Your images will be overexposed and washed out. You could stop your lens down, but then you lose your nice, soft background. Instead, you can utilize high-speed sync. High-speed sync, or HSS, allows you to shoot at a faster shutter speed than your camera's native flash sync speed.

When using flash in an outdoor setting, you match the power of your light to your desired aperture and then use your shutter speed to control the background. If you're limited to your camera's native flash sync speed, that severely reduces your options in changing lighting conditions. High-speed sync provides you with so many more options.

If high-speed sync is so good, why not use it all the time? There are situations when you don't want to use high-speed sync. For example, if you're at or below your camera's native flash sync speed, you should not use high-speed sync. When you use high-speed sync, your flash (or flashes) fire multiple times in quick succession to ensure that the subject is fully lit at faster shutter speeds. This uses more power than the single quick burst of light required at slower shutter speeds.

For more videos from The Slanted Lens, click here. If you'd like to learn more about balancing strobes and sunlight for outdoor portraits, check out an older video from Jay P. Morgan below.

(Via The Slanted Lens)