Popular Photography on Campus April 2016

TOOLS WHAT IT TAKES SHOE-MOUNT FLASH
HOT
SHOT
To freeze action,
try using an
accessory flash
OUR WEB EDITOR Stan Horaczek
took on a cool assignment a few
years back: An aspiring Hollywood
professional asked him to help
build a portfolio of action photos
that she hoped would get her stunt
work. To create the action—here
taken among state office buildings
in Albany, New York—she planted
her foot on the edge of a large public
sculpture and acrobatically pushed
herself off it into a flip. For the shot
to work, Horaczek had to catch her
at exactly the right moment and
keep her as sharp as possible. His
perfect timing assured the former
and his flash the latter.
Why Use It
Even though the scene had plenty
of natural light, Horaczek needed
the pop of his shoe-mount flash. Its
additional output illuminated detail
in his subject’s black dress: You can
see the folds, and even a little of
the texture, in its dark fabric. They
wouldn’t have recorded if Horaczek
relied on available light.
But that’s not the main reason he
added the flash. “Hotshoe flashes
typically have pretty fast flash
durations, and this one did a good
job freezing her,” says Horaczek. His
Canon 580EX Speedlite's duration
of approximately 1/2000 sec (at full
power), was much shorter than his
sluggish—by action standards—
1/160 sec shutter speed. The flash
assured the sharpness he needed,
and because it was held off-camera
and up high, it cast that cool
shadow behind his subject.
How to Use It
To get the shortest flash durations,
switch your unit to manual mode,
and set the lowest power output (i.e.
1/32 or 1/64 power). For this subject,
however, full-power delivered
sharpness enough. —Peter Kolonia
Horaczek used a
Canon EOS 5D Mark
III and Canon EF
24–105mm f/4L IS
USM lens. Exposure
1/160 sec at f/8,
ISO 400. The 580 EX
Speed lite flash was
set to full power.
STAN HORACZEK (PORTRAIT)
32 POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY ON CAMPUS APRIL 2016