Flash photography tip: Control ambient light with your shutter speed

Tuesday 7 May 2024, 15:15 by Elja Trum | 2,820 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

The shutter speed you choose when taking your photo depends on the available ambient light and how much of it you want to show. By using flash, you can decide how much ambient light you want to show in your photo.

Amanda - f/5, 1/250s (left) 1/40s (right), 100 ISO @ 50mm
You can choose to make the ambient light, and therefore the background in your photo, darker, correctly exposed or overexposed. Overexposure is usually not what you want, but underexposing the surroundings often creates a nice effect. The background becomes darker, and the shadows on your model are more clearly visible.

When determining the desired shutter speed, take your camera's flash sync speed into account, often 1/200s. You must use that shutter speed or a slower one. Your shutter speed has no effect on the light from your flash.

Share: WhatsApp Facebook

About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

Flash photography tip: Use your flash sync speed on sunny days
by Elja Trum
Flash photography tip: Using flash at faster shutter speeds
by Elja Trum
Workflow tips for Lightroom Classic in 7 steps
by Nando Harmsen
10 tips for photographing mushrooms
by Nando Harmsen
10 Tips for Beginner Photographers
by Elja Trum
Practical tips to become a better photographer
by Elja Trum

Show every article in Flash photography

home

1 comment

Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 14 May 2024 at 10:58 | reply
Question: Does it still make any difference whether you use TTL or not? After all, the amount of flash light is then determined by the amount of light the camera measures falling on the sensor.
Translated from Dutch.

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.

Become a better photographer every week

A practical photography tip in your inbox every week.
39,179 photography enthusiasts already receive the tips! More about the weekly mail. Or keep up to date via Facebook. Sign-up secured with Google reCaptcha.

Elja Trum

Photofacts; everything to do with photography!

Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

Photofacts is made possible in part by