Rear Sync Flash w/ Mark Ong

Remember when i blogged about the secret techniques on how to take pictures of fireworks ? Here is the link if you missed it.

I was complaining that if you asked someone why their pictures turn out so nice, so good ? You normally get half of the truth. Whats there to hide dude !!??? You are wasting my time, spending days, months of pointless shooting and i still don’t get “the shot” !!!

Am lucky to have Mark as a photography mentor and also a food enthusiast. With him around, i managed to put on a good 10kg within 9 months ( I have since lost that, seriously ! I once looked like Grimace from Macs.) as well as gaining a human dictionary on photography. Mark never holds anything back when it comes to teaching. In fact, he was the one who pushed me to explore new techniques, new boundaries. Things that i would never have bothered, yeh, I am lazy…….

Off we went to The Night Festival.

Using torches to drawings on this light sensitive paper. Setting shutter at like 4 secs + F1.4 + ISO100

Tried out some of the things i know. Ok, trailing lights….. Set the shutter to 12 or 15 or 20 secs and get a light trail. Would look pretty good wouldnt it ?

“Whats the difference ? We went last year, its gonna be the same thing…”

Mark – “You got your trails alright, but look at the subjects ? You cannot see their faces. Come try rear sync flash….you pictures will improve by leaps…its fun !!”

AH HA !!!! The secret is here…. Set your shutter at 0.5 secs, ISO100, F1.4(whichever is smallest) and ACTIVATE (read your manual) the rear sync on your flash.

What it does here is that it gives off a 2nd curtain flash just before the shutter closes, so it freezes your pictures while capturing the light trail during the 0.5s of exposure. This article gives a good explanation about it. Front Sync is essentially a normal flash, like a fill in flash.

Like it ?!!!! 🙂

LED performance by Starlight Alchemy, Kids on a LED hula hoop as well as swinging LEDs on ropes. Looks good !!! Not only are the light trails there, the subject are lighted up as well.

Compare with the below, without the rear sync flash.