As is my morning ritual (especially at the weekend) I headed down to the beach for 10 minutes peace before the day starts proper.
Normally I take with me an X-T camera of some description and a sketch pad – quite often I use the sketch pad and not the camera. This morning being bright and sunny I thought I would take the opportunity to see how the new Godox (On camera) TT685F would work in conjunction with PocketWizards for remote camera use at Red Carpet Events.
My PocketWizards are a set of Plus3‘s which connect into the X-T2 via the Mic-In socket. This necessitates a 3.5mm to 2.5mm lead (using Younogo’s a 2.5mm-2.5mm lead is the requirement) .When first connecting the cable into the camera it prompts you to ensure the socket is set to the correct use – Remote Control or Microphone. (Edit: To clarify – this is to trigger the camera remotely and nothing to do with the triggering of the flash unit). The next key step is to pre-focus and set the camera to manual focus as it would not fire when set to either of the AF modes (I have not noticed this before when shooting interiors, however most of the time I am bracketing & pre-focusing on manual to ensure the focus does not change between brackets for the HDR merge).
Once this was working ok I fitted the Godox to the camera and had a play. This is not a particularly flattering image but it does demonstrate why HSS (High Speed Flash Sync) is such an important tool.
The key things to remember when shooting outdoors with flash are –
- Shutter Speed only affects the ambient light (sun / surroundings)
- Aperture affects ambient & flash brightness
- ISO affects ambient & flash brightness
Therefore, shooting into bright sun I was able to balance the ambient (sun and background) by raising the shutter speed to 1/1250, setting the aperture and ISO to suit the flash output (in this case TTL output for laziness but probably near or at full output).
So.. The key is Shutter Speed! Actually no, I stand by the T-Shirt, the key IS motivation!
Have a great weekend!
Julie Edwards-X 